From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Pride -- Beginning of an Evil Will   
      
      "People would not have performed an evil work unless an evil will   
   had preceded it. Now what else than pride could be the beginning of an   
   evil will? What is pride but the desire of a height out of proportion   
   to our state?   
      It is a height out of proportion to our state to leave God to whom   
   the soul should cling as its basis and to become in some way our own   
   basis. This is what happens when the soul is too pleased with itself."   
   --St. Augustine--City of God 14, 4   
      
   Prayer: What shall I ask of you, kind Jesus? Through you all things   
   were made, Son of God, yet you are made among all things, Son of Man.   
   Why should we come and learn from you? "Because I am meek and humble   
   of Heart."   
   --St. Augustine--Holy Virginity 35   
      
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   August 12th – Bl. Victoria Diez y Bustos de Molina   
   (1903-1936)   
      
   One usually expects martyrs to be missionaries or bishops or   
   conscientious statesmen. Actually those singled out to die for their   
   faith can be of either sex and of any age, nation or profession. For   
   it is not status that makes a martyr, it is willing acceptance of   
   death for the Faith at the hands of those who hate it.   
      
   Blessed Victoria Diez y Bustos de Molina was a modern lay   
   schoolteacher in rural Spain. She was executed by Spanish   
   anticlericals in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.   
      
   Victoria was the only child of a Sevillian couple of modest means and   
   strong Christian devotion. She grew up a devout child of rich talent,   
   winsome personality and high ideals. Her parents wisely suggested that   
   she prepare for a teaching career. In addition to taking the necessary   
   liberal arts studies, she took courses at Seville’s School of Arts and   
   Crafts, for she had genuine artistic ability.   
      
   While preparing for her schoolroom calling, she began to see that   
   teaching could be a career in which she could not only instruct   
   others, but make of her scholastic efforts an apostolic activity.   
   Decision to dedicate her profession to this spiritual aim was inspired   
   by the Teresian Association, whose Seville branch she joined. The   
   Teresian Association was an organization lately established by the   
   Spanish priest, Father Pedro Povedo to develop the spiritual and   
   pastoral formation of those preparing to dedicate their lives to   
   school teaching. Victoria joined this quasi-religious group and   
   followed with zeal its program of prayer and good works. Prayer before   
   the Blessed Sacrament became her particular source of fortitude. She   
   found therein “strength, courage, light and all the love I need to   
   help those entrusted to me on the way to salvation.”   
      
   Her first teaching assignment was at Cheles, a small town near the   
   Portuguese border. After a year, however, she asked for reassignment   
   to some place nearer to Seville, so that she might be closer to her   
   family. She was therefore transferred to Hornachuelos, where she would   
   spend the rest of her life. In both places she proved to be a skilled   
   and dedicated teacher. But she also set a fine example in her spare   
   time, cooperating readily with the pastor, particularly in his program   
   of religious education and engaging in charitable work, often at the   
   sacrifice of her own limited income. In all these activities she had   
   the personal guidance of the founder of the Teresians, Father Povedo.   
      
   In her formal acceptance of the Teresian code of life, Victoria had   
   declared, “If it is necessary to give one’s life to be identified with   
   Christ, our divine model, from now on I no longer exist for the world   
   because my life is Christ and to die is gain.” At her beatification,   
   Pope John Paul II would praise the “openness to the Spirit” signified   
   by her promise of total self-giving.   
      
   In 1931, the Spanish Republic was established. The disorder that   
   followed this revolutionary action paved the way for the outbreak of   
   civil war in 1936 between those who defended the Church and those who   
   opposed it. Especially in 1936 and 1937 there was a violent   
   persecution of the Church, in which hundreds of bishops, priests and   
   religious died. No count could be kept of the even greater number of   
   lay Catholics executed, often simply because they wore a medal or   
   carried a rosary.   
      
   As early as August 1936, Republican anticlericals attacked the church   
   in Hornachuelos. At dusk on August 11, Victoria and others were   
   arrested and imprisoned. She accepted the situation calmly and   
   prayerfully. As an eyewitness would later testify, she encouraged and   
   cheered the rest to persevere. “Come on,” she reminded them, “our   
   reward is waiting for us.” At dawn on August 12, she and 17 others   
   were driven into an abandoned mine shaft at Rincon. Before their   
   execution (presumably by a firing squad), her last words were, “Long   
   live Christ the King!”   
      
   In 1937, Pope Pius XI, then reigning, declared the victims of this   
   Spanish persecution “true martyrs.” Some of the victims: bishops,   
   priest, and men and women religious, have already been declared   
   blessed by Pope John Paul II. To their number, on October 10, 1993, he   
   added not only Father Pedro Povedo Castroverde (1874-1936), the   
   founder of the Teresians, but also the laywoman teacher who so well   
   exemplified the Teresian ideal and the lay Catholic ideal, Blessed   
   Victoria Diez y Bustos de Molina.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is not possible ever to exhaust the mind of the Scriptures. It is a   
   well that has no bottom.   
   --St. John Chrysostom   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "He who purifies himself from his faults in the present life,   
   satisfies with a penny a debt of a thousand ducats; and he who waits   
   until the other life to discharge his debts, consents to pay a   
   thousand ducats for that which he might before have paid with a   
   penny."   
   --Saint Catherine, Treatise on purgatory.   
      
   <><><><>   
   Let us pray to the Lord:   
      
   O Lord Christ, the Peace of all things above and the Hope of those   
   that are here below, establish in Thy peace and rest Thine holy   
   Catholic Church and the four corners of the world. Put away war and   
   dissension from the ends of the earth and scatter those whose delight   
   is in battle. In Thy divine mercy give peace to our hierarchy and to   
   our country, that we may live in safety, in sobriety and in   
   righteousness. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name be   
   glory. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)