From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 4th - St. Casimir, King of Poland   
      
   (1458-1483)   
      
   Casimir, the second son of Casimir III, King of Poland, was born in 1458.   
   From   
   the custody of a very virtuous mother, Elizabeth of Austria, he passed to   
   the   
   guardianship of a devoted master, the learned and pious John Dugloss. Thus   
   animated from his earliest years by precept and example, his innocence and   
   piety   
   soon ripened into the practice of heroic virtue.   
      
   In an atmosphere of luxury and magnificence the young prince fasted, wore a   
   hair   
   shirt, slept upon the bare earth, prayed by night, and watched for the   
   opening   
   of the church doors at dawn. He became so tenderly devoted to the Passion of   
   Our   
   Lord that at Mass he seemed quite rapt out of himself; his charity to the   
   poor   
   and afflicted knew no bounds. His love for our Blessed Lady he expressed in   
   a   
   long and beautiful hymn, familiar to us in English as "Daily, Daily, Sing to   
   Mary". At the age of twenty-five, sick with a long illness, he foretold the   
   hour   
   of his death, and chose to die a virgin rather than accept the life and   
   health   
   which the physicians held out to him in the married state.   
      
   The miracles wrought by his body after death fill an entire volume. The   
   blind   
   saw, the lame walked, the sick were healed, a dead girl was raised to life.   
   At   
   one time the Saint in glory, seen in the air by his army, led his Catholic   
   countrymen to battle and delivered them by a wondrous victory from the   
   schismatic Russian hosts.   
      
   One hundred and twenty-two years after his death Saint Casimir's tomb in the   
   cathedral church of Vilna was opened, that the holy remains might be   
   transferred   
   to the rich marble chapel where it now lies. The place was damp, and the   
   very   
   vault crumbled away in the hands of the workmen; yet the Saint's body,   
   wrapped   
   in robes of silk, still intact, was found whole and incorrupt, and emitting   
   a   
   sweet fragrance which filled the church and refreshed all who were present.   
   Under his head was found his hymn to Our Lady, which he had had buried with   
   him.   
      
   Reflection. May the meditation of Saint Casimir's life make us increase in   
   devotion to the most pure Mother of God - a sure means of preserving holy   
   purity   
   in our own soul.   
      
   Source: 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).   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself -Matt. 16:24   
      
   "The measure of our advancement in the spiritual life should be taken from   
   the   
   progress we make in the virtue of mortification; for it should be held as   
   certain that the greater violence we shall do ourselves in mortification,   
   the   
   greater advance we shall make in perfection"   
   -St. Jerome   
      
    When St. Francis Borgia heard it said that anyone was a saint, he used to   
   answer, "He is, if he is mortified" In this way he himself became so great a   
   saint; for he exercised himself in mortification to such a degree that only   
   that   
   day seemed to him truly wretched in which he had not undergone some   
   mortification, either bodily or spiritually.   
      
    When a young monk once asked an aged saint why, among so many who aim at   
   perfection, so few are found perfect, he replied, "Because in order to be   
   perfect it is necessary to die wholly to one's own inclinations, and there   
   are   
   few who arrive at this."   
      
    (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints"  March - Mortification)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   10. Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written, The Lord thy   
   God   
   shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew 4:10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas, in hopes of attaining the grace for a   
   devout life:   
      
   Grant me, O merciful God, to desire eagerly , to investigate prudently, to   
   acknowledge sincerely, and to fulfill perfectly those things that are   
   pleasing to Thee, to the praise and glory of Thy holy Name.   
      
   Do Thou, my god, order my life; and grant that I may know what Thou wilt   
   have me to do; and give me to fulfill it as is fitting and profitable to my   
   soul.   
      
   Grant me, O Lord my God, the grace not to faint either in prosperity or   
   adversity, that I be not unduly lifted up by the one, nor unduly cast down   
   by the other.  Let me neither rejoice nor grieve at anytime, save what   
   wither leads to Thee or leads away from Thee.  Let me not desire to please   
   anyone, nor fear to displease anyone save only Thee.   
      
   Let all things that pass away seem vile in my eyes, and let all things that   
   are eternal be dear to me.  Let me tire of that joy which is without Thee,   
   neither permit me to desire anything that is outside Thee.  Let me find joy   
   in the labor that is for Thee; and let all repose that is without Thee be   
   tiresome to me.   
      
   Give me, my god, the grace to direct my heart towards Thee, and to grieve   
   continuously at my failures, together with a firm purpose of amendment.   
      
   O Lord my God, make me obedient without gainsaying, poor without   
   despondency, chaste without stain, patient without murmuring, humble   
   without pretense, cheerful without dissipation, serious without undue   
   heaviness, active without instability, fearful of Thee without abjectness,   
   truthful without double-dealing, devoted to good works without presumption,   
   ready to correct my neighbor without arrogance, and to edify him by word   
   and example, without hypocrisy.   
      
   Give me, Lord God, a watchful heart which shall be distracted from Thee by   
   no vain thoughts; give me a generous heart which shall not be drawn   
   downward by any unworthy affection; give me an upright which shall not be   
   led astray by any perverse intention; give me a stout heart which shall not   
   be crushed by any heart; give me a free heart which shall not be claimed as   
   its own by any unregulated affection.   
      
   Bestow upon me, O Lord my god, an understanding that knows Thee, diligence   
   in seeking Thee, wisdom in finding Thee, a way of life that is pleasing to   
   Thee, perseverance that faithfully waits for Thee, and confidence that I   
   shall embrace Thee at the last.  Grant that I may be chastised here by   
   penance, that I may make good use of Thy gifts in this life by Thy grace ,   
   and that I may partake of Thy joys in the glory of heaven:  Who livest and   
   reignest God, world without end.  Amen.   
      
   Traditional indulgence of 3 years, once a day; plenary on usual conditions   
   if offered each day for a month.   
   Imprimatur:  Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbp of New York, May 30, 1951.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)