From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Upright of Heart   
      
   "Do you know who the upright of heart are? They are those who wish   
   what God wishes. Therefore, do not try to twist God's will to your own   
   but correct your will to that of God.   
      
   The will of God is a rule of conduct. By it you have the means of   
   being converted and of correcting your evil ways."   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 93, 18   
      
   Prayer: Put to flight my foolishness, Lord, that I may know you. Show   
   me the road I must travel that I may see you. Thus aided, I hope I   
   shall do all you have commanded me.   
   --St. Augustine--Soliloquies 1, 1   
      
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   February 7th - Bl. Thomas Sherwood, Martyr   
      
   d. 1578   
    FROM an account written by the martyr’s brother we are exceptionally   
   well-informed regarding this heroic young man of 27, the son of most   
   devout parents, his mother after his execution having been confined in   
   prison for 14 years, where eventually she died.  He was not a student   
   at the English College at Douay, as Challoner alleges, but when in   
   London, after having made his plans to study for the priesthood, he   
   was apprehended on suspicion of being a papist at the instigation of   
   the son of Lady Tregonwell, a Catholic whose house he had frequented.   
   He was sent to the Tower, where he was cruelly racked in a vain   
   endeavour to make him disclose where he had heard Mass, and then   
   thrust into a filthy dungeon.   
      
    More’s son-in-law, Roper, tried to send him money to alleviate his   
   sufferings, but the lieutenant of the Tower would not permit of any   
   money to be spent on him beyond six-pennyworth of clean straw for him   
   to lie on. After six months he was tried, condemned for denying the   
   queen’s supremacy, and hanged at Tyburn.   
      
    The case is interesting because we possess the letter of the lords of   
   the Privy Council directing that the lieutenant of the Tower and   
   others are “to assay him [Sherwood] at the rack upon such articles as   
   they shall think meet to minister unto him for the discovering either   
   of the persons or of further matters”. In other words, they tortured   
   him in order to obtain information which might convict other   
   Catholics. In the Diary of Douay College, the death of the martyr is   
   recorded 3 weeks later “ On the first of March [1578] Mr Lowe returned   
   to us from England bringing news that a youth, by name Thomas   
   Sherwood, had suffered, for his confession of the Catholic faith, not   
   only imprisonment, but death itself.   
      
   Amidst all his torments, his exclamation had been ‘Lord Jesus, I am   
   not worthy to suffer this for thee, much less to receive those rewards   
   which thou hast promised to those that confess thee.’ ”   
      
    See J. H. Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (1891), pp. 1-20; and MMP, pp.   
   11-12.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly   
   possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.   
   --St. John of the Cross   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to   
   be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  (2 Timothy 2:15)   
      
      
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   The gift of the moments   
      
     Each moment of your day, which you devote to this new way of life   
   is a gift to God. The gift of the moments. Even when your desire to   
   serve God is sincere, it is not an easy thing to give Him many of   
   these moments: the daily things you had planned to do, given up gladly   
   so that you can perform a good service or say a kind word. If you can   
   see God's purpose in many situations, it will be easier to give Him   
   many moments of your day. Every situation has two   
   interpretations--your own and God's. Try to handle each situation in   
   the way you believe God would have it handled.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)