From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On anger   
      
   If, says St. Francis de Sales, being stung and bit by detractors and   
   enemies, we fly out, swell, and are enraged, it is a great sign that   
   neither our humility nor meekness are true and sincere, but only   
   apparent and artificial. It is better, says St. Augustine, writing to   
   Profuturus, to deny entrance to just and reasonable anger, than to   
   admit it, be it ever so little; because, being once admitted, it is   
   with difficulty driven out again; for it enters as a little twig, and   
   in a moment becomes a beam: For if anger tarries till night,   
   and the sun set upon it, which the apostle forbids, it turns into   
   a hatred, from which we have scarcely any means to rid ourselves; for   
   it nourishes itself under a thousand false pretexts, since there was   
   never an angry man that thought his anger unjust.   
    (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a devout life, p. 3. chap. viii.)   
      
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   February 3rd - St. Werburga of Chester, OSB    
   (also known as Werburg, Werebrurge, Werbyrgh)   
      
   Born at Stone, Staffordshire, England; died at Threckingham, England,   
   c. 690-700; feast of her translation at Chester, June 21.   
      
   The patroness of Chester, England, Saint Werburga, was born of a line   
   of kings, being a daughter of Wulfhere, King of Mercia. From her   
   mother, the saintly Ermingilde (Ermenilda), she learned as a child the   
   Christian faith. By temperament she was pious and virtuous, and her   
   beauty attracted many admirers, among them a prince of the West   
   Saxons, who offered her rich gifts and made flattering proposals, and   
   also Werbode, a powerful knight of her father's court. But refusing   
   all her suitors, she secured, after much persuasion, her father's   
   permission to enter a convent (or she did so after her father's   
   death).   
      
   When the time came, he and his courtiers escorted her in great state   
   to the abbey of Ely, where they were greeted at the gates by her aunt,   
   the royal abbess, Ethelreda, and her nuns. Werburga fell upon her   
   knees and asked that she might be received as a novice, and to the   
   chanting of the Te Deum they entered the cloister, where she was   
   stripped of her costly apparel, exchanged her coronet for a veil, and   
   in a rough habit began her new life.   
      
   She made good progress, and after many years, at the request of her   
   uncle, King Ethelred, was chosen to superintend all the convents of   
   his kingdom. This opened to her a large and fruitful sphere of duty,   
   and the religious houses under her care became models of monastic   
   discipline. Through the wealth and influence of her family she also   
   founded new convents at Trentham in Staffordshire, Hanbury near   
   Tutbury, and Weedon in Northamptonshire, and secured the interest of   
   Ethelred in establishing the collegiate Church of Saint John the   
   Baptist in Chester, and in giving land to Egwin for the great abbey of   
   Evesham.   
      
   Werburga won many from dissipation and vice, and God crowned her life   
   with many blessings. Her work was deeply rooted in prayer and   
   discipline. She took but one meal daily and that only of the coarsest   
   food; she set before her the example of the desert fathers; and she   
   recited the whole of the Psalter daily upon her knees.   
      
   She lived to a ripe age, and before her death she journeyed to all her   
   convents, paying to each a farewell visit; she then retired to   
   Trentham (Threckingham in Lincolnshire), where she died. She was   
   buried in the monastery of Hanbury in Staffordshire. Later, her   
   remains were transferred with great ceremony in the presence of King   
   Coolred and many bishops to a costly shrine in Leicester, which   
   attracted many pilgrims.   
      
   In 875, for fear of the Danes, her relics were removed to Chester. In   
   1095, they were translated within Chester, where in the course of time   
   a great church, now the cathedral, was built over it, and where the   
   remains of it may still be seen, carved with the figures of her   
   ancestors, the ancient kings of Mercia. On its four sides the deep   
   niches remain, where the pilgrims knelt, seeking healing, afterwards   
   receiving a metal token to show that they had visited her shrine. This   
   final translation was the occasion for Goselin to write her vita. The   
   shrine was destroyed under King Henry VIII, although part of its stone   
   base survives. Twelve ancient English churches were dedicated to her,   
   including Hanbury and Chester (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia,   
   Farmer, Gill).   
      
   In art Saint Werburga holds the abbey, while her crown lays at her   
   feet. Sometimes there are wild geese near her (Roeder), because,   
   according to Goselin she restored one to life (see below); however,   
   the writer borrowed the story from his own vita of the Flemish Saint   
   Amelburga (Farmer). She is, of course, the patroness of Chester   
   (Roeder).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Whoever bids other folks to do right, but gives an evil example by   
   acting the opposite way, is like a foolish weaver who weaves quickly   
   with one hand and unravels the cloth just as quickly with the other.   
   -- Saint Thomas More   
      
   Bible Quotes:   
   I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me. (Psalm 34:5)   
      
   Lord, I love the temple where you dwell, where your glory is.  (Psalm 26:8)   
      
      
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   To Prevent One Mortal Sin   
      
   IF EVERY DAY WE BEGGED MARY FOR GRACE TO HINDER ONE MORTAL SIN,   
   WHAT A YEAR'S SERVICE TO GOD AND SOULS!   
      
   O MARY, Immaculate Mother of Jesus, we beseech thee, offer to the   
   Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, to prevent at least   
   one mortal sin from being committed somewhere in the world today. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)