From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Be zealous within your soul   
      
       "Be zealous within your soul, but do not give the slightest sign,   
   word, or hint of it outwardly; and you will manage this as soon as you   
   stop looking down on your neighbor, something you may be inclined to   
   do. And if this is so, then become like your brethren in order not to   
   differ from them solely by the measure of your conceit.   
       I once saw an inexperienced disciple who used to boast in certain   
   quarters about the achievement of his teacher. He imagined that in   
   this way he would win glory for himself from another's harvest. But he   
   only got a bad name for himself, for everyone put this question   
   concerning him,  "How then could a good tree grow such a dead branch?"   
   -- St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 4 Be zealous   
      
      
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   May 2nd - Saint Wiborada of Gall   
   (Also known as Guiborat, Viborada, Weibrath)   
      
   KLINGNAU, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, was the birthplace of St.   
   Wiborada, who is called in French Guiborat and in German Weibrath. Her   
   parents belonged to the Swabian nobility, and she led a retired life   
   in the house of her father and mother. After one of her brothers,   
   Hatto by name, had decided to be a priest she made his clothes and   
   also worked for the monastery of St. Gall, where he pursued his   
   studies. Many of the books in the abbey library were covered by her.   
      
   Upon the death of her parents, Wiborada joined this brother, who had   
   been made provost of the church of St. Magnus, and he taught her Latin   
   so that she could join him in saying the offices. Their house became a   
   kind of hospital to which Hatto would bring patients for Wiborada to   
   tend. After the brother and sister had made a pilgrimage to Rome,   
   Hatto resolved to take the habit at St. Gall, largely through   
   Wiborada’s influence. She, on the other hand, remained for some years   
   longer in the world, though not of it. It may have been at this   
   period--but more probably, as certain writers have argued, after she   
   became a recluse--that she came into touch with St. Ulric, who had   
   been sent, as a delicate little lad of 7, to the monastic school of   
   St. Gall. We read that she prophesied his future elevation to the   
   episcopate, and in after years he regarded her as his spiritual   
   mother.   
      
   According to some of the saint’s biographers--but not the   
   earliest--she suffered so severely from calumnies against her   
   character that she underwent trial by ordeal at Constance to clear   
   herself of the charges. Whether the story be true or false, she   
   decided to withdraw into solitude that she might serve God without   
   distraction. At first she took up her abode in an anchorhold on a   
   mountain not far from St. Gall, but in 915 she occupied a cell beside   
   the church of St. Magnus; there she remained for the rest of her life,   
   practising extraordinary mortifications. Many visitors came to see   
   her, attracted by the fame of her miracles and prophecies. Other   
   recluses settled near her, but only one of them was admitted to any   
   sort of companionship.   
      
   This was a woman called Rachildis, a niece of St. Notker Balbulus. She   
   was brought to St. Wiborada suffering from a disease which the doctors   
   had pronounced incurable. Having apparently been cured by the   
   ministrations of the recluse, she could never be induced to leave her   
   benefactress. But after the death of the latter the malady returned   
   with so many complications that she seemed a second Job, owing to the   
   multiplicity of her diseases and the patience with which she bore   
   them.   
      
   St. Wiborada foretold her own death at the hands of the invading   
   Hungarians, adding that Rachildis would be left unmolested. Her   
   warnings enabled the clergy of St. Magnus and the monks of St. Gall to   
   escape in time, but she herself refused to leave her cell. The   
   barbarians burnt the church and, having made an opening in the roof of   
   the hermitage, entered it as she knelt in prayer. They struck her on   
   the head with a hatchet and left her dying; Rachildis, however,   
   remained unharmed and survived her friend for 21 years. St. Wiborada   
   was canonized in 1047.   
      
   There is good evidence for most of the details given above. Hartmann,   
   a monk of St. Gall, who first wrote a sketch of her life--it is   
   printed by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum,, May, vol. I--was   
   almost a contemporary. A later life by Hepidannus is less reliable.   
   But we have also other references to St. Wiborada, for example, in   
   Gerhard’s Life of St. Ulric of Augsburg and in Ekkehard (iv), Cams S.   
   Galli. This last is printed by G. Meyer v. Knonau, St. Gallische   
   Geschichtsquellen, iii. See also A. Schroder’s valuable article in the   
   Historisches Jahrbuch, vol. xxii (1901), pp. 276-284, and A. Fah, Die   
   hl. Wiborada (1926).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Not only think of the road through which thou art traveling, but take   
   care never to lose sight of that blessed country in which thou art   
   shortly to arrive. Thou meetest here with passing sufferings, but wilt   
   soon enjoy everlasting rest. When thou lookest up to the recompense   
   everything thou dost or sufferest will appear light, and no more than   
   a shadow; it bears no proportion with what thou art to receive for it.   
   Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for such trifling pains.   
   -- St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote   
   But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory in   
   Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect   
   you, and confirm you, and establish you. 11 To him be glory and empire   
   for ever and ever. Amen.  (1 Peter 5:10-11)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Music: Dominus dixit ad me   
   6th Century Old Roman Chant.   
      
   Psalm 2: 7: The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this day have I   
   begotten thee.   
      
   Psalm 2: 1-5: Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain   
   things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together,   
   against the Lord and against his Christ. Let us break their bonds   
   asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us. He that dwelleth in   
   heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them. Then shall   
   he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)