From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Patient endurance   
      
   The apostle writes: With patient endurance we run the race of faith   
   set before us. For what has more power than virtue? What more firmness   
   or strength than patient endurance? Endurance, that is, for God's   
   sake. This is the queen of virtues, the foundation of virtue, a haven   
   of tranquility. It is peace in time of war, calm in rough waters,   
   safety amidst treachery and danger. It makes those who practice it   
   stronger than steel. No weapons or brandished bows, no turbulent   
   troops or advancing siege engines, no flying spears or arrows can   
   shake it. Not even the host of evil spirits, nor the dark array of   
   hostile powers, nor the devil himself standing by with all his armies   
   and devices will have power to injure the man or woman who has   
   acquired this virtue through Christ.   
   --St. Nilus of Ancyra   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   7 December - St. Mary Joseph Rosello   
      
    Religious sister and Founder of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy.   
   Also known as St Maria Joseph Rosello – Born as Benedetta Rosello on   
   27 May 1811 at Albissola Marina, Liguria, diocese of Savona, Italy and   
   died on 7 December 1880 (aged 69) in Savona, Italy. She is the Patron   
   of the Order she founded.   
      
   Three hundred years after the apparitions of Our Lady of Mercy on the   
   hillsides of Savona, Italy in 1536. That same city was the scene of   
   another important event – the founding of the Congregation of the   
   Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1837.   
      
   Chosen by God to accomplish this task was an unassuming young woman   
   named Benedetta Rossello, today invoked as Saint Maria Joseph   
   Rossello. Pope Pius XII raised her to the altars of sainthood on 12   
   June 1949.   
      
   One of nine children, her father was a potter. Born in poverty, she   
   suffered from poor health all her life. Pious from early youth she   
   tried to enter a religious order but was refused admission due to her   
   health and lack of dowry. The pious, childless couple she worked for   
   could have given her a dowry but would not because they did not want   
   to lose her as member of their family. Benedetta was devoted to the   
   Blessed Virgin Mary which led her to becoming a member of the Third   
   Order of Saint Francis at the age of 16. Benedetta would become the   
   sole support of her family after the death of her mother and second   
   brother and her sister, Josephine and then her father too.   
      
   “Oh, that I could find a generous person who would care for these   
   neglected children of my flock.” These were the words of Bishop De   
   Mari of Savona one day as he came upon a group of uncouth girls   
   playing on the street. Benedetta heard them as words from heaven and   
   offered her services to the Bishop immediately.   
      
   Bishop DeMari was quick to see in the young woman before him a truly   
   apostolic and generous person whom God had destined for great work. He   
   did not hesitate to confide his plans to her, as he realised that God   
   had sent Benedetta to him.   
      
   On 10 August 1837, Benedetta Rossello and three companions who shared   
   her vision laid the foundation of a new religious family in the Church   
   – the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy. They began   
   in a small unpretentious house in the city of Savona on a street   
   called Vico del Vento.   
      
   After a brief but intense period of preparation, the Bishop presented   
   a religious habit to each young woman as well as a new name to   
   symbolise their consecration to God and His service. Benedetta became   
   Sister Maria Joseph because Saint Joseph was to be her protector,   
   provider and father throughout her whole life. Two years later, the   
   new Sisters sealed their consecration to God by taking the three vows   
   – poverty, chastity and obedience. These new Religious – the first   
   Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy – dedicated themselves wholeheartedly   
   to the work for which God had called the new Congregation to life –   
   the education of youth, the care of the sick and all the works of   
   mercy.   
      
   The Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy spread rapidly throughout Italy and   
   during the lifetime of the Foundress, even to South America. In 1875,   
   Saint Maria Joseph Rossello sent 15 Sisters to Buenos Aires, Argentina   
   and there too, they spread far and wide, now having foundations in   
   Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru and many parts of Argentina.   
      
   In 1919, the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy arrived in North America   
   in response to an appeal similar to that of Bishop DeMari. They were   
   requested to open a Social and Parish Mission Center in Springfield,   
   MA, principally to offer religious Instruction to the children. Thus   
   the mission and spirit of St Maria Joseph Rossello was extended to the   
   United States.   
      
   Presently, the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy minister in 19 countries   
   on 5 continents. They may be found in Italy, Africa, India, Germany,   
   Romania as well as North and South America and the Caribbean Islands.   
      
   From Anastpaul 2019   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The hands should be at work, the heart with God.   
   --Saint Mary Joseph   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and   
   behold the face of God?   
   3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me   
   continually, "Where is your God?"   
   4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:  how I went with the   
   throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad   
   shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.   
   [Psalm 42:2-4]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Qui manet in charitate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo--Who abideth in   
   charity, abideth in God, and God in him.--1 John 4:16   
      
   1. The object of all virtues is to bring us into union with God, in   
   which alone is laid up all the happiness that can be enjoyed in this   
   world. Now, in what does this union properly consist? In nothing save   
   a perfect conformity and resemblance between our will and the will of   
   God, so that these these two wills are absolutely alike--there is   
   nothing in one repugnant to the other; all that one wishes and loves,   
   the other wishes and loves; whatever pleases or displeases one,   
   pleases or displeases the other.--St. John of the Cross   
      
   The Blessed Virgin possessed this perfect union, and St. Bernard says   
   of her that she kept her eyes on the watch and her consent fully   
   prepared for every token of the Divine Will.   
      
   The Venerable Mother Seraphina di Dio had advanced far on this road,   
   for in an account which she gave of herself to her director, she was   
   able to say: "My soul seems to be so much in harmony with Our Lord,   
   that whatever He operates in it always appears most fitting, for it is   
   the very thing which it wills for itself. Whatever comes to my soul is   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)