How There is no Security From Temptation [III]

Do you imagine that you can always have spiritual joys at will? My
Saints did not, but had many troubles, countless trials and great
desolation of soul. But they patiently endured all these things and
trusted in God rather than themselves, knowing that 'the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be
won hereafter. (Rom.8:18) Do you wish to enjoy immediately what many
others have only won after much sorrow and struggle? Wait for the
Lord; fight manfully and with high courage.(Ps. 26:14) Do not despair,
do not desert your post, but steadfastly devote yourself body and soul
to the glory of God. I will give you a rich reward,(Matt.16:27) and
will be with you in all your troubles.(Ps. 91:15)
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 35

<<>><<>><<>>
June 17th – St. Botulph, OSB Abbot (AC)
 (Also known as Botulf, Botolph)

Died c. 680; feast of his translation is December 1. Botulph and his
brother, Saint Adulph, were two noble English brothers at the dawn of Christianity on that island. They were probably born in East Anglia.
At some point they traveled into Belgian Gaul to learn more about
Christian discipline in a monastery because they were then scarce in
England. They progressed in the spiritual life to the point that
Adulph is said to have been raised to the episcopate, though this is questioned. Botulph is said to have been chaplain to the convent where
two of his king's sisters lived, possibly at Chelles. (Liobsynde, the
first abbess of Wenlock (Salop), was from Chelles and Wenlock was
initially dependent on Ikanhoe.)

Botulph returned to England with the treasure he had found and begged
King Ethelmund of the South Saxons for land on which to set it. The
king gave him the wilderness of Ikanhoe (Icanhoh), formerly thought to
be near Boston (Botulf's stone) in Lincolnshire but now believed to be
Iken in Suffolk. (Others relate that the land was provided by the king
of East Anglia, either Ethelhere, 654, or more likely Ethelwold,
654-64.) There he built an abbey and taught the assembled brethren the
rules of Christian perfection and the institutes of the holy fathers.
He became one of the foremost missionaries of the 7th century.

Everyone loved Botulph: He was humble, mild, and affable. He always
practiced what he preached, finding an upright example far more
important than sermons. Nevertheless, Saint Ceolfrid traveled all the
way from Wearmouth to converse with this man "of remarkable life and
learning" before joining Saint Benedict Biscop at Wearmouth. Botulph
thanked God in good times and in bad, knowing that God works all
things to the good of those who love Him. He lived to a venerable age
and was purified by a long illness before his happy death

Although his monastery was destroyed by the Danes, his relics were
carried to Ely (the head) and Thorney Abbeys. It is said that when
Ethelwold sent his disciple Ulfkitel to collect the relics of Botulph
for Thorney Abbey, he found that he could not move them without also
taking those of Adulph as well. Saint Edward the Confessor gave some
of them to Westminster and others are at Bury Saint Edmunds. More than
70 English churches were dedicated to Saint Botulph, including four
parishes in London. Some other place-names also recall his sanctity
including the town of Boston in Lincolnshire and Botulph's bridge, now Bottle-bride, in Huntingdonshire (Attwater, Benedictines, Farmer,
Husenbeth).


Saint Quote:
When the heart is occupied with worldly things, especially
superfluous ones, it forsakes the Lord--the Source of life and peace
--and is therefore deprived of life and tranquility, of light and
strength; but when it repents of its care for vain things, and wholly
turns from corruptible things to the incorruptible God, then the
fountain of living water again begins to flow into it, and peace,
tranquility, light, strength, and boldness before God and man one more
dwell within it. We must live wisely.
--St. John of Kronstadt.

Bible Quote:
"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by
one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."  (Romans 5:19)


<><><><>
YOUR CROSS

The everlasting God has in His Wisdom foreseen from eternity, the
cross He now presents to you as a gift from His innermost heart. This
cross He now sends you He has considered with his all-knowing eyes,
understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed
with loving arms and weighted with His own hands to see that it not be
one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His Holy Name,
anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with his consolation, and
taken one last glance at you and your courage - has sent it to you
from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all
merciful love of God.
--St. Frances de Sales

Lord Help me to remember that
nothing is going to happen
to me today that you and
I together can't handle.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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How There is no Security From Temptation [III]

Do you imagine that you can always have spiritual joys at will? My
Saints did not, but had many troubles, countless trials and great
desolation of soul. But they patiently endured all these things and
trusted in God rather than themselves, knowing that 'the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be
won hereafter. (Rom.8:18) Do you wish to enjoy immediately what many
others have only won after much sorrow and struggle? Wait for the
Lord; fight manfully and with high courage.(Ps. 26:14) Do not despair,
do not desert your post, but steadfastly devote yourself body and soul
to the glory of God. I will give you a rich reward,(Matt.16:27) and
will be with you in all your troubles.(Ps. 91:15)
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 35

<<>><<>><<>>
July 13th - St. Teresa de Los Andes
Also known as
Juanita Fernandez Solar
Teresa de los Andes
Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Memorial
12 April
13 July (Carmelites)

(1900-1920)
Hitherto Chile has had no canonized saint to boast of. Pope John Paul
II remedied that on March 21, 1993, when he proclaimed the sainthood
of a young Chilean Carmelite, Teresa of Los Andes.

Teresa was not a figure from Chile’s colonial past. She was fully a 20th-century person. As the Holy Father would point out, her
significance was precisely an example of one old in wisdom but
contemporary in age.

Teresa was born in Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. Her parents
Miguel and Lucia Fernandez had her baptized two days later, with the
Christian name Juana (Joan or Jane); but her family and friends always
called her Juanita. The Fernandezes were able to afford her education
in a convent school conducted by the nuns of the Society of the Sacred
Heart.

From her earliest years, Juanita showed herself a devout child. She
was especially attracted to Our Lady, and when still very young she
made a promise to recite the rosary daily – a promise that she always
kept faithfully. Juanita also showed a precocious thoughtfulness for
the elderly and the poor. Once when she discovered that a certain
child was in need, she donated her own watch to be raffled off for the
benefit of the youngster.

Charitable tendencies, however minor, were signs of a deepening
spirituality. Juana, although a lively young woman, showed increasing
interest in the stories of women saints. The Carmelite mystics St.
Therese of Lisieux and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity had a special
influence on her. A religious vocation was in the making.

Towards the end of secondary school, in 1917, Juanita began
corresponding with the prioress of the convent of Los Andes, a
monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns. Her request to be received into
the order was accepted, and on May 7, 1919, she was clothed with the
habit, taking the same name as that of the great Spanish foundress of
the Barefoot Carmelites, St. Teresa of Avila: “Teresa of Jesus”.

“Big” St. Teresa of Jesus had had a fairly long life, dying at 67.
This “little” Teresa of Jesus was a nun for less than a year. The
details of her spiritual career are not yet widely known, but it must
have been one of intensive maturation.

Preaching at the Mass of her canonization, the Holy Father pointed out
the young nun’s deep sense of her calling to offer up in silence her
prayers and pains for the redemption of sinners. “We are co-redeemers
of the world,” she once wrote, “and the redemption of souls is not
obtained without the cross.” Her own cross was a heavy one. On April
2, 1920, she became gravely ill with typhus. Receiving the last
sacraments, she was also allowed to make her religious profession on
her deathbed, a month before her novitiate would have been complete.
She died on April 12.

Holiness will out, even if the holy one lives a cloistered life.
Devotion to this modern Teresa of Jesus grew apace after her death,
and her cause of canonization was introduced as early as 1947. John
Paul II saw in her a sign of contrast to today’s “Me Generation”. In
an epoch in which the word “love” is “too often profaned,” St. Teresa of the Andes proves, said the Pope, “the perennial youth of the
Gospel”. From the time she was a child, St Teresa of Jesus spoke
familiarly with God and with His Mother Mary. She learned to be
faithful to the Lord, and to use her natural human talents
accordingly. She achieved a balanced life, serenity and maturity, all
of which are anxiously sought after in the world today.


Bible Quote:
By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love
for one another. (John 13:35)

<><><><>
Some thoughts of St Teresa of Los Andes

"Who can make me happier than God? I find all things in Him."

I shall take great pains to work for the happiness of others... My
resolution: to sacrifice myself for others.... I must strive to be
more loving.

A believing soul possesses all things because it possesses God...
Everything changes when you look at this divine Sun... With faith,
sufferings are transformed.

When you are in love, everything is a joy; the cross is no burden and
you are unaffected by martyrdom; you live in heaven rather than on
earth.

How your life would be transformed if you went to Jesus often as to
your intimate friend! Let us take notice of our neighbour and serve
him, even though we find it repugnant to do so. In this way we will
find that the throne of our heart will be occupied by its Owner, by
God.

In the shadow of the Cross, all bitterness vanishes... Souls are
shaped on the anvil of sorrows.

To lovingly offer ourselves to the Father in order to accomplish his
adorable will. This I reckon is the plan of holiness.

God is thirsting for the love of His creatures. The same God is our
beggar. Let us give ourselves to Him. Let us not be mean... Let us not
look at what we are doing, but at the extent of our failure to
correspond to His love.

Always take the Most Blessed Virgin as your model. Speak to her, heart
to heart... Ask her to be your guide, to be your star, the lighthouse
which shines in the midst of the darkness of your life.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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