From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Surrounded by wealth, blind to charity   
      
    "'What does the rich man do, surrounded by a great supply of many   
   blessings beyond all numbering? In distress and anxiety, he speaks the   
   words of poverty. He says, 'What should I do?' ... He does not look to   
   the future. He does not raise his eyes to God. He does not count it   
   worth his while to gain for the mind those treasures that are above in   
   heaven. He does not cherish love for the poor or desire the esteem it   
   gains. He does not sympathize with suffering. It gives him no pain nor   
   awakens his pity. Still more irrational, he settles for himself the   
   length of his life, as if he would also reap this from the ground. He   
   says, 'I will say to myself, "Self, you have goods laid up for many   
   years. Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself." 'O rich man,' one may say,   
   "You have storehouses for your fruits, but where will you receive your   
   many years? By the decree of God, your life is shortened." 'God,' it   
   tells us, 'said to him, "You fool, this night they will require of you   
   your soul. Whose will these things be that you have prepared?"   
   by Cyril of Alexandria  (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY   
   89)   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   April 1st - St. Catherine of Palma, Virgin; had the gift of prophecy   
      
   The whole life of Catherine Tomàs--from the moment of her birth in the   
   little village of Valdemuzza until her death at Palma--was spent in   
   the Balearic island of Majorca. Her parents died when Catherine, their   
   seventh child, was 7 years old, leaving her unprovided for. Sad tales   
   are told of the indignities to which she was subjected in the house of   
   her paternal uncle, to whose custody she was transferred. Young as she   
   was, she became a regular little drudge whom the very servants were   
   encouraged to overwork and to slight. Nevertheless she bore her   
   sufferings with unfailing sweetness and patience. When she was about   
   15 years old, visions of St. Antony and of her patroness St. Catherine   
   awoke aspirations after the religious life which she confided to a   
   holy hermit priest, Father Antony Castagneda. Thinking that time was   
   required as a test of her vocation, he replied that she would receive   
   a reply in due course if she would continue to commend her case to   
   God, as he himself would do. She meekly agreed, but she had to wait   
   for a long time--a delay which was the more trying because the   
   unkindness of her relations was increased by their fear of losing her   
   services. Father Antony, however, had not forgotten her, although he   
   found it difficult to find a convent which could afford to take a   
   dowerless girl. As a preliminary step, he arranged for Catherine to   
   enter the service of a family in Palma where no hindrances would be   
   placed in the way of her spiritual life. The daughter of the house   
   taught her to read and write, but soon became her disciple in   
   religious matters, for Catherine had already advanced very far on the   
   road to perfection.   
      
   Eventually several convents offered to open their doors to Catherine   
   almost at the same moment, and she elected to join the canonesses of   
   St. Augustine in their convent of St. Mary Magdalen at Palma. She was   
   then in her 20th year. From the moment of her admission she won the   
   veneration of all by her sanctity and their love by her humility and   
   eagerness to serve others.   
      
   At first there was nothing about the convent life of Catherine Tomàs   
   to distinguish her from any other holy nun, but she soon began to be   
   subject to a number of strange phenomena which are carefully described   
   in the records of her life. Annually, for 13 or 15 days before the   
   feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, she was observed to lie in a   
   profound trance and always, after making her communion, she would   
   remain in an ecstasy which usually lasted for the greater part of the   
   day and occasionally extended to several days or even to a fortnight.   
   Sometimes she seemed to be in a cataleptic state, giving no signs of   
   life, but at other times she would move about with her feet together   
   and her eyes shut--sometimes holding converse as with celestial   
   spirits and oblivious of all around, at other times answering quite   
   intelligently questions that were put to her. She also possessed the   
   gift of prophecy.   
      
   Alternating with these occurrences were severe trials and assaults   
   from the powers of darkness. Not only did she suffer from evil   
   suggestions and alarming hallucinations or phantoms, but she was   
   subjected to physical violence of the most distressing nature. On such   
   occasions fearful shrieks and sounds were heard by the other nuns who,   
   however, could never see the attackers although they witnessed the   
   results and tried to alleviate St. Catherine’s sufferings. But she   
   tried never to allow her experiences to interfere with the punctual   
   discharge of her duties. The death of St. Catherine Tomàs, which she   
   had foretold, took place when she was forty-one. She was beatified in   
   1792 and canonized in 1930.   
      
   The bull of canonization, which is printed in the Acta Apostolicae   
   Sedis, vol. xxii (1930), pp. 371-380, gives a summary of her life and   
   details of the miracles approved in the last stages of the process.   
   Early biographies were written by Canon Salvador Abrines, who had been   
   her confessor, and by Father Pedro Caldes. Both are freely quoted in   
   the documents of the official process, the earliest portions of which   
   appear to have been printed in 1669. There was a Ristretto della Vita   
   della Beata Caterina Tomas published in Rome at the time of the   
   beatification.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Every virtue in your soul is a precious ornament which makes you dear   
   to God and to man. But holy purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic   
   virtue, is a jewel so precious that those  who possess it become like   
   the angels of God in Heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh.   
   --St. John Bosco   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written: The Lord thy God   
   thou shalt adore, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left   
   him; and behold angels came and ministered to him.  (Matt. 4: 10,   
   11.) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   We must become like Jesus and Mary   
      
      Jesus took care of his mother, spoke to her, gave her for a son the   
   disciple he loved, and said to that disciple, Behold your mother. As   
   Saint John here represented all peoples, our Savior commanded us all   
   in his person to honor and serve the Blessed Virgin as our Mother. It   
   was, nevertheless, a great consolation to that afflicted Mother to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)