From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Desires should be regulated by the will of God   
      
   Our desires should be regulated by the will of God, moderated by the   
   influence of His Grace, and referred to His glory. True mortification   
   of the heart consists in repressing the ardor of our desires, in   
   turning their earnestness against self, and in directing them all to   
   their proper object, which is God. The holy practice of   
   self-renunciation, which is absolutely necessary for salvation, and   
   which is included in the spirit of the Gospel and the engagements of   
   our Baptism, consists entirely in repressing our irregular desires, in   
   raising our indifferent or natural inclinations to a supernatural end,   
   and in grounding our hopes of salvation, through the merits of Christ,   
   on the fulfillment of our good resolutions.   
      
   =================================   
   September 8th - Nativity of Our Lady   
      
   We can measure the immense finesse of the Church in dealing with   
   everything when we consider that the only saint with a special feast   
   for her birthday is Our Lady. We are not considering Christmas, of   
   course. This corresponds to the worship of hyperdulia that the Church   
   reserves for her.   
      
   The Church reserves the worship of latria, or adoration, only for   
   God--for Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, Who is the Word Incarnate.   
   The worship of dulia, or veneration, the Church assigns to the saints.   
   But to Our Lady she has a worship that is neither the simple worship   
   of dulia nor the supreme worship of latria, but rather the worship of   
   hyperdulia, which is a higher veneration unparallel to any other.   
      
   So, we have a feast celebrating the birthday of the Holy Virgin, one   
   of the many feasts the Church reserves for her.   
      
   Analogously, because of her singular virtue, the Church permits that a   
   church can have more than one statue of Our Lady at the same altar, a   
   rule that does not apply to any other saint. In this way she makes it   
   understood that Our Lady is beyond comparison with any other creature.   
   It is a liturgical way to teach the theological truth that she is the   
   Mother of God.   
      
   The feast day of the nativity of Our Lady induces us to ask: What   
   advantage did her birth bring for mankind? And why should mankind   
   celebrate her nativity in a special way?   
      
   In the order of nature, Our Lady was conceived without original sin,   
   giving her a singular and peerless value. She was a lily of an   
   incomparable purity and beauty that appeared in the night of this land   
   of exile. She also had all the natural psychological gifts that a   
   woman can have. God gave her the richest personality imaginable. To   
   this, He added gifts of the supernatural order, the treasures of   
   graces that were hers. She received the most precious graces God ever   
   gave to any human creature.   
      
   Given that she was without original sin, she had the entire use of   
   reason from the moment she was conceived. Therefore, already in the   
   maternal womb, Our Lady had very elevated thoughts. The womb of St.   
   Anne was for her a kind of temple. There she was already interceding   
   for the human race and had begun to pray--with the highest wisdom that   
   was a gift from God--for the coming of the Messiah. In reality she was   
   influencing the destiny of mankind as a source of graces. Scripture   
   tells us that the tunic that Our Lord wore was a source of grace that   
   cured those who touched it; this being the case, you can imagine how   
   Our Lady, the Mother of the Savior, was a source of graces for   
   whosoever would approach her, even before she was born. For this   
   reason we can say that at her nativity, immense graces began to shine   
   for mankind and the Devil started to be smashed. He perceived that his   
   scepter had been cracked and would never be the same again.   
      
   At the time of her birth, the world was laid groveling in the most   
   radical Paganism. Vices prevailed, idolatry dominated everything,   
   abomination had penetrated the Jewish religion itself, which was a   
   presage of the Catholic Religion. The victory of evil and the Devil   
   seemed almost complete. But at a certain moment God in His mercy   
   decreed that Our Lady should be born. This was the equivalent of the   
   beginning of the destruction of the reign of the Devil.   
      
   Our Lady was so important that her birthday marks a new era in the Old   
   Covenant. The History of the Old Covenant was a long wait for the   
   coming of the Messiah. After the original sin of our first parents,   
   mankind had to wait 3,000 years, perhaps more, for the Messiah. But at   
   a certain blessed moment, Divine Providence decreed that a woman   
   should be born who would deserve the coming of the Messiah. Her   
   nativity represents the entrance into the world of the perfect   
   creature who found grace before God and had merit sufficient to end   
   that extensive wait.   
      
   All the prayers, sufferings, and faithfulness of the just men living   
   and dead reached their apex with her arrival. There had been   
   Patriarchs, Prophets, just men among the Chosen People and certainly   
   some just men among the Gentiles who had prayed, suffered, and waited;   
   none of this was sufficient to attract the coming of the Redemption.   
   But when God so willed it, He made the perfect creature be born to be   
   the Mother of the Savior. Therefore, the entrance of this exquisite   
   creature into the world marks the presage of the Redemption. The   
   relationship between God and man began to change, and the gates of   
   Heaven that had been tightly locked were semi-opened, permitting the   
   light and breeze of hope to pass through.   
      
   Her birth represents the entrance into the world of a new grace, a new   
   blessing, a new presence that was an incomparable presage of the   
   presence, blessing and grace that would come with the Savior.   
      
   For all these reasons the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady should be   
   most dear to us. It is the event that announces the fall of Paganism.   
      
   Since we are sons of Our Lady not by our own merit but by her choice,   
   on this day we can ask of her a special grace. Many mystics who had   
   visions of Our Lady said that on her feast days she visits Purgatory   
   to release a great number of souls whom she takes back with her to   
   Heaven....   
      
   See   
   http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j090sdNativity_9-08.htm   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Compassion my dear brother is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that   
   with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers but even with a   
   torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my   
   harshness toward the unfortunate would create.   
   --Saint Martin de Porres   
      
   Bible Quotes:   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)