From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Humble Submission to God  [II]   
      
   When a man humbly admits his faults, he soon appeases his fellows, and   
   is reconciled to those whom he had offended. God protects and delivers   
   a humble man; He loves and comforts him (I Pet.5:5; James 4:6). To the   
   humble He leans down and bestows great success, raising him from   
   abasement to honour. To him He reveals His secrets (Matt.9:25) and   
   lovingly calls and draws him to Himself. Even in the midst of trouble,   
   the humble man remains wholly at peace, for he trusts in God, and not   
   in the world. Do not consider yourself to have made any spiritual   
   progress, unless you account yourself the least of all men.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2, Ch 2   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   April 8th – St. Julia Billiart V (RM)   
    (Also known as Julie)   
      
   Born in Cuvilly (near Beauvais), Picardy, France, on July 12, 1751;   
   died on April 8, 1816.   
      
   Julie was co-foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, the order   
   that today conducts Trinity College in Washington. Most religious   
   foundresses have what “the World” would consider dull, routine lives.   
   Julie Billiart’s happened to be full of unsought adventures.   
      
   The saint’s parents were prosperous French peasants, but as time   
   passed, they became impoverished. Julie, one of their 7 children,   
   shone at the local school, and from the start evidenced a special   
   fondness for studying and teaching religious subjects. Seeing in her   
   an unusual soul, her pastor allowed Julie to make her first communion   
   at the age of nine (13 was then the rule), and when she was 14, he   
   permitted her to take a private vow of chastity. The needs of the   
   local poor, and of her own family, quickly called forth her ready   
   compassion. She even overworked in order to keep the family going.   
   Neighbors were already referring to this genial, helpful, prayerful   
   young woman as the “Saint of Cuvilly.”   
      
   Then Julie received a shock that was to affect her for many years.   
      
   She was sitting at home with her father when somebody from outside   
   shot at him through the window. The assailant missed, but the fright   
   so jarred Julie’s nervous system that she entered into a strange and   
   painful illness that bore down upon her for the next two decades and   
   gradually paralyzed her limbs. Her wits were not impaired, however,   
   nor her devotion to the “Good God”. She accepted immobility with great   
   good will.   
      
   Next came the French Revolution.   
      
   One revolutionary policy was to set up the “Constitutional Church”, a   
   “Catholic” body independent of the pope. Priests loyal to the pope   
   were now forced to go underground. Julie stuck with the papacy, and,   
   at great risk, offered shelter to these loyal priests. Infuriated with   
   her refusal to comply with the “national” church, the government   
   authorities began to hunt out the poor invalid. One day friends helped   
   rescue her from the threat of burning alive by carrying her to safety   
   in a cart under a sheaf of hay. Five times in all she had to be   
   spirited away from the police. The ordeal merely weakened her further,   
   and she lost her voice.   
      
   After the Reign of Terror (during which 16 of her friends, Carmelite   
   nuns, were guillotined), Mlle. Billiart had a respite. Going to   
   Amiens, she met a devout woman of like mind, the Viscountess Frances   
   Blin de Born. When Father Joseph Varin, head of the Jesuit-like   
   “Fathers of the Faith”, met these two women, he saw them ideally   
   fitted to begin a new religious order dedicated to the care of poor   
   children, the education of girls, and the training of religious   
   teachers. He founded the order in 1803, with Julie and Frances and a   
   few others as the nucleus, despite the fact that Julie still remained   
   disabled.   
      
   Then came a remarkable event. Father Enfantin, a missionary priest,   
   began a great mission at Amiens, which the nuns of the new sisterhood   
   attended. Enfantin, seeking a cure of Sister Julie, asked her to join   
   him in a novena of prayers. The intention was her cure, but he did not   
   reveal it to her. At the end of the nine days, he addressed this   
   invalid of 22 years, “Mother, if you have any faith, take one step in   
   honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Julie obeyed. She rose, stood   
   firmly on her feet, and realized that she was completely cured.   
      
   Thereafter, Mother Julie was able to give all her strength to the   
   spread of her community.   
      
   Not that difficulties were lacking. A new priest-director tried to   
   change the whole rule, and when opposed in this, he attacked the   
   co-foundress. He even turned the bishop of Amiens against Mother   
   Julie. The sisterhood therefore transferred its center from Amiens to   
   Namur in Belgium. One of Julie’s duties in 1815 was the care of those   
   wounded in the nearby battle of Waterloo.   
      
   During the remainder of her life, Mother Julie established 15 more   
   convents. Of St. Julie the bishop of Namur said, “Mother Julie is one   
   of those souls who can do more for God’s Church in a few years than   
   others can do in a century.” Even in our troubled church today, it   
   would take only a handful of great leaders to start a general healing.   
   Send them to us, O Good God!   
      
   The fame of her sanctity spread abroad and was confirmed by several   
   miracles. The process of her canonization was begun in 1881. She was   
   beatified on May 13, 1906 by Pope Pius X and canonized in 1969 by Pope   
   Paul VI. St. Julie's predominating trait in the spiritual order was   
   her ardent charity, springing from a lively faith and manifesting   
   itself in her thirst for suffering and her zeal for souls. Her whole   
   soul was echoed in the simple and naive formula which was continually   
   on her lips and pen: Oh, qu'il est bon, le bon Dieu (How good God is).   
   She possessed all the qualities of a perfect superior, and inspired   
   her subjects with filial confidence and tender affection. Julie is   
   known as the smiling saint.   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Even though knowledge is true, it is still not firmly established if   
   unaccompanied by works. For everything is established by being put   
   into practice.   
   --Saint Mark the Ascetic   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not   
   hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican.  Amen   
   I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound   
   also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be   
   loosed also in heaven. (Matthew 18:17-18) DRB   
      
      
   Our Morning Offering – 8 April   
      
   Most Merciful Jesus,   
   whose very nature it is   
   to have compassion on us   
   and to forgive us,   
   do not look upon our sins   
   but upon our trust which we place   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)