From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 23rd - Blessed Mother Marianne Cope of Molokai   
      
   Blessed Mother Marianne Cope faced everything with unflinching courage   
   smiling   
   sweetly through it all   
      
   Though leprosy scared off most people in 19th-century Hawaii, that disease   
   sparked great generosity in the woman who came to be known as Mother   
   Marianne of   
   Molokai. Her courage helped tremendously to improve the lives of its victims   
   in   
   Hawaii, a territory annexed to the United States during her lifetime (1898).   
      
   Mother Marianne's generosity and courage were celebrated at her May 14,   
   2005,   
   beatification in Rome. She was a woman who spoke "the language of truth and   
   love" to the world, said Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the   
   Congregation for Saints' Causes. Cardinal Martins, who presided at the   
   beatification Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, called her life "a wonderful   
   work of   
   divine grace." Speaking of her special love for persons suffering from   
   leprosy,   
   he said, "She saw in them the suffering face of Jesus. Like the Good   
   Samaritan,   
   she became their mother."   
      
   On January 23, 1838, a daughter was born to Peter and Barbara Cope of   
   Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. The girl was named after her mother. Two years   
   later   
   the Cope family immigrated to the United States and settled in Utica, New   
   York.   
   Young Barbara worked in a factory until August 1862, when she went to the   
   Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York. After   
   profession in November of the next year, she began teaching at Assumption   
   parish   
   school.   
      
   Marianne held the post of superior in several places and was twice the   
   novice   
   mistress of her congregation. A natural leader, three different times she   
   was   
   superior of St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse, where she learned much that   
   would   
   be useful during her years in Hawaii.   
      
   Elected provincial in 1877, Mother Marianne was unanimously re-elected in   
   1881.   
   Two years later the Hawaiian government was searching for someone to run the   
   Kakaako Receiving Station for people suspected of having leprosy. More than   
   50   
   religious communities in the United States and Canada were asked. When the   
   request was put to the Syracuse sisters, 35 of them volunteered immediately.   
   On   
   October 22, 1883, Mother Marianne and six other sisters left for Hawaii   
   where   
   they took charge of the Kakaako Receiving Station outside Honolulu; on the   
   island of Maui they also opened a hospital and a school for girls.   
      
   In 1888, Mother Marianne and two sisters went to Molokai to open a home for   
   "unprotected women and girls" there. The Hawaiian government was quite   
   hesitant   
   to send women for this difficult assignment; they need not have worried   
   about   
   Mother Marianne! On Molokai she took charge of the home that Blessed Damien   
   DeVeuster (d. 1889) had established for men and boys. Mother Marianne   
   changed   
   life on Molokai by introducing cleanliness, pride and fun to the colony.   
   Bright   
   scarves and pretty dresses for the women were part of her approach.   
      
   Awarded the Royal Order of Kapiolani by the Hawaiian government and   
   celebrated   
   in a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother Marianne continued her work   
   faithfully. Her sisters have attracted vocations among the Hawaiian people   
   and   
   still work on Molokai. Mother Marianne died on August 9, 1918.   
      
   Comment: The government authorities were reluctant to allow Mother Marianne   
   to   
   be a mother on Molokai. Thirty years of dedication proved their fears   
   unfounded.   
   God grants gifts regardless of human short-sightedness and allows those   
   gifts to   
   flower for the sake of the kingdom.   
      
   Quote: Soon after Mother Marianne died, Mrs. John F. Bowler wrote in the   
   Honolulu Advertiser, "Seldom has the opportunity come to a woman to devote   
   every   
   hour of 30 years to the mothering of people isolated by law from the rest of   
   the   
   world. She risked her own life in all that time, faced everything with   
   unflinching courage and smiled sweetly through it all."   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   May the God of love and peace set your hearts at rest and speed you on your   
   journey; may he meanwhile shelter you from disturbance by others in the   
   hidden   
   recesses of his love, until he brings you at last into that place of   
   complete   
   plenitude where you will repose for ever in the vision of peace, in the   
   security   
   of trust, and in the restful enjoyment of his riches.   
   --Saint Raymond of Penyafort from a letter   
      
   <><><><>   
      
   BY THE MERIT OF EACH PARTICULAR PAIN WHICH HE SUFFERED IN HIS PASSION   
      
   O my Jesus! by that humiliation which Thou didst practise in washing the   
   feet of   
   Thy disciples, I pray Thee to bestow upon me the grace of true humility,   
   that I   
   may humble myself to all, especially to such as treat me with contempt.   
      
   My Jesus, by that sorrow which Thou didst suffer in the garden, sufficient,   
   as   
   it was, to cause Thy death, I pray Thee to deliver me from the sorrow of   
   Hell,   
   from living for ever more at a distance from Thee, and without the power of   
   ever   
   loving Thee again.   
      
   My Jesus, by that horror which Thou hadst of my sins, which were then   
   present to   
   Thy sight, give me a true sorrow for all the offences which I have committed   
   against Thee.   
      
   My Jesus, by that pain which Thou didst experience at seeing Thyself   
   betrayed by   
   Judas with a kiss, give me the grace to be ever faithful unto Thee, and   
   nevermore to betray Thee, as I have done in time past.   
      
   My Jesus, by that pain which Thou didst feel at seeing Thyself bound like a   
   culprit to be taken before the judges, I pray Thee to bind me to Thyself by   
   the   
   sweet chains of holy love, that so I may nevermore see myself separated from   
   Thee, my only good.   
      
   My Jesus, by all those insults, buffetings, and spittings which Thou didst   
   on   
   that night suffer in the house of Caiphas, give me the strength to suffer in   
   peace, for love of Thee, all the affronts which I shall meet with from men.   
      
   My Jesus, by that ridicule which Thou didst receive from Herod in being   
   treated   
   as a fool, give me the grace to endure with patience all that men shall say   
   of   
   me, treating me as base, senseless, or wicked.   
      
   My Jesus, by that outrage which Thou didst receive from the Jews in seeing   
   Thyself placed after Barabbas, give me the grace to suffer with patience the   
   dishonor of seeing myself placed after others.   
      
   My Jesus, by that pain which Thou didst suffer in Thy most holy body when   
   Thou   
   wast so cruelly scourged, give me the grace to suffer with patience all the   
   pains of my sicknesses, and especially those of my death.   
      
   My Jesus, by that pain which Thou didst suffer in Thy most sacred head when   
   it   
   was pierced with the thorns, give me the grace never to consent to thoughts   
   displeasing unto Thee.   
      
   My Jesus, by that act of Thine by which Thou didst accept of the death of   
   the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)