From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 16th - Bl. Stephanie Quinzani, Visionary   
   (1457-1530)   
      
   Blessed Stephanie was born near Brescia, Italy, in 1457, of fervent   
   Christian   
   parents. She was brought up in the village of Soncino, where there was a   
   Dominican monastery well known for its preachers, eminent in doctrine,   
   eloquence   
   and sanctity. One of them knew her family and taught their little daughter   
   the   
   Ave Maria and other prayers. He told her that when he died he would make her   
   his   
   heir. A few years later, when Blessed Matthew Carreri died, she felt her   
   heart   
   painfully wounded, and suddenly saw the deceased man, who told her this was   
   the   
   heritage he had promised her. Suffering was to be her lot, and her existence   
   was   
   one of those of which people say: "It is more admirable than imitable."   
      
   Our Lord appeared to Stephanie when she was seven years old, accompanied by   
   His   
   holy Mother, Saint Dominic, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Catherine of   
   Siena,   
   and told her He wanted her to be a Dominican like those great Saints. She   
   promised she would enter a monastery, or at least be a member of the Third   
   Order   
   of Saint Dominic. Later in her life it was this latter path that she   
   adopted,   
   and she was given the habit of the Third Order. When she was about eleven   
   years   
   old, on the feast of Saint Andrew she saw that Apostle with a large cross,   
   and   
   he said to her: "My daughter, this is the road to heaven. Love God, fear   
   God,   
   honor God, embrace the cross, and flee the world." She began then to   
   practice   
   great austerities; even while working in the fields with her parents she   
   wore a   
   hair shirt and a rope cincture full of knots. She fasted perpetually. At the   
   age   
   of fifteen, on Good Friday, Our Lord told her she would endure in each of   
   her   
   members part of what He Himself had suffered. Her head afterwards bore   
   traces of   
   a crowning with thorns, and many persons saw her, every week on Fridays,   
   suffering a kind of agony.   
      
   For forty years, she also endured the worst moral sufferings. She was in   
   darkness, aridity, abandonment. This martyrdom of the soul was a worse   
   torment   
   for her than that of the body. An Angel said to her: "There are several   
   means   
   which cause a reasonable creature to rise to perfect love of God, but one of   
   the   
   principal ones is the life of suffering, a life steeped in sorrow and   
   bitterness   
   which must be accompanied and followed by thanksgiving and resignation to   
   the   
   divine Will. Affliction is the road to perfect love and perfect   
   transformation."   
   She was given Saint Paul to be her guide and instruct her in the secrets of   
   mystical theology, that is, of the interior life under the immediate   
   direction   
   of God.   
      
   Blessed Stephanie could read in souls, and one day prevented a woman from   
   poisoning fourteen persons, as she had resolved to do. She warned her not to   
   accomplish that crime; otherwise, she herself would accuse her. She applied   
   herself to the works of mercy and cared for the sick and the poor. She had   
   to   
   earn her bread by manual work; she begged in addition for alms for the   
   needy.   
   She became known to the nobility of Italy, who wanted to give her residences   
   and   
   keep her in their own regions; she remained nonetheless in Soncino, in a   
   very   
   poor dwelling. She was helped by the wealthy when she established a   
   monastery in   
   Soncino. This monastery, where about thirty young Sisters labored to attain   
   religious perfection, and which she directed, was exempted from all taxes.   
   She   
   fell ill towards the end of the year 1529 and died on January 2, 1530, at   
   the   
   age of seventy-three years, saying, "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my   
   spirit!"   
   Many miracles at her tomb made known her sanctity. She was beatified in 1740   
   by   
   Pope Benedict XIV.   
      
   Reflection. The soul cannot truly serve God while it is involved in the   
   distractions and pleasures of the world. Saint Honoratus knew this, and   
   chose to   
   be a servant of Christ his Lord. Resolve, in whatever state you are, to live   
   absolutely detached from the world in spirit, and to separate yourself   
   corporeally as much as possible from it.   
      
   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).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
    Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past   
   faults and   
   sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the   
   wounds   
   left   
   by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine.   
   --St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he hath anointed me to preach   
   the   
   gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart,  (Luke   
   4:18 )   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Canticle Apocalypse 19   
      
   The wedding of the Lamb   
      
   Alleluia.   
   Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, because his judgements are   
   true   
   and just.   
   Alleluia.   
      
   Alleluia.   
   Praise our God, all his servants, and you who fear him, small and great.   
   Alleluia.   
      
   Alleluia.   
   For the Lord reigns, our God, the Almighty: let us rejoice and exult and   
   give   
   him glory.   
   Alleluia.   
      
   Alleluia.   
   The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his spouse has made herself ready.   
   Alleluia.   
      
   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.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to St. Joseph (to be said after the Rosary)   
   by Pope Leo XIII   
      
   We come to thee, O blessed Joseph, in our sore distress. Having sought the   
   aid   
   of thy most blessed Spouse, we now confidently implore thy assistance also.   
   We   
   humbly beg that, mindful of the dutiful affection which bound thee to the   
   Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and of the fatherly love with which thou   
   didst   
   cherish the Child Jesus, thou wilt lovingly watch over the heritage which   
   Jesus   
   Christ purchased with His Blood, and by thy powerful intercession help us in   
   our   
   urgent need.   
      
   Most powerful guardian of the Holy Family, protect the chosen race of Jesus   
   Christ; drive far from us, most loving father, every pest of error and   
   corrupting sin. From thy place in heaven, most powerful protector,   
   graciously   
   come to our aid in this conflict with the power of darkness, and as of old   
   thou   
   didst deliver the Child Jesus from supreme peril of life, so now defend the   
   holy   
   Church of God from the snares of Her enemies and from all adversity. Have   
   each   
   of us always in thy keeping, that, following thy example, and borne up by   
   thy   
   strength, we may be able to live holily, die happily, and so enter the   
   everlasting bliss of heaven. Amen.   
      
   POPE LEO XIII WAS THE ONE WHO COMPOSED THE ST MICHAEL PRAYER AFTER HEARING   
   THE   
   ARGUMENT BETWEEN GOD AND SATAN   
      
   http://www.marypages.com/StJoseph.htm   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)