From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 21st - St. Maura Troyes, Virgin   
      
   Died. 850   
      
   She was nobly born at Troyes in Champagne in the ninth century, and in her   
   youth obtained of God by her prayers the wonderful conversion of her father,   
   who had till then led a worldly life. After his happy death, Maura continued   
   to live in the most dutiful subjection and obedience to her mother, Sedulia   
   and by the fervor of her example was the sanctification of her brother   
   Eutropius and of the whole family.   
      
   The greatest part of the revenues of their large estate was converted into   
   the patrimony of the poor. The virgin's whole time was consecrated to the   
   exercises of prayer, to offices of obedience or charity, in attending on her   
   mother and serving the poor, or to her work, which was devoted to the   
   service either of the poor or of the church; for it was her delight in a   
   spirit of religion to make sacred vestments, trim the lamps, and prepare wax   
   and other things for the altar. As order in what we do leads a soul to God,   
   according to the remark of St. Austin, she was regular in the distribution   
   of her time, in all her actions. She spent almost the whole morning in the   
   church, adoring God, praying to her divine Redeemer, and meditating on the   
   circumstances of his sacred life and passion. Every Wednesday and Friday she   
   fasted, allowing herself no other sustenance than bread and water, and she   
   walked barefoot to the monastery of Mantenay, two leagues from the town,   
   where she prayed a long time in the church, and with the most perfect   
   humility and compunction laid open the secrets of her soul to the holy abbot   
   of that place, her spiritual director, without whose advice she did nothing.   
      
   The profound respect with which she was penetrated for the word of God, and   
   whatever regarded the honor of his adorable name, is not to he expressed. So   
   wonderful was her gift of tears, that she seemed never to fall upon her   
   knees to pray but they streamed from her eyes in torrents. God performed   
   many miracles in her favor but it was her care to conceal his gifts, because   
   she dreaded the poison of human applause.   
      
   In her last sickness she received the extreme unction and viaticum with   
   extraordinary marks of divine joy and love and reciting often the Lord's   
   Prayer, expired at those words, Thy kingdom come, on the 21st of September,   
   850 being twenty-three years old.   
      
   Her relics and name are honored in several churches in that part of France,   
   and she is mentioned in the Gallican Martyrology. See her life written by   
   Saint Prudentius of Troves, who was acquainted with her, also Goujet and   
   Mezangui, Vies des Saints.   
      
      
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    Today is the Feast of St. Matthew the apostle.  He was at first a publican   
   of the toll station of Capharnaum.  Known for their disreputable and   
   extorting behavior, these men were seen as the greatest sinners by the Jews.   
   Matthew acknowledged the kind condescension of our Lord to himself and   
   others as sinners, and joined our Lord at first command.  Matthew wrote the   
   first in canonical order of the Synoptic Gospels, and preached in Palestine   
   and Ethiopia before being killed while offering Mass in AD 60.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
      
   Envy is a sadness which we feel on account of the good that happens to our   
   neighbour.   
      
   Envy, my children, follows pride; whoever is envious is proud. See, envy   
   comes to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also   
   through envy, envying our glory, our happiness. Why do we envy the happiness   
   and the goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the sole   
   possessors of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We   
   hate our equals, because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear   
   that they may equal us; our superiors, because they are above us. In the   
   same way, my children, that the devil after his fall felt, and still feels,   
   extreme anger at seeing us the heirs of the glory of the good God, so the   
   envious man feels sadness at seeing the spiritual and temporal prosperity of   
   his neighbour.   
      
   We walk, my children, in the footsteps of the devil; like him, we are vexed   
   at good, and rejoice at evil. If our neighbour loses anything, if his   
   affairs go wrong, if he is humbled, if he is unfortunate, we are joyful. . .   
   we triumph! The devil, too, is full of joy and triumph when we fall, when he   
   can make us fall as low as himself. What does he gain by it? Nothing. Shall   
   we be richer, because our neighbour is poorer? Shall we be greater, because   
   he is less? Shall we be happier, because he is more unhappy? O my children!   
   how much we are to be pitied for being like this! St. Cyprian said that   
   other evils had limits, but that envy had none. In fact, my children, the   
   envious man invents all sorts of wickedness; he has recourse to evil   
   speaking, to calumny, to cunning, in order to blacken his neighbour; he   
   repeats what he knows, and what he does not know he invents, he exaggerates.   
   . . .   
      
   Through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and also   
   through envy we kill our neighbour; by dint of malice, of falsehood, we make   
   him lose his reputation, his place. . . . Good Christians, my children, do   
   not do so; they envy no one; they love their neighbour; they rejoice at the   
   good that happens to him, and they weep with him if any misfortune comes   
   upon him. How happy should we be if we were good Christians. Ah! my   
   children, let us, then, be good Christians and we shall no more envy the   
   good fortune of our neighbour; we shall never speak evil of him; we shall   
   enjoy a sweet peace; our soul will be calm; we shall find paradise on earth.   
      
   -Saint John Vianney on Envy   
      
      
      
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   Canticle 1 Timothy 3   
      
   The mystery and glory of Christ   
      
   Praise the Lord, all you nations!   
      
   He was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit - praise the Lord, all you   
      
   nations!   
      
   He was seen by the angels, he was preached to the nations - praise the Lord,   
   all   
      
   you nations!   
      
   The world believed in him, he was taken up in glory - praise the Lord, all   
   you   
      
   nations!   
      
   Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,   
      
   as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,   
      
   world without end.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   **Don't forget to pray the Stations of the Cross on Fridays   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)