From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   You Magnify Him   
      
      You magnify him because amid this world's darkness, being more   
   luminous than the sun, more beautiful than the moon, more fragrant   
   than the rose, and whiter than snow, you reveal more fully the   
   splendor of God.   
      You magnify him, not by giving him an increase of his boundless   
   magnitude, but by bringing, amid the world's darkness, the light of   
   the true divinity. You magnify him when you are raised to so high a   
   dignity that you receive the fullness of grace; when you merit to   
   receive the visit of the Holy Spirit; and when, becoming the Mother of   
   God, while remaining an inviolate Virgin, you give birth to a Savior   
   for a world that is being lost.   
       But whence do you get the power to do this? From the fact that the   
   Lord is with you, the Lord who makes his gifts become your merits.   
   That is why it is said that you "magnify" him so much more to the   
   extent that you are more magnified in and by him.   Your soul, then,   
   magnifies the Lord only in the sense that you yourself are magnified   
   by him, even to receiving magnificently the fullness of grace and   
   reaching the magnificence of a unique glory. For you are the   
   receptacle of the Word, the cellar of the new wine which inebriates   
   the sobriety of believers. You are the Mother of God!   
   --Adam of Perseigne   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   December 20th - Blessed Peter de la Cadireta, martyr   
      
   Born in Moya, Catalonia, Spain; died 1277. Among the martyrs   
   contributed by the Dominican province of Spain was Peter de la   
   Cadireta. He had been a companion of Saint Raymond of Peñafort in   
   Barcelona. Raymond had been especially interested in the conversion of   
   the Moors and other infidels, and to this end founded a school of   
   Eastern languages to train future evangelists in Hebrew, Arabic, and   
   others. It could not have made Raymond happy to know one of his most   
   promising students was almost guaranteed an early martyrdom: in 1258,   
   Peter was appointed to the office of inquisitor in his homeland of   
   Spain. His two predecessors, Pons de Planedis and Bernard de Traversa,   
   were both martyred.   
      
   Peter enjoyed the longest career of the three; he worked for 20 years   
   before his was captured and stoned to death at Urgell in 1277.   
   Thereafter, he was laid to rest next to the other two in the   
   cathedral, although by this time there was a Dominican convent in   
   Urgell, of which he had been the prior. It appears that his relics are   
   now venerated at the church of Saint Dominic in Urgell (Benedictines,   
   Dorcy).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, but when we see them   
   in the wrong light: when we see them in the hand of God, Who dispenses   
   them; when we know that it is our loving Father who abases and   
   distresses us; our sufferings will lose their bitterness and become   
   even a matter of consolation.   
   --Brother Lawrence   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Do not love the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone   
   loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  (1 St. John   
   2:15)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
    A prayer to the Holy Family:   
      
   O dearest Lady, sweet Mother mine, watch the hour when my   
   departing soul shall lose its hold on all earthly things, and   
   stand unveiled in the presence of its Creator. Show thyself   
   my tender Mother then, and offer to the Eternal Father the   
   precious Blood of thy Son Jesus for my poor soul, that it   
   may, thus purified, be pleasing in His sight. Plead for thy   
   poor child at the moment of his/her departure from this world,   
   and say to the heavenly Father: Receive him/her this day   
   into Thy kingdom!  Amen.   
      
   Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.   
   Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in me last agony.   
   Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in   
   peace with Thee.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)