From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Dear Angel, ever at my side, how lovely you must be,   
   to leave your home in heaven to guard a child like me.   
   When I'm far away from home or may be hard at play,   
   I know you will protect me from harm along the way.   
   Your beautiful and shining face, I see not, though you are near;   
   the sweetness of your lovely voice, I cannot really hear.   
   When I pray, your praying too, your prayer is just for me.   
   But when I sleep, you never do, you're watching over me.   
   Amen.   
      
      
      
   <><><><>   
   April 20th - St. Agnes of Monte Pulciano, Visionary   
      
   (1274-1317)   
      
   Saint Agnes was born in Italy in 1274, a gentle future glory of the Order of   
   Saint Dominic. Her father was an eminent Christian who dwelt in the village   
   of   
   Gracciano Vecchio, near the Lake of Perugia in central Italy. On the very   
   day of   
   her birth a first miracle announced to those present that this was a   
   predestined   
   child: mysterious burning torches appeared, shining brilliantly near her   
   crib.   
   Already at the age of four the little girl used to retire in solitude to   
   pray to   
   Jesus, her love.   
      
   When she was nine she asked her parents to enter a monastery; they opposed   
   this   
   wish, not certain of the will of God. But after she had prayed fervently   
   that   
   opinions might be changed, she was allowed to join the Sisters of Monte   
   Pulciano   
   who were living under the Rule of Saint Augustine. They soon venerated her   
   as   
   resembling an angel of paradise. When she reached the age of fourteen, to   
   test   
   her they assigned to her the prosaic duties of stewardess of her monastery,   
   an   
   office in which she would have to provide for the material needs of the   
   Sisters   
   and keep accounts; they wanted to see whether these occupations would detach   
   her   
   from her spirit of uninterrupted prayer. They were edified to see her carry   
   out   
   her duties cheerfully, in perfect obedience, without murmuring in any way   
   and   
   without her piety being in any way altered. Whenever a Sister needed any   
   service, the response of Saint Agnes was always characterized by grace and   
   charity.   
      
   Saint Agnes already had the reputation of sanctity; a number of persons had   
   seen   
   her raised in the air nearly two feet above ground. And when the residents   
   of   
   Procena, a neighboring town, decided to build a monastery for their   
   daughters,   
   they came to ask for her as its first Superior. She was at that time fifteen   
   years old, and her humility was affrighted by this request. But she was   
   commanded by the Sovereign Pontiff to accept the office as proposed. This   
   experience would prepare her for a later important work, that of founding a   
   large monastery in honor of the Mother of God at Monte Pulciano; the Blessed   
   Virgin had already appeared to her and told her that it would be founded on   
   faith in the Most High and undivided Trinity.   
      
   As the years passed, it occurred sometimes that where she knelt in prayer,   
   flowers sprang up - violets, lilies and roses. One year, during the night of   
   the   
   Assumption, the Mother of the Saviour appeared to her again and placed the   
   Infant Jesus in her arms. Saint Agnes succeeded in founding the foretold   
   monastery, in which she presided over twenty cloistered Dominican Sisters;   
   an   
   Angel had told her to establish it under the Rule of Saint Dominic.   
      
   During her last illness, she was sent to bathe in curative waters; during   
   her   
   journey there she brought back to life a child who had drowned. Her health   
   did   
   not improve, but a spring welled up nearby which cured others and was named   
   the   
   water of Saint Agnes. Saint Agnes returned to her monastery and prepared for   
   death. She died at the age of 43 on April 20, 1317. Miracles occurred at her   
   tomb, as they had during her lifetime, and she was beatified in 1534,   
   canonized   
   in 1726. Her first biographer was Raymond of Capua, the confessor of Saint   
   Catherine of Siena.   
      
      
   Many stories grew up around Agnes.   
      
   Her birth was announced by flying lights surrounding her family's house.   
      
   As a child, while walking through a field, she was attacked by a large   
   number of   
   crows; she announced that they were devils, trying to keep her away from the   
   land; years later, it was the site of her convent.   
      
   She was known to levitate up to two feet in the air while praying.   
      
   She received Communion from an angel, and had visions of the Virgin Mary.   
      
   She held the infant Jesus in one of these visions; when she woke from her   
   trance   
   she found she was holding the small gold crucifix the Christ child had worn.   
      
   On the day she was chosen abbess as a teenager, small white crosses showered   
   softly onto her and the congregation.   
      
   She could feed the convent with a handful of bread, once she'd prayed over   
   it.   
      
   Where she knelt to pray, violets, lilies and roses would suddenly bloom.   
      
   While being treated for her terminal illness, she brought a drowned child   
   back   
   from the dead.   
      
   At the site of her treatment, a spring welled up that did not help her   
   health,   
   but healed many other people.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   "There is no better test to distinguish the chaff from the grain, in the   
   Church   
   of God, than the manner in which sufferings, contradiction, and contempt are   
   borne. Whoever remains unmoved under these, is grain. Whoever rises against   
   them   
   is chaff; and the lighter and more worthless he is, the higher he rises-that   
   is,   
   the more he is agitated, and the more proudly he replies"   
   --St. Augustine   
      
   A person of high rank presented himself to St. Francis de Sales to ask a   
   benefice for an ecclesiastic who enjoyed his patronage. The Saint replied   
   that   
   as to conferring benefices he had tied his own hands, for he had decided   
   that   
   they should be given only after a competitive examination; but that he would   
   not   
   forget his recommendation, if this priest would offer himself to be examined   
   with the others. The gentleman, who was quick-tempered, believing this to be   
   only a pretext for refusal, accused him of duplicity and hypocrisy, and even   
   threatened him. When the Saint perceived that gentle words did no good, he   
   entreated him not to object at least to a private examination; and, as he   
   was   
   still dissatisfied, "Then:" said St. Francis, "you wish that I should   
   entrust to   
   him a portion of my charge with my eyes closed? Consider whether that is   
   just!"   
   At this, the gentleman began to raise his voice angrily, and to make all   
   kinds   
   of insulting remarks to the holy bishop, who bore all in unbroken silence.   
       An acquaintance of his, who was present, asked him after the scene was   
   over   
   how he had been able to endure such insults without showing the least   
   resentment. "Do not be astonished at this:" said the Saint, "for it was not   
   he   
   that spoke, but his anger. Outside of this he is one of my dearest friends,   
   and   
   you will see after a while that my silence will increase his attachment for   
   me."   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)