From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   -- John 14:19-21 --   
      
   "Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.   
   Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that   
   I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my   
   commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me   
   will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself   
   to them."   
   ===================   
   Sometimes people wished they knew the future so they could prepare for   
   it. God has chosen not to give us this knowledge. He alone knows what   
   will happen, but he tells us all we need to know to prepare for the   
   future. When we live by his standards, he will come to us, he will be   
   in us, and he will show himself to us. God knows what will happen, and   
   because he will be with us through it all, we need not fear. We don't   
   need to know the future to have faith in God; we have to have faith in   
   God to be secure about the future.   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   September 14th - St. Notburga   
   (1265?-1313)   
      
   St. Zita of Lucca, Italy, is the best-known patron of domestic   
   servants. A less-known contemporary of Zita’s was St. Notburga of   
   Austria, who is venerated in the Austrian Tyrol, Bavaria, Istria,   
   Croatia and Slovenia. Many a church in these lands bears her name.   
      
   Notburga was born at Rattenberg-on-the-Inn, a town in the Austrian   
   Tyrol not far to the east of Innsbruck. At the age of 18, this devout   
   young woman of peasant stock entered the employment of Count Henry of   
   Rattenberg as a member of his kitchen staff.   
      
   Notburga was always very solicitous of the poor. She cut down on her   
   own food, especially on Friday, so as to be able to give something to   
   those who knocked on the kitchen door. Discovering that the staff were   
   used to discarding the abundant food left over from the Count’s table,   
   she also began to hand this out, too. Count Henry’s mother was   
   apparently unopposed to the charitable practice. But after the   
   mother’s death Henry’s wife, Countess Ottilia, ordered that all   
   leftovers be fed to the pigs. Dismayed, Notburga obeyed for a time,   
   but then renewed her former policy. Unfortunately, the bossy Ottilia   
   caught her red-handed one day and saw to it that she was fired.   
      
   The young woman then found employment with a farmer at nearby Eben.   
   Her new job involved fieldwork. A charming legend connecting her with   
   harvesting has become a popular tale among the children of Tyrol.   
   Notburga made a practice of going to church for Sunday’s first   
   vespers, and her employer had agreed not to interfere. One Saturday,   
   however, when she was engaged in reaping, the vesper bell rang,   
   indicating that Sunday had officially begun. The saint was getting   
   ready to leave for church when the farmer ordered her to continue   
   cutting the grain. She refused. With first vespers it was already   
   Sunday, she said, and Christians do not work on Sunday. “But the   
   weather might change and the crop be lost,” he insisted. “All right,”   
   said the servant, “Let this sickle decide between us.” Thereupon she   
   threw the shiny crescent-shaped tool up into the air, and there it   
   hung like a new moon! The farmer yielded, and she went off to church.   
      
   Meanwhile, Count Henry was in a dejected state of mind. Bossy Ottilia   
   had died and he had been suffering all sorts of misfortunes, which he   
   was inclined to blame on his dismissal of Notburga. When he remarried,   
   therefore, he asked her to return to his castle as housekeeper. She   
   did so, and lived the rest of her life happily and holily in his   
   employ.   
      
   When Notburga was dying, it is said, she urged him to continue taking   
   care of the poor. Furthermore, she instructed him to place her corpse   
   on a wagon drawn by two oxen, and to bury her wherever the oxen might   
   stop in their tracks. Henry complied. The oxen stopped right in front   
   of the chapel of St. Rupert at Eben, so there she was laid to rest.   
      
   Although long venerated in the western and Adriatic parts of the   
   Austrian Empire, Notburga was never officially canonized. In March   
   1862, however, Pope Pius IX formally confirmed her ancient cult and   
   her saintly title.   
      
   When St. Notburga is represented in paintings or sculptures, it is   
   often with a sickle, either in her hand or hanging in the sky like a   
   new moon.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "As the flesh is nourished by food, so is man supported by prayers"   
   --St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and   
   the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of   
   the Father, but is of the world.  (1 John 2:16)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Hear Me, Father   
      
   Hear me, Father,   
   forming petitions rising up to the heavens,   
   carried on evaporated tears.   
   We are in need of Your help.   
      
   Hear the laments of those broken,   
   by whatever measure they are fractured;   
   I lift them in prayer.   
      
   For those I know and love,   
   and those whom I shall never meet;   
   embrace them, this day.   
      
   For those, worn from war and   
   those who will not be fed,   
   may my prayer extend beyond words,   
   and may I find a way to help   
   even one of Your people, this day.   
      
   You are the God of my Fathers,   
   and my Mothers.   
   You are the constant Spirit   
   known collectively upon this planet.   
      
   Know those who seek You   
   and let them in.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)