From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   I must overcome myself   
      
   I must overcome myself before I can truly forgive other people for   
   injuries done to me. The self in me cannot forgive injuries. The very   
   thought of wrongs means that my self is in the foreground. Since the   
   self cannot forgive, I must overcome my selfishness. I must cease   
   trying to forgive those who fretted and wronged me. It is a mistake   
   for me even to think about these injuries. I must aim at overcoming   
   myself in my daily life and then I will find there is nothing in me   
   that remembers injury, because the only thing injured, my selfishness,   
   is gone.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   May 12th - Blessed Jane of Portugal, Dominican nun and virgin.   
   (Joan or Joanna)   
      
   Blessed Jane was born on 16 February 1451 at Aveiro, Portugal, heiress   
   to the throne of her father, King Alphonsus V, at a time when Spain   
   and Portugal divided the colonial wealth and power of the globe   
   between them. Blessed Jane's mother died while she was young, but as a   
   child she developed a deep prayer life, nonetheless, with the   
   assistance of a pious nurse who cared for her. Although she had a   
   brother to secure her family's hold of the monarchy, there were   
   nevertheless many attempts by Blessed Jane's father to marry her for   
   the family's own political and worldly advancement.   
      
   Blessed Jane, on the other hand, had a vocation to enter the convent   
   which was flatly denied by her father for many years, until he finally   
   relented after his family's succession to the throne was guaranteed.   
      
   Blessed Jane was Regent of Portugal when her father and brother went   
   to war against the Moors, and after their successful military   
   campaign, her father, flush from victory, agreed to permit Blessed   
   Jane to enter the convent. However, all was not as Blessed Jane had   
   hoped. While she and one of her ladies-in-waiting wanted very much to   
   enter the Dominican convent in Aveiro, known for its strict   
   observance, her father instead insisted that Jane enter the royal   
   abbey of the Benedictines at Odivellas. There, Blessed Jane was   
   besieged by the whining women of her family that were concerned mostly   
   for the world. So, after a short period of mental and spiritual   
   torture at the royal abbey, Blessed Jane returned to her father's   
   royal court.   
      
   The rest of Blessed Jane's life story is one of patient endurance of a   
   continual litany of trials. Her brother was jealous of her and she   
   suffered from medical maladies. Often the doctors' treatment of her   
   maladies was worse than the affliction itself. Her father seemed   
   scarcely able to make a decision, and some bishops once for their own   
   political designs required her to sign a piece of paper promising that   
   she would never take religious vows. However, after all these trials   
   and 12 years of waiting, in A.D. 1485, Blessed Jane finally took the   
   Dominican habit and entered the convent at Aveiro.   
      
   In the convent, Blessed Jane dedicated herself to doing the most   
   menial tasks and graciously served her fellow nuns. Blessed Jane's   
   special devotion was to the Crown of Thorns, which she had added to   
   her personal heraldic achievement. Her family, however, would not   
   leave her in peace in the convent, and continued to call her back to   
   the royal court for affairs of state.   
      
   During one of these trips back to the royal court, Blessed Jane was   
   poisoned by a woman that she had previously rebuked for living a   
   sinful life. After several months of illness and painful suffering,   
   Blessed Jane died on 12 May 1490, surrounded by her Dominican   
   community.   
      
   Blessed Jane was beatified (cultus confirmed) on 31 December 1692 by   
   Pope Innocent XII.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Not only think of the road through which thou art traveling, but take   
   care never to lose sight of that blessed country in which thou art   
   shortly to arrive. Thou meetest here with passing sufferings, but wilt   
   soon enjoy everlasting rest. When thou lookest up to the recompense   
   everything thou dost or sufferest will appear light, and no more than   
   a shadow; it bears no proportion with what thou art to receive for it.   
   Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for such trifling pains.   
   -- St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Be penitent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be   
   blotted out. That when the times of refreshment shall come from the   
   presence of the Lord, and he shall send him who hath been preached   
   unto you, Jesus Christ.  Whom heaven indeed must receive, until the   
   times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the   
   mouth of his holy prophets, from the beginning of the world.  (Acts   
   3:19-21) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer   
   O God, in the midst of the royal court   
   you strengthened Blessed Jane with purity of heart.   
   By her prayers may your faithful turn from the things of earth   
   and seek after the things of heaven.   
   We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,   
   who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,   
   one God, for ever and ever.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)