From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   February 10th - Saint Scholastica, Abbess   
   (480-543)   
      
   Of this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she was the very pious   
   younger sister of the great patriarch Saint Benedict, and that, under his   
   direction, she founded and governed a numerous community near Monte Casino.   
   Saint Gregory sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to God   
   from   
   her childhood, and that her pure soul rose to God in the likeness of a dove,   
   as   
   if to show that her life had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the   
   Holy   
   Spirit.   
      
   Her brother was accustomed to visit her once every year, before Lent, and   
   "she   
   could not be sated or wearied with the words of grace which flowed from his   
   lips." On his last visit, after a day passed in spiritual conversation, the   
   Saint, knowing that her end was near, said, "My brother, leave me not, I   
   pray   
   you, this night, but discourse with me till dawn on the bliss of those who   
   see   
   God in heaven." Saint Benedict would not break his rule for the sake of   
   natural   
   affection, but his sister bowed her head and prayed, and there arose a storm   
   so   
   violent that Saint Benedict could not return to his monastery, and they   
   passed   
   the night as she had prayed, in heavenly conversation.   
      
   Three days later Saint Benedict saw in a vision the soul of Saint   
   Scholastica   
   going up in the likeness of a dove into heaven. Then he gave thanks to God   
   for   
   the graces He had given her and the glory which had crowned them. When she   
   died,   
   Saint Benedict as well as her spiritual daughters, and the monks sent by   
   their   
   patriarch to her conventual church, mingled their tears and prayed, "Alas!   
   Alas!   
   Dearest mother, to whom dost thou leave us now? Pray for us to Jesus, to   
   whom   
   thou art gone." They then devoutly celebrated holy Mass, "commending her   
   soul to   
   God;" and her body was borne to Monte Casino, where her brother lay her in   
   the   
   tomb he had prepared for himself. It was written that "they all mourned her   
   many   
   days." Finally Saint Benedict said, "Weep not, my sisters and brothers; for   
   assuredly Jesus has taken her, before us, to be our aid and defense against   
   all   
   our enemies, that we may remain standing on the evil day and be perfect in   
   all   
   things." Her death occurred in about the year 543.   
      
   Reflection. Our relatives must be loved in and for God; otherwise the purest   
   affection becomes inordinate and is ill directed, because taken from Him.   
      
   Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler's   
   Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger   
   Brothers:   
   New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul   
   Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 2.   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   "Persons who keep themselves low in their own estimation and love to be   
   considered of little account and despised by others please God in the   
   highest   
   degree; and, therefore, He willingly lowers Himself to them, pours upon them   
   the   
   treasures of His graces, reveals to them His secrets, invites and draws them   
   sweetly to Himself. Thus, the more one lowers and abuses himself before men,   
   the   
   more he rises and becomes great in the sight of God, and the more clearly he   
   will, one day, behold the Divine Essence"   
   -St. Thomas a Kempis   
      
         St. Gertrude, one day hearing the little bell ring for Communion and   
   not   
   feeling as well prepared as she desired, said to the Lord: "I see that Thou   
   art   
   even now coming to me; but why hast Thou not first adorned my heart with   
   some   
   ornaments of devotion, with which I might be more suitably prepared to come   
   and   
   meet Thee?" But the Lord answered: "Know that sometimes I am more pleased   
   with   
   the virtue of humility than with exterior devotion"   
      
        A Religious, not being able to understand a passage of Holy Scripture,   
   fasted for seven weeks, and not understanding it then resolved to go to   
   another   
   monk and inquire about it. But scarcely had he gone out of his cell when   
   there   
   appeared to him an angel sent expressly from God, who said to him: "Thy fast   
   has   
   not rendered thee pleasing to God, but rather this humiliation of thine";   
   and   
   then he solved for him the doubt.   
      
        After Tais was converted, she held herself always so low in her own   
   eyes,   
   on account of her past evil life, that she did not dare to utter the holy   
   name   
   of God even in invoking Him, but only said, "My Creator, have mercy on me!"   
   And   
   by this humility, she arrived at such a sublime degree of perfection that   
   when   
   Paul the Simple saw a most beautiful place in Paradise, which he supposed to   
   be   
   intended for St. Anthony, he was informed that it would be occupied by Tais   
   within a fortnight.   
      
        St. Bonaventure said: "I know a thing to do which will please the Lord.   
   I   
   will consider myself as refuse, I will become intolerable to myself. And   
   when I   
   find myself shamed, degraded, trampled upon and loaded with insults by   
   others, I   
   will rejoice and exult, because of myself I cannot abuse or detest myself as   
   much as I ought. I will call in help from all creatures, desiring to be   
   confounded and punished by them all, because I have despised their Creator.   
   This   
   shall be my dearest treasure-to solicit insults and slights upon myself, to   
   love   
   above all others those who will help me in this, and to abhor all the   
   consolation and honors of the present life. If I do this, I believe it   
   certain   
   that the treasury of Divine Mercy will open above me, miserable and unworthy   
   as   
   I am'   
      
        St. Francis of Assisi considered himself not only a mere nothing, the   
   greatest sinner in the world, and deserving of Hell, but unworthy even that   
   God   
   should give him a thought. One day while he was speaking in this manner to   
   one   
   of his companions, the latter saw, in spirit, that there was prepared for   
   him in   
   Heaven a seat among the Seraphim.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
      
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   A Morning Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Christ   
      
   Dear Lord, I adore Your Sacred Heart, which I desire to enter   
   with acts of love, praise, adoration and thanksgiving. I offer   
   You my own heart as I sigh to You from its very depths,   
   asking that You will work through me in all that I do this day;   
   thus may I draw You closer to me each day. I offer You all the   
   crosses and sufferings of the world, in union with Your life on   
   earth, in expiation for sins. Please join my every action and   
   heartbeat to the pulsations of Your Heart. I unite all my works   
   of this day to those labors You performed while You were on   
   earth, bathing them in Your precious Blood, and I offer them   
   to the Heavenly Father so that many souls may be saved. - Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)