From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Excerpt from “On the Seven Spiritual Weapons”   
      
   Sometimes the devil inspires souls with an inordinate zeal for a   
   certain virtue or some special pious exercise, so that they will be   
   motivated by their passion to practice it more and more. This   
   temptation is more to pride rather than virtue....Sometimes, on the   
   other hand, the devil coaches souls to do less than they can really   
   do. This temptation is more to false humility...In both cases, the   
   devil's goal is to make the soul discouraged when the virtue is found   
   to be unattainable; and to be wearied and disgusted if his efforts are   
   below his abilities. The soul ends up neglecting everything. It is as   
   necessary to overcome the one snare as the other.   
   -- Saint Catherine of Bologna,   
      
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   May 14th - St. Matthias, Apostle   
      
   (died 63)   
   After our Blessed Lord's Ascension His disciples came together, with   
   Mary His mother and the 11 Apostles, in an upper room at   
   Jerusalem. The little company numbered no more than one hundred and   
   twenty souls. They were waiting for the promised coming of the Holy   
   Ghost, and they persevered in prayer. Meanwhile there was a solemn act   
   to be performed on the part of the Church, which could not be   
   postponed. The place of the fallen Judas had to be filled, that the   
   number of the Apostles might be complete. Saint Peter, therefore, as   
   Vicar of Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. What the Holy   
   Ghost had spoken by the mouth of David concerning Judas, he said, must   
   be fulfilled. Of him it had been written, "His bishopric let another   
   take." A choice, therefore, was needed of one among those who had been   
   their companions from the beginning, who could bear witness to the   
   Resurrection of Jesus.   
      
   Two were named of equal merit, Joseph called Barsabas, and Matthias.   
   After praying to God, who knows the hearts of all men, to show which   
   of these He had chosen, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon   
   Matthias, who was thereby numbered with the Apostles. It is recorded   
   of the Saint, wonderfully elected to so high a vocation, that he was   
   remarkable for his mortification of the flesh. It was thus that he   
   made his election sure.   
      
   He preached in Judea where he was persecuted by both Jews and   
   Gentiles, and died by stoning, a victim of their pursuits, in the year   
   63. His body was taken to Rome by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine,   
   some 250 years later. A church there bears his name.   
      
   Reflection. Our ignorance of many points in Saint Matthias's life   
   serves to fix the attention all the more firmly upon these two -- the   
   occasion of his call to the apostolate, and the fact of his   
   perseverance. We then naturally turn in thought to our own vocation   
   and our own end: may it be like his, a holy death in reward for our   
   fidelity.   
      
   Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "As to ... the avoidance of sin, there is no more efficacious means of   
   subduing the passions [desires], of resisting temptations, and   
   consequently of avoiding sin, than the remembrance of God's presence."   
   --St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Useful Doctor, 1696-1787)   
      
   Bible Quotes:   
   "Because he hath looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the   
   Lord hath looked upon the earth"  (Psalm 101:20)   
      
   "And say not: The mercy of the Lord is great, he will have mercy on   
   the multitude of my sins. For mercy and wrath quickly come from him,   
   and his wrath looketh upon sinners. Delay not to be converted to the   
   Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For his wrath shall come on a   
   sudden, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy thee"   
   (Ecclesiasticus 5:69)   
      
      
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   Flowers of the rarest   
      
   "Bring flowers of the rarest,   
   Bring blossoms of the fairest,   
   From garden and woodland and hillside and dale,   
   Our full hearts are swelling.   
   Our glad voices telling   
   The praise of the loveliest Flower of the Vale.   
      
   "O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today   
   Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.   
   Their lady they name thee,   
   Their mistress proclaim thee,   
   Ah! grant that thy children on earth be as true;"   
      
      
   56. St. Joseph of Cupertino (Monk, 1603-63) - 'Miniature Lives Of The   
   Saints" -- (Fr. H. Bowden, Burns & Oates, 1959 p. 422)   
   This Saint accepting no present but flowers, with which he adorned his   
   picture of the Madonna, once said:   
      
   "My Mother is hard to please: I bring her flowers and fruit, and she   
   does not care for them and will not accept them. I ask her what she   
   wants, and she answers, 'It is the heart which I care for'   
      
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
   NOTE:   
      
   And what then shall we give Her now, all our wills?   
   It's easier said than done? Then why not resolve to learn to do it?   
    How? By going through the "Marian Exercises" for emptying ourselves   
    of the 'spirit of the world', and Solemnly Consecrating ourselves   
    as slaves to Our Lord through Our Lady,   
   by St. Louis Marie de Montfort (Founder, 1673-1716)--needs four   
   weeks of hard work on self--worth an eternity   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)