From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Son of Man   
      
   In the Book of Daniel we are told that this kingdom is given to the   
   Son of Man (Daniel 7:14,18,22,27). The Son of Man is a Messianic title   
   for God's anointed King. The New Testament word for "Messiah" is   
   "Christ" which literally means the "Anointed One" or the "Anointed   
   King". God sent us his Son not to establish an earthly kingdom but to   
   bring us into his heavenly kingdom--a kingdom ruled by truth, justice,   
   peace, and holiness. The kingdom of God is the central theme of Jesus'   
   mission. It's the core of his gospel message.   
      
      
   ==========   
   April 20th - St Agnes of Montepulciano O.P.   
    (1268-1317)   
      
    Religious Nun and Abbess “The Miracle Worker”   
   – Attributes – Dominican Nun with a lily and a lamb. Her Body is   
   incorrupt and her major Shrine is Church of St Agnes, Montepulicano,   
   Siena, Italy.   
      
   St Agnes was born in 1268 into the noble Segni family in Gracciano, a   
   frazione of Montepulciano – in Siena, Italy, then part of the Papal   
   States.  At the age of nine, she convinced her parents to allow her to   
   enter a Franciscan monastery of women in the city known as the   
   “Sisters of the Sack”, after the rough religious habit they wore. they   
   live a simple, contemplative life.  She received the permission of the   
   pope to be accepted into this life at such a young age, normally   
   against Church law.   
      
   In 1281, the lord of the castle of Proceno, a fief of Orvieto, invited   
   the nuns of Montepulciano to send some of their Sisters to Proceno to   
   found a new monastery. Agnes was among the nuns sent to found this new   
   community.  At the age of fourteen, she was appointed bursar.   
      
   In 1288 Agnes, despite her youth at only 20 years of age, was noted   
   for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and deep life of prayer and   
   was elected as the abbess of the community.  There she gained a   
   reputation for performing miracles:  people suffering from mental and   
   physical ailments seemed cured by her presence.  She was reported to   
   have “multiplied loaves”, creating many from a few on numerous   
   occasions, recalling the Gospel miracle of the loaves and fishes.  She   
   herself, however, suffered severe bouts of illness which lasted long   
   periods of time.   
      
   In 1306 Agnes was recalled to head the monastery in Montepulciano.   
   Agnes reached a high degree of contemplative prayer and is said to   
   have been favoured with many visions.  After her return, she proceeded   
   to build a church, Santa Maria Novella, to honour the Blessed Mother,   
   as she felt she had been commanded to do in a mystical vision several   
   years earlier.  She also had a vision of St. Dominic Guzman, under the   
   inspiration of which she led the nuns of her monastery to embrace the   
   Rule of St. Augustine as members of the Dominican Order.  She was   
   frequently called upon to bring peace to the warring families of the   
   city.   
      
   By 1316, Agnes’ health had declined so greatly that her doctor   
   suggested taking the cure at the thermal springs in the neighboring   
   town of Chianciano Terme. The nuns of the community prevailed upon her   
   to take his recommendation.  While many of the other bathers reported   
   being cured of their illnesses, Agnes herself received no benefit from   
   the springs.  Her health failed to such a degree that she had to be   
   carried back to the monastery on a stretcher.   
      
   Agnes died the following 20 April, at the age of 49. The Dominican   
   friars attempted to obtain balsam (or myrrh) to embalm her body.  It   
   was found, however, to be producing a sweet odour on its own and her   
   limbs remained supple. When her body was moved years after her death   
   to the monastery church, it was found to be incorrupt. Her tomb became   
   the site of pilgrimages.   
      
   Some fifty years later, a Dominican friar, the Blessed Raymond of   
   Capua, who served as confessor to St. Catherine of Siena, wrote an   
   account of Agnes’ life.  He described her body as still appearing as   
   if she were alive.  Catherine herself referred to her as “Our mother,   
   the glorious Agnes”.  Catherine made a pilgrimage to Montepulciano   
   while visiting her niece, Eugenie, who was a nun there.   
   Agnes was canonised by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726.   
      
      
   Some of the Miracles attributed to St 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 murder 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.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   “Love is watchful.   
      
   Sleeping – it does not slumber.   
   Wearied – it is not tired.   
   Pressed – it is not straitened.   
   Alarmed – it is not confused   
   but like a living flame,   
   a burning torch,   
   it forces its way upward   
   and passes unharmed,   
   through every obstacle.”   
   --Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) The Imitation of Christ   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)