From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   To Despise the World and Serve God is Sweet  (5)   
      
       The Disciple:   
       It is a great honor, a great glory to serve You and to despise all   
   things for Your sake. They who give themselves gladly to Your most   
   holy service will possess great grace. They who cast aside all carnal   
   delights for Your love will find the most sweet consolation of the   
   Holy Ghost. They who enter upon the narrow way for Your name and cast   
   aside all worldly care will attain great freedom of mind.   
       O sweet and joyful service of God, which makes man truly free and   
   holy! O sacred state of religious bondage which makes man equal to the   
   angels, pleasing to God, terrible to the demons, and worthy of the   
   commendation of all the faithful! O service to be embraced and always   
   desired, in which the highest good is offered and joy is won which   
   shall remain forever!   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3, Chapter 10   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   February 25th – St. Walburga, Abbess   
      
   (8th c.)   
   We have already met some of the many ancient Irish monks who traveled   
   abroad not only in self-imposed exile but also for the purpose of   
   acquainting non-Christians with Christianity, and Christian layfolk   
   with the monastic life.   
      
   There were also a number of English monks who brought the gospel to   
   other lands. Best known among them was the “Apostle of Germany”,   
   Wynfrid, better known as St. Boniface. And he sponsored others.   
      
   One of the earliest programs undertaken by Bishop Boniface was to   
   import into Germany some English nuns. He believed that, even though   
   cloistered, these sisters could set among the new German converts an   
   admirable example of Catholic devotional life. Their presence alone   
   would teach a lesson, he rightly believed.   
      
   One of the nuns whom he brought to Germany was his niece, Sister   
   Walburga. She was the daughter of St. Richard, one of the under-kings   
   of the West Saxons of Britain. Two other famous English missionaries   
   were her brothers, St. Willibald and St. Winebald, so she was of   
   pretty staunch Catholic stuff.   
      
   Walburga became a nun at Wimborne Monastery in Dorset, England, She   
   had been educated at Wimborne as a young laywoman, and there had   
   acquired considerable literary skill, Subsequently she joined that   
   monastic community. By 748, when she and other nuns were sent to   
   Germany by St. Tetta, she was already respected as a saintly woman.   
   Indeed, the trip across the English Channel gave her a chance to show   
   her trust in God. When a terrible storm threatened to capsize their   
   boat, she knelt on the deck and prayed for deliverance. The tempest   
   ceased at once. The crew of the ship hailed this as a miracle; and,   
   indeed, since her death St. Walburga has been considered by sailors   
   their own special patron.   
      
   When the nuns reached Mainz, Germany, Uncle Boniface and brother   
   Willibald were both there to greet Walburga. Willibald would later   
   become the first bishop of Eichstaett. Walburga spent four years in   
   the monastery of Bischofsheim. Then in 752 Willibald and her other   
   brother Winebald founded the monastery of Heidenheim. This was a   
   double monastery, one section for monks and one for nuns. Winebald   
   headed the male wing; Walburga the female wing. Indeed, the Abbess   
   herself eventually became sole head of both monasteries.   
      
   At Heidenheim, St. Walburga proved to be an ideal Superior, noted for   
   her wisdom and her miracles. But she was also outstanding for her   
   knowledge. She wrote a life of St. Winebald in Latin and another book   
   about the travels to the Holy Land of her brother St. Willibald.   
   Because of these writings, she has been called first female Christian   
   author of both Britain and Germany. But she also acquired several   
   other skills. One of these, it is said, was medicine, which she   
   learned on her own and practiced within her community.   
      
   Walburga died in 777 with a reputation for holiness. Her remains were   
   eventually transferred to St. Walburga’s Church in Eichstaett. From   
   893 on, a liquid to which many cures were attributed began to flow out   
   of her tomb. Devotion to her increased after that. Churches a   
   considerable distance from Eichstaett then sought relics of her to   
   enshrine within their own altars: places like Brussels, Antwerp,   
   Thielt, Zutphen and Groningen. St. Walburga was also accepted as the   
   patron saint of the diocese of Plymouth in England. Her name became a   
   popular church name and baptismal name under various forms: Waldburg,   
   Vaubourg, Gauburg, Falbourg, Wilburga, Warpurg and Walpurgis. In   
   German folklore, the night of one of her feastdays, May 1,   
   (Walpurgisnacht) was eventually considered as the night when all   
   witches gathered together early on Blocksberg, in the Hartz Mountains.   
   But the saint had no more to do with stimulating this legend than St.   
   Valentine had to do with the custom of sending Valentines.   
      
   The real St. Walburga needed no legends to publicize her. She was a   
   holy and able woman, and one of the most highly intelligent leaders of   
   her sex in the early Christian years of the Germanic peoples.   
   –Father Robert F. McNamara   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   There is no sin or wrong that gives a man a foretaste of hell in this   
   life as anger and impatience.   
   --Saint Catherine of Sienna   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    When thou shalt pour out Thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy   
   the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and Thy   
   darkness shall be as the noonday.  11 And the Lord will give thee rest   
   continually, and will fill Thy soul with brightness, and deliver Thy   
   bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of   
   water whose waters shall not fail.   (Isa 58:10-11)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   To Obtain Holy Perseverance.   
      
   O Queen of Heavens, I, who was once a miserable slave of Lucifer, now   
   dedicate myself to thee, to be thy servant forever; I offer myself to thee,   
   to be thy servant forever; I offer myself to honor thee, and serve thee   
   during my whole life; do thou accept me, and refuse me not, as I should   
   deserve. O my Mother, in thee have I placed all my hopes, from thee do I   
   expect every grace. I bless and thank God, who in his mercy has given me   
   this confidence in thee, which I consider a pledge of my salvation. Alas,   
   miserable wretch that I am, I have hitherto fallen, because I have not had   
   recourse to thee. I now hope that, through the merits of Jesus Christ and   
   thy prayers, I have obtained pardon. But I may again lose divine grace; the   
   danger is not past. My enemies do not sleep. How many temptations have I   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)