From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   - Jeremiah 29:11 -   
   For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper   
   you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.   
   __________________________   
      
   We're all encouraged by a leader who stirs us to move ahead, someone who   
   believes we can do the task he has given us and who will be with us all the   
   way. God is that kind of leader. He knows the future, and his plans are good   
   and full of hope. As long as God, who knows the future, provides our agenda   
   and goes with us as we fulfill his mission, we can have boundless hope. This   
   does not mean that we will be spared pain, suffering or hardship, but that   
   God will see us through to a glorious conclusion.   
      
      
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   March 8th - Blessed Faustino Miguez   
      
   Born at Xamiras, Orense, Spain, March 24, 1831; died Getafe, March 8, 1925;   
   beatified October 24, 1998.   
      
   Faustino was the fourth child of a hard-working Christian family. After   
   studying Latin and the humanities in Orense, there he heard God's call to be   
   a priest and teacher in the spirit of St Joseph Calasanz. In 1850 he entered   
   St Ferdinand's novitiate of the Piarist Fathers in Madrid. In his long life   
   as a Piarist, almost 50 years dedicated to education, he was sent to schools   
   in San Fernando, Guanaboacoa, Getafe, Monforte de Lemos, Celanova, El   
   Escorial and Sanlucar de Barameda.   
      
   Convinced that "those who want to teach need to learn," he worked   
   tirelessly, training himself daily to fulfil his educational mission. God   
   endowed him with a special love for the young and a sensitivity that enabled   
   him to approach them with kindness, to know them and to seek their welfare.   
   School was the place where he met the Lord, whom he loved and served in   
   children. Through piety and learning he opened horizons of culture to them,   
   encouraging them and teaching them to love what is true, noble and sublime.   
   A Piarist for all children, his devotion to them was expressed in his   
   concern for the weakest and neediest. Fr Faustino, like St Joseph Calasanz,   
   lauded education as "the noblest work, the greatest and the most sublime in   
   the world because it embraces the whole of man as God conceived him . . . ."   
      
   He spent many hours hearing confessions and was renowned for his patience   
   and wise advice. His whole life was dedicated to the love of God and to   
   learning. He combined scientific research with his vocation as an educator   
   and studied the healing properties of plants, which he believed were   
   Providence's remedy for illness. He prepared medicines and cured many of the   
   sick who consulted him. The Miguez Laboratory in Getafe is one of his great   
   legacies to society.   
      
   In Sanlucar de Barrameda, he encountered the illiteracy and marginalization   
   of women and, aware of their importance in the family and in society, he   
   felt an urgent need to assist with the human and Christian advancement of   
   girls, especially the very poor. This Inspired him to found the Calasanctian   
   Institute of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess on 2 January 1885. He   
   devoted great wisdom to their formation, imbuing their life with a spirit of   
   prayer, humility, simplicity and ardent love for Mary so that, as Mother and   
   Shepherdess, she might be the model for their vocation of service to the   
   young and the lowly. He outlined their charism in the Constitutions: "The   
   aim of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess is to seek souls and lead   
   them to God . . . ."   
      
   Obedience required him to leave his congregation for Getafe, but Fr Faustino   
   knew that if it was God's work it would last. Indeed, the congregation   
   expanded to Andalucia, Castille and Galicia, and he had the joy of seeing   
   new foundations in Chile and Argentina. He died in Getafe, at the age of 94   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
       Labor without stopping; do all the good works you can while you still   
   have the time.   
   --Saint John of God   
      
   If we look forward to receiving God's mercy, we can never fail to do good so   
   long as we have the strength. For is we share with the poor, out of love for   
   God, whatever he has given to us, we shall receive according to his promise   
   a hundredfold in eternal happiness. What a fine profit, what a blessed   
   reward! With outstretched arms he begs us to turn toward him, to weep for   
   our sins, and to become the servants of love, first for ourselves, then for   
   our neighbors. Just as water extinguishes a fire, so love wipes away sin.   
      
       So many poor people come here that I very often wonder how we can care   
   for them all, but Jesus Christ provides all things and nourishes everyone.   
   Many of them come to the house of God, because the city of Granada is large   
   and very cold, especially now in winter. More than a hundred and ten are now   
   living here, sick and healthy, servants and pilgrims. Since this house is   
   open to everyone, it receives the sick of every type and condition: the   
   crippled, the disabled, lepers, mutes, the insane, paralytics, those   
   suffering from scurvy and those bearing the afflictions of old age, many   
   children, and above all countless pilgrims and travelers, who come here, and   
   for whom we furnish the fire, water, and salt, as well as the utensils to   
   cook their food. And for all of this no payment is requested, yet Christ   
   provides.   
      
       I work here on borrowed money, a prisoner for the sake of Jesus Christ.   
   And often my debts are so pressing that I dare not go out of the house for   
   fear of being seized by my creditors. Whenever I see so many poor brothers   
   and neighbors of mine suffering beyond their strength and overwhelmed with   
   so many physical or mental ills which I cannot alleviate, then I become   
   exceedingly sorrowful; but I trust in Christ, who knows my heart. And so I   
   say, "Woe to the man who trusts in men rather than in Christ."   
   -from a letter written by Saint John of God   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to St. Joseph   
   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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)