Eternity will be ours when faith sees

"We are distanced from eternity to the extent that we are changeable.
But eternal life is promised to us through the truth. Our faith,
however, stands as far apart from the clear knowledge of the truth as
mortality does from eternity. At the present we put faith in things
done in time on our account, and by that faith itself we are cleansed.
In this way, when we have come to sight, as truth follows faith, so
eternity may follow mortality. Our faith will become truth, then,
when we have attained to that which is promised to us who believe. And
that which is promised to us is eternal life. And the Truth - not that
which shall come to be according to how our faith shall be, but that
truth that always exists because eternity is in it - the Truth then
has said, 'And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.' When our faith sees
and comes to be truth, then eternity shall possess our now changed
mortality."
--St. Augustine--(excerpt from ON THE TRINITY 4.18.24.34)

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May 22: - Saint Quiteria, Virgin Martyr of the Church
(2nd century)

Depending on which account of her life you read, Saint Quiteria and
her sisters were soldiers for Christ--traveling the countryside,
freeing Christians from imprisonment, and smashing pagan idols. Her
courageous proclamation of the Gospel led to her eventual capture and
death, although her faith never wavered. Quiteria and her sisters
demonstrate that from the direst of circumstances, the Lord can create miraculous moments of love and truth!

Quiteria was born into royalty, the daughter of a Galician prince.
She was one of nine daughters born together (nonuplets). Her mother,
Calsia, was disgusted at the fact that she had produced nine daughters
(rather than sons), and suffered through nine childbirths. Viewing the experience as a waste of her time, she ordered her maid, Sila, to take
the nine girls to the river and drown them. Sila, however, was a
Christian, and secretly refused the task, instead delivering the
infants to a Cistercian monastery to be raised in community.

Quiteria and her sisters were raised by monks, baptized as Christians,
and embraced the faith. Quiteria was the most dedicated of her
sisters, studying and practicing the tenets of the faith, reading the
Gospel, praying, and developing a profound devotion to Our Blessed
Mother. The monks, placing a strong premium on truth, informed the
girls of their royal lineage when they were old enough to understand.
Yet, none of the girls wished to return to the palace or live a
luxurious lifestyle. Instead, they became warriors for Christ,
forming a “gang” who traveled the country, breaking Christians out of
jail, proclaiming the Gospel, and smashing pagan idols.

The gang survived for a few years, but were eventually caught and
brought before the King, their father. Recognizing his daughters, he
requested that they give up their reckless ways and come live in the
palace with him. This they did, but only to witness to the royal
court. The sisters converted their rooms into prayer halls, and spent
their days praying and praising the Lord. When the king realized they
were Christians, he ordered them to renounce their ways, sacrifice to
the Roman gods, and marry pagan husbands.

The sisters refused, led by Quiteria. They were immediately jailed,
but their imprisonment did little to lessen their faith or joy in the
Lord. In jail they praised and glorified Jesus, and eventually an
angel came and proclaimed to Quiteria, “Happy and fortunate you are,
for you deserved to find grace in front of God, so that God has chosen
you as his spouse. It is God's will, that you are to live in solitude
in Mount Oria and there you will exercise in oration and
contemplation.”

Released from imprisonment by the angel of God, the sisters split up,
escaping by each traveling in a separate direction. It is said that
they were each eventually killed for their Christian faith. Quiteria,
for her part, followed the angel and did as instructed, forming a
small community of women on the hills of Mount Oria, and living for a
brief time in peaceful contemplation of the Lord. She was eventually
captured, and subsequently freed from imprisonment again by an angel.
In the process of her imprisonment, she converted many, and her
community continued to grow.

Eventually, Quiteria encountered the powerful ruler of the city of
Aufragia, Prosen Lastiano. She successfully converted him to
Christianity, but a few days later he reverted to his pagan beliefs.
Humiliated in front of his people, he ordered Quiteria tracked down
and killed. His soldiers tracked her to her hillside community, but
upon approach, Prosen suffered inexplicable injuries, including the
loss of feeling in his hands and legs. Quiteria prayed for him, and
his senses and movements were restored. Again, he converted to
Christianity, this time filled with the faith of God. Many of his
followers did the same, which infuriated the king.

Under his order, Quiteria was found and beheaded for her Christian
faith. Prior to beheading, she is said to have kept the king’s
vicious attack dogs at bay, with simply a gentle word. For this
reason, she is often invoked against rabies, and frequently pictured
leading a dog. (In rural Spain and France, farmers continue to lead
their livestock to a bridge that is said to contain a relic of Saint
Quiteria. Passing the animals over the bridge is said to protect them
from contracting disease). Each of the women who had found refuge in
her community was beheaded as well. Legend states that following her martyrdom, Saint Quiteria walked to the Church of the Virgin Mary,
carrying her head in her hands. There, at Airein Gascony, her relics
were interred (until later scattered by the Huguenots), and she
continues to be venerated in southern France and northern Spain.

The life of Saint Quiteria, while possibly pious legend, is one of
struggle for the faith. Despite a chance at a luxurious lifestyle,
this lovely young woman and her sisters instead chose to fight for the
truth of the Gospel, forsaking her family, her comfort, and eventually
her life. Saint Quiteria’s courage and faith remind us that in our
moments of difficulty, we need only turn to the Lord for inspiration
and support, and that He will send His angels to protect and assist
us. We pray today for the confident faith in Christ, as exemplified
by so many of the saints and martyrs that have come before us!
by Jacob


Saint Quote:
When anyone places his whole trust in God, hoping in and serving Him
faithfully at the same time, God watches over him, to the extent of
his confidence, in every danger. Infinite is the love which God bears
to souls who repose in His protection. Diffidence in ourselves and
confidence in God are like the scales of a balance; the elevation of
the one is necessarily connected with the depression of the other. The
more we have of diffidence in ourselves, the greater is our confidence
in God; the less we possess of confidence in God, the more
presumptuous shall we be of our own powers; but if we have no sort of confidence in our own strength, we may be assured that our hopes
center completely in God.
-- St. Francis of Sale


Bible Quote:
"Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the
Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and
forevermore!" Psalm 113:1-2


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Mother of Mercy

Virgin full of goodness,
Mother of Mercy,
I entrust to you my body and soul,
my thoughts, my actions,
my life and my death.
O my Queen, help me,
and deliver me from all
the snares of the devil.
Obtain for me the grace
of loving my Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son, with a true and perfect love,
and after Him, O Mary,
to love you with all my heart
and above all things.
Amen
--By St Bonaventure (1217-74)Seraphic Doctor

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Eternity will be ours when faith sees

"We are distanced from eternity to the extent that we are changeable.
But eternal life is promised to us through the truth. Our faith,
however, stands as far apart from the clear knowledge of the truth as
mortality does from eternity. At the present we put faith in things
done in time on our account, and by that faith itself we are cleansed.
In this way, when we have come to sight, as truth follows faith, so
eternity may follow on mortality. Our faith will become truth, then,
when we have attained to that which is promised to us who believe. And
that which is promised to us is eternal life. And the Truth - not that
which shall come to be according to how our faith shall be, but that
truth that always exists because eternity is in it - the Truth then
has said, 'And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.' When our faith sees
and comes to be truth, then eternity shall possess our now changed
mortality."
--St. Augustine--(excerpt from ON THE TRINITY 4.18.24.34)

<<>><<>><<>>
June 10th - Bl. Henry of Treviso

d. 1315
Henry of Treviso, or San Rigo as he is often called in Italy, was born
at Bolzano in the Trentino. His parents were very poor, and he never
learnt to read or write. He went as a young man to Treviso, where he
supported himself as a day labourer, secretly giving away to the poor
whatever he could save from his scanty wages. Throughout his whole
life his one object was the service of God. He heard Mass daily,
frequently making his communion, and every day he went to
confession—not from scrupulosity, but to preserve the utmost purity of conscience. All the time that was not employed in labour and in
necessary duties he spent in devotion, either at church or in private;
the penitential instruments he used for the discipline of his body
were preserved after his death in the cathedral. Men marvelled at his extraordinary equanimity, which nothing could ever ruffle. Foolish
people and children sometimes mocked or molested the shabby, thick-set
little man, with his sunken eyes, long nose, and crooked mouth, but he
never resented their treatment or replied to it, except to pray for
them.

When he could no longer work, a citizen called James Castagnolis gave
him a room in his house and, when necessary, food. Usually, however,
Bl. Henry subsisted on the alms of the charitable, which he shared
with beggars, never holding anything over from one day to the next.
Even extreme bodily weakness in ad­vancing age could not keep him from
God’s house and from visiting all the churches within walking distance
of Treviso. He died on June 10, 1315. His little room was immediately
thronged with visitors eager to venerate him and to secure some
fragment of his possessions, which consisted of a hair-shirt, a wooden
log which had been his pillow, and some cords and straw that had
served as his bed. Extra­ordinary scenes were witnessed after his body
had been removed to the cathedral. The people broke into the basilica
at night, and the bishop and the podestà, roused from their sleep,
were obliged to go and protect the body by putting a wooden palisade
round it. No fewer than 276 miracles, said to have been wrought by his
relics, were recorded within a few days of Bl. Henry’s death by the
notaries appointed by the magistrates: they occupy thirty-two closely
printed columns of the Acta Sanctorum. The cultus of Bl. Henry was
confirmed by Pope Benedict XIV.

A life of Bl. Henry, by his contemporary Bishop Pierdomenico de Baone,
has been printed by the Bollandists, June, vol. ii. See also R. degli
Azzoni Avogaro, Memorie del Beato Enrico (2 vols., 1760); A. Tschöll
(1887); Austria Sancta, Die Heiligen und Seligen Tirols, vol. ii
(1910), pp. 41 seq. ; and II B. Enrico . . . (Treviso, 1915).


Saint Quote:
Intimacy with the Lord is not a matter of physical kinship; rather, it
is achieved by cheerful readiness to do the will of God.
--St. Basil the Great

Bible quote
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand;
and meted out heaven with a span;
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales,
and the hills in a balance? [Isaiah 40:12]


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A Prayer for a Pure Heart and Heavenly Wisdom

Strengthen me, O Lord God, by the grace of Your Holy Spirit.(Ps.
51:12) Grant me inward power and strength (Eph.3:16) and empty my
heart of all profitless anxiety and care.(Matt.5:34) Let me never be
drawn away from You by desire for anything else, whether noble or
base, but help me to realize that all things are passing, and myself
with them. Nothing in this world is lasting, and everything in this
life is uncertain, troubling to the spirit (Eccles.1:14; 2:11) How
wise is the man who knows these truths! Grant me heavenly wisdom, O
Lord, that above all else I may learn to search for and discover You;
to know and love You; and to see all things as they really are and as
You in Thy wisdom have ordered them. May I prudently avoid those who
flatter me, and deal patiently with those who oppose me. True wisdom
cannot be swayed by every wordy argument, (Eph.4:14) and pays no
regard to the cunning flatteries of evil men. Only thus shall we go
forward steadily on the road on which we have set out.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 27

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