From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Miracle of Change   
      
      "Brothers and sisters, on this threshing floor grain can degenerate   
   into chaff; and the chaff can be turned back into grain. These changes   
   can take place daily.   
      This life is full of afflictions and consolations. Daily those who   
   seemed good fall and perish; and again those who seemed evil are   
   converted and live."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 223, 2   
      
   Prayer: I pray to you, God, whom no one lets go, unless deceived; whom   
   no one seeks, unless taught; and whom no one finds, unless cleansed.   
   Come mercifully to me.   
   --St. Augustine--Soliloquies 1, 1   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   November 13th - Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Foundress   
      
   (1850-1917)   
      
   Dear to the hearts of American Catholics in many regions of the United   
   States, Saint Frances Cabrini, foundress of the Missionary Sisters of   
   the Sacred Heart, patroness of immigrants, was the first citizen of   
   the United States to be canonized. Born in Lombardy, Italy, the   
   youngest of 13 children, she was fired with missionary zeal as a   
   little girl, through family reading of the Annals of the Propagation   
   of the Faith. She gave up sweets because she would also be without   
   them in China, where she aspired to go.   
      
   She earned a teacher's certificate and applied to two Orders having   
   missionary houses, but was rejected for reasons of health.   
   Reluctantly, at the request of her bishop, she tried to save an   
   orphanage and make of its staff a religious community, but after six   
   hard years the work collapsed. And Frances, by then thirty years old,   
   initiated her own missionary community with seven of her associates   
   from the orphanage. Bishop Scalabrini suggested they work with Italian   
   immigrants, especially in the United States, as the Congregation of   
   Saint Charles which he had founded was doing; but Mother Cabrini's   
   heart was set on China. She asked counsel of Pope Leo XIII. "Go not to   
   the East," he told her, "but to the West."   
      
   Founding schools, hospitals and charitable works of every kind, she   
   would cross the ocean thirty times, bringing bands of young Italian   
   Sisters to North and South America. Her amusing community letter,   
   during her second trip to New York, gives a typical picture of these   
   missionary voyages: "This morning all the Sisters woke up very ill.   
   Some of them thought they were going to die... Those who trusted my   
   words rose and tried to eat, and presently were looking quite well.   
   The others who thought death was at hand stayed in their rooms   
   awaiting it..."   
      
   Her letters are filled with the practical motherly instruction of a   
   foundress who knew she was loved and imitated by her Sisters. "When   
   you are corrected do not justify yourself. Remain silent and practice   
   virtue, whether you are right or wrong, otherwise we may dream of   
   perfection but will never attain it." (Oct. 17-20, 1892) "Love is not   
   loved, my daughters! Love is not loved!" (Aug. 21, 1890) "Renounce   
   yourselves entirely if you wish to enjoy peace... She who is not holy   
   will make no one holy." (Oct. 17, 1892)   
      
   Explaining why she did not accompany some Sisters on a boat excursion   
   she wrote, "I admit my weakness, I am afraid of the sea. And if there   
   is no very holy motive in view, I have no courage to go where I fear   
   danger, unless sent by obedience. For then, of course, one's movements   
   are blessed by God."   
      
   Mother Cabrini died at 67, suddenly and alone in one of her   
   Chicago hospitals, while preparing Christmas presents for 500   
   children.   
      
   Source: Lives of the Saints: Daily Readings, by Augustine Kalberer,   
   O.S.B. (Franciscan Herald Press: Chicago, 1975).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Chastity, or cleanness of heart, holds a glorious and distinguished   
   place among the virtues, because she, alone, enables man to see God;   
   hence Truth itself said, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they   
   shall see God."   
   -- St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "But let the righteous be glad; Let them rejoice before God; Yes, let them   
   rejoice exceedingly."  [Psalm 68:3]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SOULS   
   FROM THE PURGATORIAN MANUAL (Imprimatur 1946)   
      
   11th Day   
      
   OUR DUTY TO RELIEVE THE SOULS IN PURGATORY   
      
   In bestowing charity upon any person, we are usually guided by the   
   degree of his poverty; but, who is in such great need as he who   
   possesses absolutely nothing, owes a heavy debt, is unable to labor or   
   gain any merit, or even to beg, and must nevertheless suffer the most   
   excruciating torments until the last farthing has been paid? There is   
   a universal law to assist the needy, which extends even to strangers ;   
   but here the obligation is greatest, because among these souls in   
   Purgatory, are such as were intimately connected with us, who suffer,   
   perhaps, for having loved us excessively. Among the sufferers are our   
   fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends. How   
   exceedingly painful for them to be forgotten and deserted even by   
   those whose happiness they promoted during their sojourn upon earth;   
   to see the possessions left to their children foolishly squandered,   
   they themselves not receiving the benefit of the least farthing   
   thereof ! What proofs of extreme coldness and ingratitude ! Were any   
   of these persons afflicted with the least pain upon earth, we would do   
   all in our power to relieve them, but, as it is, we are devoid of all   
   sympathy, and leave them in their terrible suffering and anguish.   
      
   Prayer: Have mercy, O Lord, upon the suffering souls in Purgatory, and   
   mitigate the severity of Thy judgment, that they, who, during their   
   earthly lives believed in Thee hoped in Thee, and loved Thee, may   
   receive the crown of justice in Heaven. Through Christ, our Lord.   
   Amen.   
      
   Special Intercession: Pray for the souls of those who are suffering   
   for their negligence in-praying for the souls in Purgatory.   
      
   Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine   
   upon them; may they rest in peace. Amen. (Three times)   
      
   Practice: Suffer patiently the disagreeable occurrences in your   
   intercourse with others.   
      
   Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)