From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Obedience after the Example of Christ  (I)   
      
   CHRIST:   
    My son, whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from   
   grace. And he, who seeks personal privileges, loses those that are   
   common to all. When a man is unwilling to submit freely and willingly   
   to his superior, it is a sign that his lower nature is not yet under   
   his control, but frequently rebels and complains. Therefore learn to   
   obey your superior promptly if you wish to subdue your lower nature,   
   for the Enemy without is sooner overcome if our inner fortress remains   
   intact. There is no enemy more wicked or troublesome to the soul than   
   your self, when you are not in harmony with the Spirit, and you must   
   have a very real scorn for self, if you are to prevail against flesh   
   and Blood.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3, Ch. 13   
      
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   February 29th – Bl. Antonia of Florence, Widow   
   On leap years, the feast day is celebrated on February 29.   
   d.1472   
      
   THE town of Aquila in the Abruzzi contains the relics of three   
   distinguished Franciscans--St. Bernardino of Siena, Bl. Vincent of   
   Aquila and Bl. Antonia of Florence. Antonia married whilst still quite   
   young, lost her husband after a few years and, desiring after her   
   widowhood to consecrate herself to God, she resisted the efforts of   
   her relations who wished her to marry again. When in 1429 Bl. Angelina   
   of Marsciano sent two of her religious to found in Florence the fifth   
   of her convents of regular tertiaries of St. Francis. Antonia was one   
   of the first to enter the new house. The following year. the   
   superioress of the Observance, who recognized her exceptional merits   
   and powers, transferred her to Foligno and placed her in charge of the   
   convent of St. Anne, which was the original house founded by Bl.   
   Angelina. Here Antonia had the privilege of being under the immediate   
   direction of the foundress. Three years later she was sent to rule a   
   recently established community at Aquila, and once again she set the   
   example of a holy life poured forth in acts of charity. Bl. Angelina   
   died the second year after Antonia had gone to Aquila, and she lost   
   another of her chief supports in the person of St. Bernardino of   
   Siena, who died in 1444 at Aquila.   
      
   When St. John Capistran visited the town, Antonia told him that she   
   desired a stricter rule, and he so fully sympathized with her wishes   
   that he obtained for her the monastery of Corpus Christi, which had   
   just been built for another order, and thither she retired in 1447   
   with eleven of her nuns to practise the original rule of St. Clare in   
   all its rigour. Girls gave up brilliant prospects to join her and the   
   convent soon had to be enlarged to contain the hundred or more nuns   
   who sang the divine praises day and night. Humility and patience were   
   the outstanding qualities of Bl. Antonia, who for fifteen years bore   
   uncomplainingly a most painful disease, and in her spiritual life had   
   to undergo severe trials. Her son was nothing but a trouble to her. He   
   dissipated his whole fortune, and he and her other relations used to   
   come and worry her with their quarrels and affairs. It was also a   
   great blow to her when the Franciscans of Aquila, to whom St. John   
   Capistran had entrusted the care of the convent, gave up the direction   
   of the nuns; but they subsequently resumed the spiritual guidance of   
   the community. She was a true daughter of St. Francis in her love for   
   poverty, which she called the Queen of the House. She was full of   
   tenderness to her spiritual daughters, and when after seven years she   
   resigned her office, she retained the affection and veneration of the   
   whole community. Bl. Antonia at times was seen to be in ecstasy and   
   upraised from the ground, and once a fiery globe appeared to rest upon   
   her head and to light up the place in which she prayed. When she died   
   in 1472 the bishop, magistrates and people of Aquila insisted on   
   conducting her funeral with great solemnity at the public charge. Her   
   cult was confirmed in 1847.   
      
   See Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 36-40;   
   Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano, vol. i, pp. 287-289.   
      
      
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   Whoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. —Lk. 14:11   
      
   "Sometimes a soul rises more towards perfection by not excusing   
   herself than by ten sermons. Since by this means one begins to acquire   
   freedom, and indifference as to what good or evil may be said. Nay   
   more; by a habit of not replying, one arrives at such a point that   
   when he hears anything said of himself, it does not seem as if it   
   related to him, but rather like an affair belonging to someone else"   
   --St. Teresa   
      
    Father Alvarez, the confessor of St. Teresa, having been falsely   
   accused of a grave fault in a provincial assembly and seriously   
   reproved for it in public, said nothing, either in public or private,   
   in his own defense. Afterwards, God rewarded this heroic silence with   
   extraordinary favors.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February – Humility)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Therefore thou art magnified, O Lord God, because there is none like   
   to thee, neither is there any God besides thee, in all the things that   
   we have heard with our ears. (2 Samuel 7:22) DRB   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)