From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Judgment and the Punishment of Sin  (2)   
      
       The patient man goes through a great and salutary purgatory when   
   he grieves more over the malice of one who harms him than for his own   
   injury; when he prays readily for his enemies and forgives offenses   
   from his heart; when he does not hesitate to ask pardon of others;   
   when he is more easily moved to pity than to anger; when he does   
   frequent violence to himself and tries to bring the body into complete   
   subjection to the spirit.   
      It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices than to   
   keep them for purgation in the hereafter. In truth, we deceive   
   ourselves by our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that fire   
   feed upon but our sins? The more we spare ourselves now and the more   
   we satisfy the flesh, the harder will the reckoning be and the more we   
   keep for the burning.   
   'A Kempis:--Imitation of Christ, Bk. 1  Ch 24   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   April 24th - St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier   
      
   [At Angers in France, St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, virgin and   
   foundress of the Institute of the Good Shepherd Sisters, whom Pius   
   XII, Sovereign Pontiff, enrolled among the number of the saints.]   
      
   ROSE Virginia Pelletier was born in 1796 in the island of Noirmoutier   
   off the coast of Brittany; her parents had been forced to seek shelter   
   there in the war of La Vendée. Having been sent to school at Tours,   
   Rose came to learn something of the Convent of the Refuge. This   
   belonged to a religious congregation founded in 1641 by St. John Eudes   
   for the rescue of “fallen” women and the protection of those in   
   danger. It was known as the Institute of Our Lady of Charity of the   
   Refuge, and it had a house in Tours. Rose joined the noviceship there   
   in 1814, and some eleven years later, when she was still only   
   twenty-nine, was elected superior. In this office she was prevailed   
   upon to make a new foundation at Angers and she herself went   
   temporarily to take over a house of refuge which had existed there   
   years before under the invocation of the Good Shepherd. Her success   
   was marvellous, but there was a sad reaction when she was compelled to   
   leave Angers and return to her own proper community at Tours. In the   
   end, after much negotiation and rather painful controversy, Mother   
   Pelletier was made prioress of the new founda­tion. Coming before long   
   to realize the difficulties which would hamper their work if each   
   house, as was the ease with the Institute of Our Lady of Charity,   
   stood alone, remaining under control of the bishop of the diocese and   
   training its own novices, Mother St. Euphrasia (as she was now called)   
   became convinced that a centralized organization was necessary, having   
   one common noviceship, and a superior general who could transfer   
   subjects from one house to another as need required. In spite of   
   strong opposition and the anguish of mind entailed by taking so   
   independent a line, Mother Euphrasia stood firm in what she clearly   
   saw to be a wiser policy to promote the great cause they had at heart.   
      
   While deeply humble and respectful of authority, the young prioress,   
   who, as one of her admirers said, “était de taille a gouverner un   
   Royaume”, succeeded, God’s providence helping, in creating at Angers   
   what was virtually a new institute, “of the Good Shepherd”. Papal   
   approbation was obtained in 1835, and the developments were rapid,   
   immense good being visibly affected wherever new foundations were   
   made. When Mother Euphrasia died in 1868, the Good Shepherd nuns   
   numbered 2760 and were known all over the world. In all her manifold   
   trials and difficulties, including charges of rash innovation,   
   personal ambition and impatience of authority, St. Mary Euphrasia   
   displayed heroic fortitude, cheerfulness and trust in God; “Having   
   brought to birth all our young sisters in the Cross”, she said once,   
   “I love them more than life itself. And the root of that love is in   
   God and in the knowledge of my own unworthiness, for I realize that at   
   the age at which they are professed I could not have supported such   
   deprivations and hard work.” She was canonized in 1940.   
      
   There are full biographies in French, both in two volumes, by Mgr   
   Pasquier (1894) and by Canon Portais (1895), and a more recent one   
   (1946) by G. Bernoville in which use has been made of unpublished   
   beatification documents; shorter ones by F. Georges (1942) and H. Joly   
   (1933) in the “Les Saints” series. A religious of the congregation   
   published a life in English in 1933, and Redemption (1940), by G. F.   
   Powers, is a good popular account of the saint; the biography by A. M.   
   Clarke is founded on the books of Pasquier and Portals.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will   
   discover a new world, just as I am experiencing. You will enjoy a   
   peace and a calm unknown, surpassing even the happiest days of your   
   life.   
   -- Saint Jaime Hilario   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For   
   theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  (Matthew 5:10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Reading from Journey of the Mind to God   
      
   Christ is both the way and the door. Christ is the staircase and the   
   vehicle, like the "throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant," and   
   "the mystery hidden from the ages." A man should turn his full   
   attention to this throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on   
   the cross, full of faith, hope, and charity, devoted, full of wonder   
   and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. Then   
   such a man will make with Christ a "pasch," that is, a passing-over.   
   Through the branches of the cross he will pass over the Red Sea,   
   leaving Egypt and entering the desert. There he will taste the hidden   
   manna, and rest with Christ in the sepulcher, as if he were dead to   
   things outside. He will experience, as much as is possible for one who   
   is still living, what was promised to the thief who hung beside   
   Christ: "Today you will be with me in paradise."   
   -- Saint Bonaventure   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)