September 21st - St. Maura Troyes, Virgin
Died. 850
She was nobly born at Troyes in Champagne in the ninth century, and in her
youth obtained of God by her prayers the wonderful conversion of her
father,
who had till then led a worldly life. After his happy death, Maura
continued
to live in the most dutiful subjection and obedience to her mother,
Sedulia
and by the fervor of her example was the sanctification of her brother
Eutropius and of the whole family.
The greatest part of the revenues of their large estate was converted into
the patrimony of the poor. The virgin's whole time was consecrated to the
exercises of prayer, to offices of obedience or charity, in attending on
her
mother and serving the poor, or to her work, which was devoted to the
service either of the poor or of the church; for it was her delight in a
spirit of religion to make sacred vestments, trim the lamps, and prepare
wax
and other things for the altar. As order in what we do leads a soul to
God,
according to the remark of St. Austin, she was regular in the distribution
of her time, in all her actions. She spent almost the whole morning in the
church, adoring God, praying to her divine Redeemer, and meditating on the
cir***stances of his sacred life and passion. Every Wednesday and Friday
she
fasted, allowing herself no other sustenance than bread and water, and she
walked barefoot to the monastery of Mantenay, two leagues from the town,
where she prayed a long time in the church, and with the most perfect
humility and compunction laid open the secrets of her soul to the holy
abbot
of that place, her spiritual director, without whose advice she did
nothing.
The profound respect with which she was penetrated for the word of God,
and
whatever regarded the honor of his adorable name, is not to he expressed.
So
wonderful was her gift of tears, that she seemed never to fall upon her
knees to pray but they streamed from her eyes in torrents. God performed
many miracles in her favor but it was her care to conceal his gifts,
because
she dreaded the poison of human applause.
In her last sickness she received the extreme unction and viati*** with
extraordinary marks of divine joy and love and reciting often the Lord's
Prayer, expired at those words, Thy kingdom come, on the 21st of
September,
850 being twenty-three years old.
Her relics and name are honored in several churches in that part of
France,
and she is mentioned in the Gallican Martyrology. See her life written by
Saint Prudentius of Troves, who was acquainted with her, also Goujet and
Mezangui, Vies des Saints.
Saint Quote:
Envy is a sadness which we feel on account of the good that happens to our
neighbour.
Envy, my children, follows pride; whoever is envious is proud. See, envy
comes to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also
through envy, envying our glory, our happiness. Why do we envy the
happiness
and the goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the
sole
possessors of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We
hate our equals, because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear
that they may equal us; our superiors, because they are above us. In the
same way, my children, that the devil after his fall felt, and still
feels,
extreme anger at seeing us the heirs of the glory of the good God, so the
envious man feels sadness at seeing the spiritual and tem****al prosperity
of
his neighbour.
We walk, my children, in the footsteps of the devil; like him, we are
vexed
at good, and rejoice at evil. If our neighbour loses anything, if his
affairs go wrong, if he is humbled, if he is unfortunate, we are joyful. .
.
we triumph! The devil, too, is full of joy and triumph when we fall, when
he
can make us fall as low as himself. What does he gain by it? Nothing.
Shall
we be richer, because our neighbour is poorer? Shall we be greater,
because
he is less? Shall we be happier, because he is more unhappy? O my
children!
how much we are to be pitied for being like this! St. Cyprian said that
other evils had limits, but that envy had none. In fact, my children, the
envious man invents all sorts of wickedness; he has recourse to evil
speaking, to calumny, to cunning, in order to blacken his neighbour; he
repeats what he knows, and what he does not know he invents, he
exaggerates.
.. . .
Through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and also
through envy we kill our neighbour; by dint of malice, of falsehood, we
make
him lose his reputation, his place. . . . Good Christians, my children, do
not do so; they envy no one; they love their neighbour; they rejoice at
the
good that happens to him, and they weep with him if any misfortune comes
upon him. How happy should we be if we were good Christians. Ah! my
children, let us, then, be good Christians and we shall no more envy the
good fortune of our neighbour; we shall never speak evil of him; we shall
enjoy a sweet peace; our soul will be calm; we shall find paradise on
earth.
-Saint John Vianney on Envy
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Canticle 1 Timothy 3
The mystery and glory of Christ
Praise the Lord, all you nations!
He was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit - praise the Lord, all you
nations!
He was seen by the angels, he was preached to the nations - praise the
Lord,
all
you nations!
The world believed in him, he was taken up in glory - praise the Lord, all
you
nations!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
**Don't forget to pray the Stations of the Cross on Fridays
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