From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   There are three things...   
      
    There are three things, my brethren, by which faith stands firm,   
   devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer,   
   fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy   
   receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they   
   give life to each other Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the   
   lifeblood of fasting.     Let no one try to separate them; they cannot   
   be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you   
   have nothing.   
      So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your   
   petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close   
   your ear to others you open God's ear to yourself.   
   -- Saint Peter Chrysologus   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   September 26th – Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc   
      
   Sister Teresa, born in 1805 and christened Mary Victoria, came of good   
   farming stock at Sablières,   
      
   Marie Victoire Couderc was the daughter of a prominent farmer of   
   Sablieres in southeast France. After finishing boarding school, she   
   decided to join a religious teaching community, the Daughters of St.   
   Regis, founded recently at Aps by the local pastor, Abbe John Terme.   
   She took the name Therese. This was in 1826. In 1824, Abbe Terme had   
   been sent to LaLouvesc to work among the peasants of the area and at   
   the same time to take charge of the shrine of the popular local   
   missionary and saint, John Francis Regis. Father Terme soon concluded   
   that there should be a hospice for women connected with the shrine. In   
   1827, therefore, he summoned Sister Therese and two others of his   
   teaching sisters at Aps to manage the hospice. In Sister Couderc he   
   discovered “a sound head, sound judgment and a power of spiritual   
   discrimination.” Therefore, he named her superior of the hospice,   
   although she was only 23. In 1828 Father Terme decided that the guests   
   at the hospice should henceforth be restricted to laywomen who were   
   making retreats according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius   
   Loyola. Retreats for women were a great novelty then, and the   
   undertaking caught on at once.   
      
   The Jesuit fathers took over the shrine and the hospice shortly before   
   Father Terme’s death in 1834. Gradually the retreat-group at LaLouvesc   
   was separated from the teaching community at Aps and turned into a new   
   religious order devoted solely to retreat-related work. Eventually it   
   took the name “Congregation of Our Lady of the Retreat in the   
   Cenacle.” (The “cenacle” was the “upper room” in which Jesus and the   
   apostles partook of the Last Supper, and in which, after the   
   Resurrection, the disciples and Mary gathered daily to pray.)   
      
   When Sister Therese, superior since 1828, made her final vows in 1837,   
   she also made an act of consecration in which she abdicated her   
   authority. She resigned in 1838, blaming herself (though it was not   
   her fault) for the debts the community had incurred. The three women   
   named superiors to follow her were ill-chosen. The third of these nuns   
   held Mother Therese in so small regard that she assigned her only   
   menial tasks and tried to see to it that she had no contact with the   
   other nuns. Mother Couderc’s fourth successor left the order because   
   of the continued internal strife. During this whole period Therese was   
   even denied the credit of being co-foundress, with Father Terme, of   
   the order.   
      
   What is remarkable is that throughout St. Therese’s 80 years she held   
   herself so “useless” that she was not disturbed by the confusion   
   around her and the way in which she herself was “discarded.” Although   
   there was much to criticize, she never criticized. She continued to   
   work for the betterment of her religious community by prayer, penance   
   and the acceptance of her rejection. In the end, she was able to say,   
   “God has always given me peace of soul, the grace to leave myself in   
   His hands and to want nothing but to love him and be ever closer to   
   Him.”   
      
   The Congregation of the Cenacle eventually steadied and expanded into   
   many nations. (Under Bishop James E. Kearney, the sisters opened their   
   Rochester Cenacle Retreat House at 693 East Avenue in 1948).   
   Stabilization and growth were no doubt largely due to the intercession   
   of the foundress. Therese Couderc was beatified in 1951 and canonized   
   in 1970.   
      
   St. Therese’s steadfastness amid trials has set for us all, I think,   
   an admirable example. She belonged to an institution that was good in   
   itself, though it came upon difficult days. If we were in the same   
   position, we might easily grow impatient, say “What’s the use?”, and   
   resign from the community. She didn’t. Because her order was good in   
   itself, she stuck with it, trusting that God would not let it go   
   under.   
      
   There is a parallel today with the Church itself. Some Catholics,   
   faced with the Church’s trials during a period of transition, have   
   said, “What’s the use?” and have left the Church along one avenue or   
   another. But the church is a good thing. We should therefore stick   
   with it in steadfast prayer. Our faith assures us that Christ, in due   
   time, will rebuke the wind and say to the sea, “Quiet. Be still!” Will   
   he then turn to us and say, “Why are you so terrified? Why are you   
   lacking in faith?” (Mk. 5:39-40)   
      
   Towards the end of her life Mother Teresa's health began to fail   
   badly, and for the last nine months she suffered terribly in body. At   
   Fourvière on September 26, 1885, Mary Victoria Couderc, Mother Teresa,   
   died   
      
      
   Saint Quotes by Marie Victoire Therese Couderc:   
      
   I have just one desire, that God be glorified.   
      
   My heart embraces the whole world.   
      
   Let me live by love, let me die of love, and let my last heartbeat be   
   an act of the most perfect love.   
      
   All places are alike to me, because everywhere I expect to find God,   
   who is the only object of all my desires.   
      
   What does it matter if my feet, bare and torn, fill my wooden shoes   
   with blood? I would willingly begin the journey all over again, for I   
   have indeed found the good God!   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "the land is filled with blood, and the city is filled with   
   perverseness: for they have said: The Lord hath forsaken the earth,   
   and the Lord seeth not. Therefore neither shall my eye spare, nor will   
   I have pity: I will requite their way upon their head"   (Ezechiel   
   9:9-10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   CROSS MY HEART FOREVER, JESUS   
      
   Place Your hand upon my heart,   
   Seal my future with Your kiss;   
   Take this soul forever homeward.   
   To Your land of love and bliss.   
   Free my spirit from the shackles,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)