From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Wonderful Effect of Divine Love  (II)   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
   As yet my love is weak, and my virtue imperfect, and I have great need   
   of Thine strength and comfort. Therefore, visit me often, I pray, and   
   instruct me in Your holy laws. Set me free from evil passions, and   
   heal my heart from all disorderly affections; that, healed and   
   cleansed in spirit, I may grow able to love, strong to endure, and   
   steadfast to persevere.   
   --Thomas à Kempis ---Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 5   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   March 25th - St. Margaret Clitherow   
    (St. Margaret of York)   
   1556-1586   
      
   St. Margaret is considered the first woman martyred under Queen   
   Elizabeth's religious suppression. Margaret was raised a Protestant   
   but converted to Catholicism about two to three years after she was   
   married. According to her confessor, Fr. Mush, Margaret became a   
   Catholic because she "found no substance, truth nor Christian comfort   
   in the ministers of the new church, nor in their doctrine itself, and   
   hearing also many priests and lay people to suffer for the defense of   
   the ancient Catholic Faith." Margaret's husband, John Clitherow,   
   remained a Protestant but supported his wife's decision to convert.   
   They were happily married and raised three children: Henry, William,   
   and Anne. She was a businesswoman who helped run her husband's butcher   
   shop business. She was loved by many people even her Protestant   
   neighbors.   
      
   Margaret practiced her faith and helped many people reconcile   
   themselves back into the Catholic Church. She prayed one and a half   
   hours every day and fasted four times a week. She regularly   
   participated in Mass and frequently went to confession. When laws were   
   passed against Catholics, Margaret was imprisoned several times   
   because she did not attend Protestant services. Other laws were passed   
   which included a 1585 law that made it high treason for a priest to   
   live in England and a felony for anyone to harbor or aid a priest. The   
   penalty for breaking such laws was death. Despite the risk, Margaret   
   helped and concealed priests. Margaret said "by God's grace all   
   priests shall be more welcome to me than ever they were, and I will do   
   what I can to set forward God's Catholic service."   
      
   Margaret wanted her son Henry to receive a Catholic education so she   
   endeavored that her son be sent outside the Kingdom to Douai, France   
   for schooling. Such an act was considered a crime. When the   
   authorities discovered their intention, the Common Council had the   
   Clitherow house searched. They initially found nothing but later   
   retrieved religious vessels, books and vestments used for Holy Mass.   
   They also found a secret hiding place but no renegade priests. Still,   
   Margaret was arrested. Margaret refused to plead and to be tried   
   saying, "Having made no offense, I need no trial". English law decreed   
   that anyone who refused to plead and to be tried should be "pressed to   
   death". So on the morning of March 25, 1586, after sewing her own   
   shroud the night before and after praying for the Pope, cardinals,   
   clergy, and the Queen, Margaret was executed. She lay sandwiched   
   between a rock and a wooden slab while weights were dropped upon her,   
   crushing her to death. She did not cry out but prayed "Jesu, Jesu,   
   Jesu, have mercy upon me. She died at age 30.   
      
   Move by her saintly life, all her children entered the religious life.   
   Anne became a nun. Henry and William both became priests.   
      
   On October 25, 1970, Pope Paul VI declared Margaret a saint.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into   
   the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows   
   disappear like snow before the sun.   
   –- Saint John Vianney   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   18 But the path of the just is like shining light,   
   that grows in brilliance till perfect day.*   
   19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;   
   they do not know on what they stumble. (Proverbs 4:18-19) RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord   
      
      Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link   
   between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after   
   Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received   
   into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary   
   human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She   
   exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to   
   become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive   
   power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to   
   accomplish for all of us   
       Sometimes spiritual writers are accused of putting Mary on a   
   pedestal and thereby discouraging ordinary humans from imitating her.   
   Perhaps such an observation is misguided. God did put Mary on a   
   pedestal and has put all human beings on a pedestal. We have scarcely   
   begun to realize the magnificence of divine grace, the wonder of God’s   
   freely given love. The marvel of Mary--even in the midst of her very   
   ordinary life--is God’s shout to us to wake up to the marvelous   
   creatures that we all are by divine design.   
      “Enriched from the first instant of her conception with the   
   splendor of an entirely unique holiness, the virgin of Nazareth is   
   hailed by the heralding angel, by divine command, as ‘full of grace’   
   (cf. Luke 1:28). To the heavenly messenger she replies: ‘Behold the   
   handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word’ (Luke   
   1:38). Thus the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God,   
   became the Mother of Jesus. Committing herself wholeheartedly and   
   impeded by no sin to God’s saving will, she devoted herself totally,   
   as a handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son, under   
   and with him, serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of   
   Almighty God”   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)