From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Gratitude for God's Grace (IV)   
      
   Set yourself always in the lowest place, (Luke 14:10) and you shall be   
   awarded the highest; for the highest cannot stand without the lowest.   
   The Saints stand highest in God's eyes who are lowest in their own;   
   and the more glorious they are, the more humble is their spirit.   
   Filled with truth and heavenly glory, they have no desire for   
   vainglory. Grounded and established in God, they cannot be proud. They   
   ascribe all goodness to God; they seek no glory from one another, but   
   the glory, which comes from God alone (John 5:44). They desire above   
   all things, and strive always, that God be praised in themselves and   
   in all His Saints.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2 Ch 10   
      
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   March 15th - St. Louise de Marillac   
      
   Born in Ferrières-en-Brie (near Meaux), Auvergne, France, on August   
   12, 1591; died in Paris, France, March 15, 1660; beatified in 1920;   
   canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1934; declared patroness of social   
   workers by Pope John XXIII in 1960.   
      
   Saint Vincent de Paul, when he held missions conducted by his priests,   
   made efforts to create the lay apostolate of the (female) Servants of   
   the Poor and of the (male) Helpers of the Poor for the services of the   
   poor and sick in all his parishes. His manifold occupations made it   
   impossible for the saint personally to supervise and direct these   
   numerous charitable groups.   
      
   Saint Vincent found in the person of Louise de Marillac his best   
   instrument for the direction of the women. Louise was a woman of the   
   highest social status--a paternal uncle was marshal of France, another   
   was garde des sceaux--and well-educated by the Dominican nuns of   
   Poissy after her mother's early death. Her father died when she was   
   15. On the advice of her confessor, Louise had decided not to join the   
   Capuchin nuns, and in 1613, at the age of 22, married Antoine Le Gras,   
   secretary to Marie de Medici. Her husband, a pious and high-minded   
   man, allowed her to do all the good to which her kind heart prompted   
   her in slums and in tenements of want, and protected her in those   
   circles of society that felt outraged by her activities. After his   
   death in 1625, she devoted herself to the education of their son, who   
   eventually married and had children.   
      
   When he had outgrown her guardianship, she lived entirely for works of   
   Christian charity. Louise had met St. Vincent prior to her husband's   
   death, and he had agreed to become her confessor. He had been trying   
   to organize devout, wealthy women to help the poor and sick in often   
   appalling conditions. It soon became clear that many of these ladies,   
   although well-intentioned, were unfit to face the ugliness and   
   suffering of poverty and illness. The practical work of nursing the   
   sick in their own homes, caring for neglected children, and dealing   
   with often rough husbands and fathers was best accomplished by women   
   of similar social status to the principal sufferers. Louise, he   
   realized, was made of sterner stuff.   
      
   The aristocratic ladies were better suited to the equally necessary   
   task of fund raising and dealing with correspondence. Louise was the   
   exception. In her Vincent saw a woman of a clear mind, great courage,   
   endurance, and self-effacement. In 1629, in order to test his   
   assessment, he sent Louise to make a visitation of the Charity of   
   Montmirail he had founded. She passed the test and, despite unstable   
   health, Louise made many more such missions.   
      
   Vincent chose Louise to train and organize girls and widows, mainly of   
   the peasant and artisan classes. In the home Louise rented on the rue   
   des Fossé-Saint-Victor in Paris, beginning in 1633 with four country   
   girls, she trained groups of women for ambulatory care of the sick.   
   Louise wanted to draw up a rule of life, but St. Vincent convinced her   
   to wait for a sign from God. Vincent had not intended to start a   
   religious order. The sisters, he said, should consider themselves   
   simply as Christians devoted to the sick and poor: "your convent will   
   be the house of the sick, your cell a hired room, your chapel the   
   parish church, your grill the fear of God, your veil modesty."   
      
   Finally assured of Louise's dedication, Vincent permitted her to draft   
   a rule in 1634; essentially, this rule that was formally approved in   
   1655 is the rule still used today. Vows are taken only for one year   
   and renewed. Louise made her vows in 1634, and in 1642, the first four   
   candidates were professed as Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de   
   Paul in 1638. Vincent himself preferred the name, Daughters of   
   Charity. Formal approval placed the community under Vincent and his   
   Congregation of the Mission with Louise as their superioress until her   
   death.   
      
   This sisterhood, according to the wishes of Saint Vincent, was to   
   realize the idea that had animated his friend, Saint Francis de Sales,   
   in creating this foundation--the idea of an uncloistered religious   
   community for all the evangelical tasks in the world, especially on   
   behalf of the poor, the sick, and the little children.   
      
   St. Vincent opened an orphanage, and the sisters taught the children.   
   They also took charge of the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. Louise established   
   other orphanages and hospitals, nursed plague victims herself in   
   Paris, reformed a neglected hospital in Angers, and oversaw all the   
   activity of the order despite her fragile health. She traveled all   
   over France founding more than 40 daughter houses (including one in   
   Madagascar and another in Poland) and charities. Just before her   
   death, she exhorted her sisters to be diligent in serving the poor   
   "and to honor them like Christ Himself." At the time of her death the   
   sick poor were tended in their homes in 26 Parisian parishes, hundreds   
   of women were given shelter, and other good done. These sisters of   
   charity accomplished immeasurable good in every part of the world   
   through their self-sacrificing love for their fellow men. (Attwater,   
   Benedictines, Calvet, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Schamoni, White).   
      
   In art, Saint Louise is depicted in the original habit of the order--a   
   gray wool tunic with a large headdress or cornette of white linen, the   
   usual dress of the peasant women of Brittany in the 17th century. She   
   is the patron saint of social workers (White).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross   
   that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. He has   
   blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it   
   with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)