From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Delight of Friendship   
      
      All kinds of things rejoiced my soul in their company--to talk and laugh,   
   and to do other kindnesses; to read pleasant books together; to pass from   
   lightest jesting to talk of the deepest things and back again; to differ   
   without rancor, as persons might differ with themselves, and when most   
   rarely dissension arose, to find our normal agreement all the sweeter for   
   it; to teach each other and to learn from each other.   
      These and such things kindled a flame that fused our very souls together   
   and made us one out of many.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 4, 8   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   July 23rd - St. Bridget of Sweden   
      
   Saint Birgitta, also known as Santa Brigida or St. Bridgid of Sweden   
   and Birgitta of Vadstena, born Birgitta Birgersdottir (1303 – July 23,   
   1373), was a mystic and saint, and founder of the Bridgettine Order.   
      
   Bridget (Birgitta) was surely one of the greatest women of the   
   Christian Middle Ages. Patron saint of her native country, she was   
   also counselor to, and critic of, princes, prelates and popes.   
      
   Bridget’s father was a wealthy governor in Sweden. He gave her in   
   marriage, at the age of 14, to Ulf Gudmarsson the 18-year-old son of a   
   land-holding family. The young bride bore Ulf eight children, of whom   
   one, Catherine, is also venerated as a saint. It was an ideal marriage   
   which lasted until his holy death 28 years later. Not that the   
   couple’s life was without family trials. Death robbed them early of   
   their youngest son; their oldest daughter married a violent nobleman;   
   and only an untimely death saved another son from adultery. But the   
   couple faced all their problems with Christian fortitude.   
      
   Around 1335 Bridget was called to the court of Magnus II Eriksson, the   
   young king of the Swedes, to serve as chief lady-in-waiting to his new   
   French wife, Queen Blanche of Namur. Bridget earned the respect of the   
   king and queen, but her long-term efforts to train them in wisdom were   
   not very effective. Magnus did, however, assist her generously when,   
   after the death of her husband in 1344, she established around 1365 a   
   double monastery at Vadstena. The double monastery was an arrangement   
   sometimes adopted in medieval congregations in which there was a   
   convent for women and an affiliated convent for men. Both branches   
   were ruled by the abbess in temporal matters, but in spiritual matters   
   both priests and nuns were subject to the priests’ superior. This   
   religious congregation she called the Order of the Most Holy Saviour.   
   They came to be popularly known as “Bridgettines.” Bridget’s daughter   
   St. Catherine (Karin) of Vadstena was later its abbess. Some houses of   
   Bridgettine nuns still exist; the Bridgettine monks are no more.   
      
   In 1349, Bridget, now out of favor at court, though beloved by the   
   Swedish for her charities, moved to Rome, never to return to her   
   native country. At Rome she was busy with the affairs of her religious   
   order, she took care of Swedish pilgrims, she worked among the Roman   
   poor, she made many pilgrimages, and in a city that had become   
   impoverished and disorderly because of the absence of the popes, she   
   set a strong personal example of Christian life.   
      
   From childhood, Bridget had been the recipient of dreams, visions and   
   revelations. The Swedish courtiers had joked, “What was the Lady   
   Bridget dreaming about last night?” She herself was worried that Satan   
   might be their agent. Then she received a special revelation which   
   told her to submit these communications to the judgment of a learned   
   priest. The priest assured her that the voices were supernatural, and   
   had her dictate them thenceforth to her spiritual adviser. Thus their   
   content has been largely preserved.   
      
   Revelations had guided her in Sweden when she advised King Magnus.   
   While she lived at Rome, revelations and prophecies continued to   
   prompt her to warn Christian churchmen and rulers who needed   
   correction, even though her unwelcome messages at times brought   
   mistreatment upon her. She was especially inspired to persuade the   
   popes to return from their residence at Avignon, France. (The   
   French-born Pope Clement V, elected in 1308, had decided not to go to   
   Rome at the time because of the disorder there. His successors wanted   
   to return over the next 70 years, but deferred the move for one or   
   another reason, although Rome suffered much because of their absence.)   
   Bridget, on divine instructions, kept up contact with Popes Urban V   
   and Gregory XII at Avignon; and four years after her death, Pope   
   Gregory finally heeded her admonitions and brought his court back to   
   the Eternal City.   
      
   What was she like, this woman who could be called one of the “Mothers   
   of the Church”? No remote mystic, but, as one of her associates put   
   it, a woman who was “kind and meek to every creature, and had a   
   laughing face.” Four years after her death, her body was brought back   
   in triumph to Sweden and laid to rest in her abbey at Vadstena. She   
   was canonized in 1391. During the Reformation Sweden forgot her. But   
   we may be sure that Bridget has never forgotten Sweden.   
      
   In 1999, Pope John Paul II chose Birgitta as Europe's patron saint.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The patient and humble endurance of the cross whatever nature it may   
   be is the highest work we have to do.   
   --St. Katherine Drexel   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field. Which   
   a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all   
   that he hath, and buyeth that field.  (Matthew 13:44)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Come, Holy Spirit      
      
   Replace the tension within us with a holy relaxation.   
   Replace the turbulence within us with a sacred calm.   
   Replace the anxiety within us with a quiet confidence.   
   Replace the fear within us with a strong faith.   
   Replace the bitterness within us with the sweetness of grace.   
   Replace the darkness within us with a gentle light.   
   Replace the coldness within us with a loving warmth.   
   Replace the night within us with your light.   
   Replace the winter within us with your spring.   
   Straighten our crookedness.   
   Fill our emptiness.   
   Dull the edge of our pride.   
   Sharpen the edge of our humility.   
   Light the fires of our love.   
   Quench the flames of our lust.   
   Let us see ourselves as you see us   
   That we may see You.  Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)