From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   One Teacher: Christ   
      
      "Avoid being called "Teacher." Only one is your teacher, the   
   Messiah. Let him therefore speak to you interiorly, in that place   
   where no one can enter into your heart.   
      On second thought, let there not be no one in your heart--let   
   Christ be there. Let his unction spread in your heart, lest it be a   
   heart thirsting in the wilderness and having no fountains to be   
   quenched."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon on 1 John 3, 13   
      
   Prayer: You have accompanied me on my path, O Truth, teaching me what   
   to avoid and what to desire.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 10, 40   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   May 27th - Blessed Mary Bartholomeo Bagnesi, Mystic   
      
   Born in Florence, Italy, 1511-1514; died 1577; beatified in 1804 by Pius VII.   
   Marietta Bagnesi's type of sanctity is not pleasing to today's   
   psychiatrists, and, indeed, it is somewhat of a puzzle. The fact that   
   she was so disgusted with the very thought of marriage that she became   
   ill and was bedridden the rest of her life seems more than a little   
   strange to us. One has to remember that God calls his children to   
   heaven by very diverse paths.   
      
   Marietta was a beautiful and appealing child, with big eyes and a   
   constant smile. Because she was tiny, she was always called Marietta,   
   rather than Mary. Her mother neglected her when she was a baby,   
   leaving her to the casual care of others, and the little girl was   
   often hungry and cold. She never protested, but was always gay and   
   charming, and she was the special darling of her sister, who was a   
   Dominican nun.   
      
   The sisters made quite a pet of the little girl, and she ran through   
   the cloisters unhampered, singing for the sisters from the throne of   
   the community-room table. What brought about her utter disgust with   
   marriage is hard to tell. When her father proposed that she marry an   
   eligible young man, she reacted with horror. She had been managing the   
   household since the death of her mother, and her father felt that   
   having a home of her own would be the best thing in the world for her.   
   When he suggested this, Marietta fell into a faint, and she remained   
   in that condition for days. When she recovered, she could not stand   
   up, and had to be put to bed.   
      
   At this point a strange interlude began, which can only be explained   
   by the fact that God does not operate in the same fashion we do.   
   Marietta's father was fond of quack doctors, and quacks of the 16th   
   century were really fantastic. Without protest the girl endured all   
   the weird and frightful treatments they devised, suffering more from   
   the treatments than she ever had from the malady. Today her ailment   
   would probably be diagnosed as some type of spastic nerve malady.   
   Packing her in mud and winding her in swaddling bands until she,   
   according to her own account, "felt like a squashed raisin" could not   
   have helped anything but the quack doctor's purse. The ailments   
   continued unabated for 34 years.   
      
   Marietta had hoped to be a nun; four of her sisters were already in   
   the convent. Because such a life was, of course, impossible for an   
   invalid, her father attempted to better her spirits by having her   
   accepted into the Third Order. A priest came from Santa Maria Novella   
   and received her into the order in 1544, but he excused her from the   
   obligation of saying the Office because of the desperate nature of her   
   illness. When he came the following year, she made her profession. For   
   a little while after her profession, Marietta was able to get out of   
   bed and could even walk a little. She could see and enjoy the beauties   
   of the city. Then she fell ill again and went back to bed; this time   
   she had asthma, pleurisy, and a kidney ailment.   
      
   The doctors continued their experimentation through all the years of   
   her life. A mystic, who sometimes conversed with the angels, saints,   
   and devils, Marietta was suspected by the neighbors of being in league   
   with the devil. Her protests that "she had seen him all right but he   
   wasn't a friend of hers," fell on deaf ears; they obtained permission   
   to have her exorcised. Her confessor left her; he was afraid of   
   becoming involved. Another priest who came to her, mostly out of   
   curiosity, stayed on as her confessor and directed her strange and   
   troubled path for 22 years.   
      
   Marietta's little room became a sort of oratory, and troubled people   
   came there to find peace. She had an unusually soothing effect on   
   animals; several pet cats made her the object of their affection. One   
   of them used to sleep on the foot of her bed, and if she became sick   
   during the night would go out to find someone to care for her. Once,   
   when the cat felt that Marietta was being neglected, it went out and   
   fetched her a large cheese. The cats, according to the legend, did not   
   even glance at the songbirds that she had in a cage beside the bed.   
      
   Marietta's spiritual life is hard to chronicle against such an odd   
   background. In her last years, she was in almost constant ecstasy. The   
   chaplain said Mass in her room, and she went to confession daily. She   
   never discussed the sorrowful mysteries, because she could not do so   
   without crying, but she often talked with great animation and a   
   shining face, about the glorious mysteries. Once she was raised out of   
   her bed in ecstasy. She shared her visions with another mystic, the   
   Carmelite, Mary Magdalen de Pazzi. Because of her devotion to Saint   
   Bartholomew, she added his name to her own, and usually used it   
   instead of her family name (Benedictines, Dorcy).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   In the way of virtue, there is no standing still; anyone who does not   
   daily advance, loses ground. To remain at a standstill is impossible;   
   he that gains not, loses; he that ascends not, descends. If one does   
   not ascend the ladder, one must descend; if one does not conquer, one   
   will be conquered.   
   --St. Bonaventure   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding; so   
   that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. (St.   
   Luke 12:36)   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Though you have recourse to many saints as your intercessors, go   
   especially to Saint Joseph for he has great power.   
   --St. Terese of Avila   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   From The Glories Of Mary, by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori:   
      
   Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, I am not worthy to be thy   
   servant. But moved by thy marvelous compassion and my own desire to   
   serve thee, here and now, in the presence of my guardian angel and the   
   whole court of Heaven, I choose thee as my Lady, Advocate, and Mother.   
   I firmly purpose to love and serve thee always, and to do all I can to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)