- 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 -
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from
the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand
them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes
judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's
judgment:
"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
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Non-Christians cannot understand God, and they cannot grasp the concept
that
God's spirit lives in believers. Don't expect most people to approve of or
understand your decision to follow Christ. It all seems silly to them.
Just
as a tone-deaf person cannot appreciate fine music, the person who rejects
God cannot understand God's beautiful message. With the lines of
communication broken, he or she won't be able to hear what God is saying
to
them.
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March 11th - St. Teresa Margaret Redi
Teresa Margaret belonged to the noble family of Redi, and was born in the
Tuscan city of Arezzo in 1747. She entered the Discalced Carmelite
monastery at Florence on September 1, 1764. She was granted a special
grace
of contemplative insight based on Saint John's phrase God is love, through
which she felt called to a hidden life of love and self-sacrifice. She
progressed rapidly, fulfilling her vocation through heroic charity toward
others. She died in Florence in 1770. (1)
From the Acts of Canonization of Saint Teresa Margaret ~
Brief as it was, Teresa Margaret's whole life may be regarded as one
continual ascent of her guiltless soul to God.
In its innocence her soul turned spontaneously to God, and seemed able to
find rest in Him alone. In her, utter purity was joined to profound
humility and she genuinely loved to be disregarded and despised. She did
not simply bear humiliations, she rejoiced in them. Her purity of heart
and
her lowliness of spirit earned for her a high degree of charity, and this
rapidly increased until her ardor became truly seraphic and she could
hardly
speak of God without her face becoming suffused with joy. Her love of God
went hand in hand with a deep love for her neighbor and especially for
sinners, on whose behalf she offered herself unreservedly to God as a
victim. Her unassuming kindness and complete self-denial for the sake of
her sisters in religion, especially the sick, were such that she was
regarded as an angel of charity.
The fires of her love were fed principally by the Eucharist, and she
looked
forward with longing to her communions. She was also especially devoted
to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a devotion which did much to curb the advances
of
Jansenism at that time in Tuscany. She was the model and protectress of
her
own virginal purity. She was endowed to a high degree with the gift of
contemplative prayer, and daily grew closer to God, as though reflecting
the
glories of the eternity she was fast approaching.
As her life neared its end this true daughter of the holy Mother Teresa
and
faithful disciple of Saint John of the Cross was called upon, through a
mystical martyrdom of the spirit, to resemble her crucified Spouse yet
more
closely. It was the very intensity of her love which caused this
martyrdom,
for the more fervent love becomes the more unrelentingly it spurs the soul
on to further love; and since no love of ours can match God's infinite
lovableness, such a soul suffers exquisite torments from its insatiable
thirst for greater love, and seems to itself to be wrapped in impenetrable
darkness and to be totally lacking in love for God. In fact, the greater
love is, the less it seems to itself to be. It is the soul that is truly
nailed to the cross with Christ by this supreme martyrdom of the heart
that
wins for itself and for other the choices fruits of redemption.
Such souls, by their silent apostolate of suffering, love and prayer, are
foremost in the benefits they obtain for humankind and are the purest and
most exalted in the whole Church. (2)
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PRAYER
Father, you enabled Saint Teresa Margaret Redi to draw untold resources of
humility and charity from the fountainhead, our Savior. Through her
prayers
may we never be separated from the love of Christ.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(1) Discalced Carmelite Proper Offices
(2) Decr. "Super tuto"; AAS 26 (1934), pp. 105-06
See longer version at:
http://www.stteresamargaret.org/biography.htm
Saint Quote:
God loves our neighbors so much that He gave His life for them; and He is
glad even to have us leave Him to do them good. How grateful to Him,
then,
may we believe the services we render them! Ah, if we understood well how
im****tant is this virtue of the love of our neighbor, we should give
ourselves entirely to the pursuit of it.
-St. Teresa
Bible Quote:
8 Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish: and that hath not
gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures.
(Ecclesiasticus 31:8)
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To Christ in His Passion
Let us all with one voice cry, Lord, have mercy.
Thou who wert led as a sheep to be crucified, Lord, have mercy.
Thou who from the Cross didst look down upon Thy Mother and Thy disciple,
look with pity from heaven upon us,
Lord, have mercy.
Thou who by shedding Thy blood hast redeemed the world,
Lord, have mercy.
Thou who didst commend Thy spirit to the Father,
Lord, have mercy.
Make us by Thy Cross to obtain forgiveness,
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, the only-begotten Son of the unbegotten Father, who this day west
slain for us, the innocent for the ungodly, remember the price of Thy
Blood
and blot out the sins of all Thy people; and as Thou west pleased to
endure
for us reproaches, spitting, bonds, blows, the scourge, the Cross, the
nails, the bitter cup, death, the spear, and lastly burial, vouchsafe to
us
wretched ones, for whom Thou didst suffer this, the infinite blessedness
of
the heavenly kingdom, that we who bow down in reverence for Thy Passion
may
be raised up to things heavenly in the joys of Thy resurrection. Amen.
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