From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Spiritual progress is the law of your being.   
      
   Spiritual progress is the law of your being. Try to see around you   
   more and more of beauty and truth, knowledge and power. Today try to   
   be stronger, braver, more loving as a result of what you did   
   yesterday. This law of spiritual progress gives meaning and purpose to   
   your life. Always expect better things ahead. You can accomplish much   
   good through the strength of God's spirit in you. Never be too   
   discouraged. The world is sure to get better, in spite of setbacks of   
   war, hate, and greed. Be part of the cure of the world's ills, rather   
   than part of the disease. I pray that I may keep progressing in the   
   better life. I pray that I may be a part of the forces for good in the   
   world.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
   ==============   
   February 7th – Bl. Antony of Stroncone   
   Also known as Antonio de Stronconio   
      
   d. 1461   
      
     Luigi and Isabella Vici, the father and mother of Antony, were   
   people of good position and ancient lineage. Being fervent tertiaries   
   they were both devoted to the Franciscan Order and seem to have raised   
   no great opposition when their son and heir, at the early age of 12   
   years, sought admission among the Friars Minor as a lay-brother. His   
   training in the religious life was superintended by his uncle, who was   
   commissary general of the Observants in Italy. The boy, in spite of   
   much ill-health, bravely persisted in the austerities of the life   
   which he had chosen, So great was his progress that when he was 26 he   
   was associated with Bl. Thomas of Florence as deputy-master of novices   
   at Fiesole, and 13 years later was appointed to assist the same Thomas   
   in a mission confided to him by the Holy See of denouncing and   
   suppressing the Fraticelli in the Sienese territory and in Corsica.   
   These, developing out of the party of the “Spirituals” within the   
   Franciscan body itself, and identifying themselves with an impossible   
   ideal of poverty and moral purity, had grown into a definitely   
   heretical sect which rejected all constituted ecclesiastical   
   authority.   
      
     Bl. Antony, though not a priest, was employed on this mission for   
   more than ten years, of which the last three were spent in Corsica;   
   but in 1431 he took up his abode in the friary of the Carceri, a place   
   of retirement not far from Assisi, where he was more free to give rein   
   to his intense longing for self-crucifixion. For 30 years he lived   
   there, eating practically nothing but bread and water seasoned with   
   wormwood, reputing himself the meanest of all and taking every   
   opportunity which offered for humiliation and increased austerity. On   
   one occasion, on account of his known aversion to anything which   
   savoured of self-indulgence, he was suspected of having destroyed a   
   number of vines which produced grapes for the community. He accepted   
   and performed without protest the very severe penance which was   
   enjoined him, but it was afterwards discovered that he was wholly   
   innocent of the offence imputed to him.   
      
    In 1460 Antony was transferred to the historic friary of St Damian in   
   Assisi, and there he happily breathed his last on February 8, 1461, at   
   the age of eighty. Many miracles followed, and popular belief   
   maintains that Bl. Antony shows to those who are devout to him the   
   curious favour of warning them beforehand of their approaching death:   
   a knocking is heard which seems to proceed either from his tomb or   
   from some statue or picture representing him. A similar belief is   
   entertained regarding two other Franciscan saints, St Paschal Baylon   
   and Bl. Matthia Nazzerei. The cultus of Bl. Antony was confirmed in   
   1687.   
      
     See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol ii, where a Latin version is   
   printed of the short life by Louis Jacobillo of Foligno. Other   
   accounts have been written by Fathers Mariano of Florence and James of   
   Oldis. Leon in his L’Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. i,  has   
   furnished an enthusiastic summary.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The purpose of divine Providence is to unify by an upright faith and   
   spiritual love those   
   who have been separated in diverse ways by vice. Therefore one who   
   does not endure   
   disturbances or bear up under distress or undergo hardships walks   
   outside love and the   
   purpose of Providence.   
   -- St. Maximus the Confessor   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you:   
   and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be   
   the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to   
   rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.   
   (Matt. 5:44-45) DRB   
      
      
   Before you say an unkind word   
   Think of someone who can't speak.   
      
   Before you complain about the taste of your food Think of someone who   
   has nothing to eat.   
      
   Before you complain about your husband or wife Think of someone who's   
   crying out to GOD for a companion.   
      
   Today before you complain about life   
   Think of someone who died too soon.   
      
   Before you complain about your children   
   Think of someone who desires children but they're barren.   
      
   Before you argue about your dirty house someone didn't clean or sweep.   
   Think of the people who are living in the streets.   
      
   Before whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who walks   
   the same distance with their feet.   
      
   And when you are tired and complain about your job Think of the   
   unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.   
      
   Before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another--   
   Remember that not one of us is without sin and we all answer to one   
   MAKER.   
      
   And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down; put a smile on your   
   face and thank GOD you're alive and still around.   
      
   The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything;   
   They just make the best of everything they have!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)