From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Do not Inquire into the Unsearchable Judgments of God  [I]   
      
   CHRIST.   
   My son, avoid controversy over high things and the judgments of God.   
   Do not argue why this person is so forsaken while another is endowed   
   with great graces; or why one person is so grievously afflicted, while   
   another is so richly rewarded. These things are above human   
   understanding, and neither reasoning nor argument is competent to   
   explain the judgments of God. Therefore, when the enemy suggests these   
   things to your mind, or when inquisitive people ask about them, answer   
   with the prophet, 'Thou are just, 0 Lord, and Thy judgments are right.   
   (Ps. 119:137) My judgments are to be respected, not discussed, for   
   they are beyond the comprehension of the human mind'. (Rom.11:33)   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3 Ch. 58   
      
   ==============   
   May 12th - St. Rictrudes, Abbess   
      
   THIS mother of saints was a lady of the first quality in France, born   
   in Gascony in 614, and married to Adalbald, one of the principal lords   
   of the court of king Clovis. She had by him four children, who,   
   copying after her example, and being happily educated in her maxims of   
   perfect piety, deserved all to be honoured among the saints: namely,   
   St. Mauront, abbot of Breüil; St. Clotsenda, abbess of Marchiennes;   
   St. Eusebia, or Isoye, abbess of Hamay; and St. Adalsenda, a nun at   
   Hamay. So great a benediction does the sanctity of parents draw upon a   
   whole family. St. Amand being banished into the southern parts of   
   France, Rictrudes finding him to be truly a man of God, committed   
   herself entirely to his direction to walk with fervour in the paths of   
   evangelical perfection. The death of her husband, who was assassinated   
   in his return from his estates in Flanders, not only set her at   
   liberty, but was a powerful means to wean her heart perfectly from the   
   world. Thus the most grievous temporal affliction proved her greatest   
   spiritual blessing.   
      
   She was yet young, and exceedingly rich; and king Clovis II. sought,   
   even by threats, to oblige her to marry one of his favourite   
   courtiers. However, she maintained her ground, and at length was   
   permitted to receive the religious veil from the hands of St. Amand.   
   She had before this founded an abbey of monks on a marshy ground in   
   her estate of Marchiennes, under the direction of St. Amand. Being now   
   a widow, she built a separate monastery for nuns in the same place,   
   which she governed herself 40 years. She was clad with rough   
   hair-cloth, and fasted, watched, and prayed almost without   
   intermission. She sighed continually after the goods of the heavenly   
   Jerusalem; for, as St. Bernard says: [1] “Thou desirest not   
   sufficiently the joys to come if thou dost not daily ask them with   
   tears. Thou knowest them not, if thy soul doth not refuse all comfort   
   till they come.” When the film with which the love of the world covers   
   the eye of the soul is removed, by a perfect disengagement of the   
   heart from its toys, then she sees and feels the weight of her   
   distance from her God. And till she can be drowned in the ocean of his   
   love, she finds no other comfort in her banishment but in the   
   contemplation of his goodness, and in sighs excited by his love.   
      
    Rictrudes, that she might more freely pursue these exercises, which   
   were the delight of her heart, resigned her superiority some time   
   before her happy death, which happened on the 12th of May, 688, she   
   being 74 years old. This nunnery was abolished, and its revenues given   
   to the monks in the same place, in 1028.   
      
   The body of St. Rictrudes is honourably entombed in the church of that   
   great Benedictin abbey. Her name is inserted in many monastic and   
   local calendars, and several churches and altars have been formerly   
   erected in Flanders under her invocation, mentioned by Papebroke. In   
   the church of St. Amatus at Douay, in the chapel of St. Mauront, among   
   the statues of the saints of his family the third is that of St.   
   Rictrudes. Her life was compiled by Hucbald, a learned monk of St.   
   Amand’s, in 907. Surius altered the style; but this is restored to its   
   original integrity by Mabillon (Act. Bened. t. 2, p. 938), and   
   Papebroke the Bollandist, who has enhanced the value of this work by   
   judicious remarks (t. 3, Maij, p. 80), and has added several long   
   histories of her miracles compiled by several monks of St. Marchiennes   
   and St. Amand’s in different ages.   
      
   Note 1. Serm. 2, in cap. Jejun. n. 4.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The state of grace is nothing other than purity, and it gives heaven   
   to those who clothe themselves in it. Holiness, therefore, is simply   
   the state of grace purified, illuminated, beautified by the most   
   perfect purity, exempt not only from mortal sin but also from the   
   smallest faults; purity will make saints of you! Everything lies in   
   this!   
   --St. Peter Eymard   
      
   Bible Quote   
   His disciples say to him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and   
   speakest no proverb. 30 Now we know that thou knowest all things, and   
   thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that   
   thou camest forth from God.  (John 16:29-30)   
      
      
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   Prayer   
      
   O God, in the midst of the royal court   
   you strengthened Blessed Jane with purity of heart.   
   By her prayers may your faithful turn from the things of earth   
   and seek after the things of heaven.   
   We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,   
   who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,   
   one God, for ever and ever.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)