From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of the diverse motions of Nature and of Grace   
      
   13. "Nature doeth everything for her own gain and profit, can do nothing as a   
   free favour, but hopeth to attain something as good or better, or some praise   
   or favour for her benefits; and she loveth that her own deeds and gifts should   
   be highly valued;    
   but Grace seeketh nothing temporal, nor requireth any other gift of reward   
   than God alone; neither longeth she for more of temporal necessities than such   
   as may suffice for the attaining of eternal life.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 54   
      
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   January 18th - Saint Margaret of Hungary   
      
   Margaret was born to King Bela IV of Hungary and his wife Mary Lascaris at a   
   time when the Tatars were invading Hungary. The king offered to dedicate their   
   child to the Church if Hungary was freed from the Tatars. It was, and so   
   Margaret was brought to    
   the Dominican convent at Vesprem at the age of three.   
      
   Invested with the habit at the age of four, she was transferred in her tenth   
   year to the Convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on the Hasen   
   Insel near Buda, the Margareten Insel near Budapest today, and where the ruins   
   of the convent are    
   still to be seen. Here Margaret passed all her life, which was consecrated to   
   contemplation and penance, and was venerated as a saint during her lifetime.   
   She strenuously opposed the plans of her father, who for political reasons   
   wished to marry her to    
   King Ottokar II of Bohemia.   
      
   But Margaret declared that she would cut off her nose and lips rather than   
   consent to leave the cloister. In fact, when she became aware of a tendency to   
   treat her with special consideration, she deliberately sought to perform the   
   services that were most    
   menial and repulsive, and with an extraordinary tenderness and charity.   
   Probably she was allowed her own way in this where a stronger superior might   
   have prevented excesses.   
      
   All narratives call special attention to Margaret’s sanctity and her spirit   
   of earthly renunciation. Her whole life was one unbroken chain of devotional   
   exercises and penance. She chastised herself unceasingly from childhood, wore   
   hair garments, and an    
   iron girdle round her waist, as well as shoes spiked with nails; she was   
   frequently scourged, and performed the most menial work in the convent.   
      
   In the process for her beatification begun soon after death, many of her   
   contemporaries told of these excesses and of miracles in which Margaret was   
   involved. The sacristan told how Margaret would stroke her hand and coax her   
   to leave the door of the    
   choir open after Compline so that she might spend the night before the Blessed   
   Sacrament when she ought to have been sleeping.   
      
   One of the convent maids fell into a well and was on the point of drowning but   
   was saved by Margaret’s prayers. Asked what she thought of Margaret, she   
   said, “She was good, holy and edifying in her conduct, a lot more humble   
   than we serving-maids”.    
   Intense too were Margaret’s prayer life and penance. She spent every Friday   
   in tears, contemplating the suffering of Jesus.  She worked much for the   
   relief of the poor and sick.   
      
   Margaret shortened her life by her austerities. At the end of every Lent she   
   would be exhausted by fasting and lack of sleep. On Holy Thursday she claimed   
    the right as the daughter of the convent’s founders to wash the feet not   
   only of the sisters    
   but also the servants. Worn out by her efforts, she died on 18 January 1270   
   aged only twenty-eight.   
      
   Shortly after her death, steps were taken for her canonization, and in   
   1271-1276 investigations referring to this were taken up; in 1275-1276 the   
   process was introduced, but not completed. Not till 1640 was the process again   
   taken up, and again it was    
   not concluded. Attempts which were made in 1770 by Count Ignatz Batthyanyi   
   were also fruitless; so that the canonization never took place, although   
   Margaret was venerated as a saint shortly after her death; and Pius VI   
   consented on 28 July, 1789, to her    
   veneration as a saint. Pius VII raised her feast day to a festum duplex.   
      
   She was canonized in 1943 by Pope Pius XII.   
      
   Margaret’s remains were given to the Poor Clares when the Dominican Order   
   was dissolved; they were first kept in Pozsony and later in Buda. After the   
   order had been suppressed by Joseph II, in 1782, the relics were destroyed in   
   1789; but some portions    
   are still preserved in Gran, Gyor, Pannonhalma.   
      
   In art she is depicted with a lily and holding a book in her hand.   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and   
   peace.   
    Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the   
   law of God,    
   nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God."   
     (Romans 8:6-8)   
      
      
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   O My God, I Believe in You   
   By St Arnold Janssen (1837-1909)   
      
   O my God,   
   I believe in You,   
   because You are   
   the eternal truth.   
   O my God,   
   I hope in You,   
   because You are   
   infinitely merciful, faithful and almighty.   
   O my God,   
   I love You with my whole heart   
   and am sorry for having offended You.   
   Out of love for me   
   You are present in the Blessed Sacrament,   
   therefore, I long for You,   
   O my dearest Jesus.   
   From the Father   
   send me the Holy Spirit   
   with His seven gifts,   
   that I may glorify God   
   in all things.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)