From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of seeking peace of mind and of spiritual progress [6]   
      
   6. It is a hard thing to break through a habit, and a yet harder thing   
   to go contrary to our own will.  Yet if thou overcome not slight and   
   easy obstacles, how shalt thou overcome greater ones? Withstand thy   
   will at the beginning, and unlearn an evil habit, lest it lead thee   
   little by little into worse difficulties.  Oh, if thou knewest what   
   peace to thyself thy holy life should bring to thyself, and what joy   
   to others, methinketh thou wouldst be more zealous for spiritual   
   profit.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ B00k 1 Ch 11   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   May 30th – Bl. Baptista Varani   
      
   Baptista was the daughter of Duke Julius Caesar of Camerino, Italy.   
   She was born in the capital city of that prince in 1459. In her   
   earliest years she took pleasure in the vanities of the world. Her   
   heart, it is true, remained unstained; but nevertheless she liked to   
   appear in costly garments and beamed with joy when she was adorned   
   with glittering jewels.   
      
   But one day she heard a sermon by a Franciscan on the bitter   
   sufferings of Christ. The touching portrayal so wrung the heart of the   
   young princess that she bewailed her previous vanity with many tears   
   and was henceforth a changed person. From then on not a day passed on   
   which she did not meditate on the sufferings of our Lord. Under the   
   spiritual direction of Blessed Peter of Mogliano, a Franciscan, she   
   also practiced various bodily mortifications, and arose every night to   
   pray the rosary in honor of the Mother of God.   
      
   Meanwhile her father was contemplating marriage for her, but Baptista   
   desired only to devote herself to God and the contemplation of the   
   divine mysteries in some quiet convent cell. The duke opposed this   
   wish of his beloved daughter for the space of 2 years. At last,   
   however, he consented that she take the veil in the convent of the   
   Poor Clares at Urbino.   
      
   Now Baptista was happier than if she had received a royal crown, and   
   later she often said: "Oh, what sweetness I experienced in the holy   
   convent at Urbino." Some years later, there was an urgent request that   
   the daughters of St. Clare establish themselves in Camerino. The duke   
   built a convent for them, and Baptista was sent there with several   
   other sisters.   
      
   But now the servant of God, already firmly established in her   
   vocation, was not to escape the test of suffering. She endured long   
   and painful maladies, to which were added violent interior struggles   
   and also persecution by misguided people. But she thanked God for them   
   all, feeling that she was thereby more intimately united with her   
   suffering Saviour. She prayed for those who persecuted her; and when   
   her father and brother were cruelly murdered, Baptista prayed to God   
   for the murderers: "O Lord, do not hold this sin against them!"   
      
   Because of her fidelity in suffering, her crucified Lord constantly   
   drew her more closely to Himself. Christ revealed to her what   
   suffering His own heart endured, and had her record much of it for the   
   benefit of others.   
      
   After she had served her Divine Spouse in the convent for more than 40   
   years, Baptista died blessedly on the 31st of May, 1517. Thirty years   
   after her death her body was exhumed, and the tongue which had so   
   often prayed for her enemies, was found incorrupt and fresh, as it is   
   still preserved that way in a special reliquary.   
      
   Baptista, who was venerated as a saint immediately after her death,   
   was declared Blessed by Pope Gregory XVI.   
      
   <><><><>   
   ON DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART   
      1. Consider how our Divine Lord led Blessed Baptista from the   
   contemplation of His bodily sufferings into the consideration of the   
   sufferings of His Sacred Heart. We wished to direct her to honor His   
   Sacred Heart long before He commended his devotion for the universal   
   Church through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Baptista did indeed worship   
   the Sacred Heart perfectly. In contemplating the sufferings of our   
   Lord, her heart grew inflamed with love that was at the same time   
   contrite and willing to make sacrifices. That induced her to forsake   
   the vanity and glamour of the palace in order to belong to God alone.   
   Seldom has anyone fulfilled the appeal of our Lord, "Give me your   
   heart" (Prov 23:26) more perfectly. During this next month, which is   
   especially consecrated to the Heart of Jesus, He directs this request   
   also to you. For devotion to the Sacred Heart consists above all, in   
   offering one's own heart to the Heart of Jesus, and in sacrificing   
   whatever is apt to lead our heart away from Him.--What sacrifices of   
   this kind have you to offer Him during this month?   
      2. Consider how, out of love for our suffering Savior, Blessed   
   Baptista practiced mortification and cheerfully offered up to God   
   sickness and interior affliction. Because she saw the Heart of Jesus   
   grieving over the sins of men, she found consolation in suffering with   
   Him, and she prepared sweet consolation for the Sacred Heart by   
   offering her sufferings in atonement for sin. Such an atonement is an   
   essential part of true devotion to the Heart of Jesus. Have we no need   
   to render it for our own sins? Offenses committed against God by those   
   who are otherwise numbered among good Christians wound the Heart of   
   Jesus most painfully. He Himself complains: "With these I was wounded   
   in the house of those who loved Me” (Zach 13:6).--Have you, too, given   
   occasion for this complaint? How do you offer atonement?   
      3. Consider how Baptista imitated the Divine Heart in His perfect   
   love. Not only did she sincerely forgive the gravest of offenses, but   
   she even pleaded for forgiveness for the murderers of her father, as   
   Christ prayed to His Father for His executioners. Such prayer and   
   forgiveness in imitation of the Heart of Jesus are the most pleasing   
   honor we can render Him. They satisfy in great measure for our own   
   failings against the Sacred Heart.--Frequently look at the pierced   
   Heart of Jesus on the cross and draw from it strength, as did Blessed   
   Baptista, to imitate His sentiments.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER OF THE CHURCH   
   O God, who didst inflame Blessed Baptista with the fire of   
    love by the contemplation of the sufferings of Thy only   
   -begotten Son, grant through her intercession that we   
    may always devoutly honor these holy sufferings and   
    deserve to receive the fruits thereof. Through the same   
    Christ our Lord. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)