From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   June 12th - Blessed Yolande (Jolenta) of Poland   
      
    1235-1298   
      
   Yolande was the daughter of Bela IV, king of Hungary. Her mother, Mary, was   
   the daughter of the Greek emperor of Constantinople. In the year 1240, when   
   Yolande was scarcely five years old, she arrived at the court of Poland. Her   
   elder sister, Blessed Kinga (Cunigunda), who was married to the duke of   
   Poland, had asked to supervise the child's education. Under such a mistress,   
   Yolande grew not only in age, but also in virtue and grace before God and   
   men.   
      
   When she arrived at young womanhood, Yolande was married to Boleslaus, the   
   duke of Greater Poland. But the young duchess was not enamored of the glory   
   and pleasure of this world. It was a greater pleasure for her to do good in   
   her elevated position. Like a true sovereign, she came to the assistance of   
   the poor and sick, the widows and the orphans. She and her husband built   
   hospitals, convents, and churches, and she was so great an inspiration to   
   him in everything that was good and pleasing to God, that he received the   
   surname of the Pious.   
      
   But Boleslaus was soon to receive the reward of his piety in heaven. After   
   his death and after two of her daughters were married, Yolande and her third   
   daughter left all the glamour and riches of the world and withdrew to the   
   convent of the Poor Clares at Sandec, where, devoted to prayer and   
   mortification, she led a life entirely hidden in Christ. Disturbances   
   resulting from war compelled her after a time to move to the convent at   
   Gniezno, which she herself, assisted by her last consort, had founded.   
      
   In spite of the reluctance to which her humility prompted her, she was   
   advanced to the position of abbess. So successfully did she guide her   
   sisters by word and by example in the practice of all the religious virtues   
   that the convent flourished like a new garden of God. Even beyond the walls   
   of the cloister she did very much good, so that the fame of the holy abbess   
   spread far and wide.   
      
   But, notwithstanding all her fame, she remained entirely devoted to the   
   interior life, as her vocation required. Her favorite devotion was   
   meditation on the sufferings of Christ, during which the Divine Savior once   
   manifested Himself to her under the appearance of the Crucified. He   
   announced to her that He would soon lead her to glory. Attacked by a serious   
   illness, she asked to receive the last sacraments. Then she admonished her   
   spiritual daughters to persevere in fidelity to the holy rule, and departed   
   blessedly in the Lord in 1298.   
      
   After her death Yolande appeared in wondrous glory, together with St.   
   Stanislaus the bishop, to the sick abbess and restored her health. Many   
   other miracles occurred at her grave down to our own time. Pope Leo XII, in   
   1827, approved the veneration given to her.   
      
   ON DESPISING THE WORLD   
   1. Consider how happy Yolande was already here on earth, when she left the   
   world and all that it held out to her, to serve God as a Poor Clare. Could   
   the enjoyment of all the pleasures and all the goods of this world ever have   
   brought her such happiness? King Solomon tasted worldly pleasure in its   
   fullness, but it did not make him happy. He says: "And, therefore, I was   
   weary of my life, when I saw that all things under the sun are evil, and all   
   vanity and vexation of spirit" (Eccl 2:17). Did not this duchess make a   
   better choice? Still, what Thomas a Kempis says is true: "For it is not   
   granted to all to forsake all things, to renounce the world, and to assume   
   the monastic life." May you always heed the warning of the Apostle: "And   
   they who use this world as if their hearts become attached to it.-Is your   
   heart attached to this world?   
   2. Consider how vain and deceitful the goods of this world are. The honors   
   of the world, on which we expend so much energy, cannot make us better, and   
   sometimes they vanish suddenly without any fault of ours. Its riches cause   
   us so much more anxiety the greater they are. Its pleasures are short, and   
   often missed with much bitterness, as the maxim says: "Many a flower grows   
   smooth and fair, But bitter the root that it doth bear." Have you not   
   experienced this yourself? But, as Thomas a Kempis says: "The world is   
   censured as deceitful and vain; and yet it is with reluctance abandoned,   
   because the concupiscence of the flesh too much prevails. Some things draw   
   us to love the world; others to despise it."-Examine yourself. What is it   
   that holds you to the world, that keeps you from loving God with your whole   
   heart and serving Him?   
   3. Consider that our heart should set its goal on something higher if it   
   wishes to despise the world. The heart of man wants to cling to something,   
   yet man was not made for this world and its perishable goods. As Christians   
   we have a higher, a nobler goal, where genuine, imperishable goods await us.   
   That is why the prince of the Apostles says: "Blessed be God, who has   
   regenerated us unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that   
   cannot fade, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Pet 1:4)-Direct the desires of   
   your heart to that inheritance. Then it will soon despise the seeming good   
   things of the world.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER   
      
   Almighty and eternal God, who didst mercifully withdraw Blessed Yolande from   
   honor and riches, and didst graciously inspire her to choose instead the   
   humble cross of Thy Son and the mortification of the flesh, grant, through   
   her intercession and mercies, that we may despise temporal things and with   
   upright hearts seek those that are eternal. Through the same Christ our   
   Lord. Amen.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If it were only a question of teaching human knowledge to the children,   
   there would be no need for Brothers, since lay teachers can do this work. If   
   we are to give only religious instruction, we would be content to be simply   
   catechists, and to bring the children together for only one hour a day. But   
   we want to do more than this - we want to educate the children, that is, to   
   give them an integrated education... To do this, we must be educators, we   
   must live with the children, and they must spend a lot of time with us.   
   -Saint Marcelino Champagnat   
      
   Bible Quote   
   51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who was slain between   
   the alter and the temple: Yea I say to you, It shall be required of this   
   generation.   (Luke 11:51)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Give us grace, dear Lord, to receive forgiveness from others when we have   
   wronged them. Take away our pride and resentment and give us the humility   
   and courage to accept fully and freely the forgiveness that they offer to   
   us for Jesus' sake.   
      
   I offer also for all those whom I have in any way grieved, vexed, oppressed   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)