- John 14:1 -
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."
__________________________________________________________
To look around is to be distressed.
To look within is to be depressed.
To look up is to be blessed.
- Corrie ten Boom
<<>><<>><<>>
January 28th - Blessed Mary of Pisa, Widow, Seer
(also known as Catherine Mancini)
Born in Pisa, Italy, 1355; died 1431; cultus confirmed by Pius IX in 1855;
feast day formerly on December 22.
Almost from the moment Catherine Mancini was born into that noble family
she
began enjoying the miraculous favors with which her life was filled. At
the
age of three, she was warned by some heavenly agency that the porch on
which
she had been placed by her nurse was unsafe. Her cries attracted the
nurse's
attention, and they had barely left the porch when it collapsed. She also
was able to see her guardian angel from her childhood.
When she was 5, she beheld in an ecstasy the dungeon of a palace in Pisa
in
which Blessed Peter Gambacorta, one of the leading citizens, was being
tortured. At Catherine's prayer, the rope broke and the man was released.
Our Lady told the little girl to say prayers every day for this man,
because
he would one day be her benefactor.
Catherine would have much preferred the religious life to marriage, but
she
obeyed her parents and was married at the age of 12. Widowed at 16, she
was
compelled to marry again. Of her seven children, only one survived the
death
of her second husband, and Catherine learned through a vision that this
child, too, was soon to be taken from her. Thus she found herself, at age
24, twice widowed and bereft of all seven of her children. Refusing a
third
marriage, she devoted herself to prayer and works of charity.
She soon worked out for herself a severe schedule of prayers and good
works,
fasting, and mortifications. She tended the sick and the poor, bringing
them
into her own home and regarding them as our Lord Himself. She gave her
goods
to the poor and labored for them with her own hands. Our Lord was pleased
to
show her that He approved of her works by appearing to her in the guise of
a
poor young man, sick, and in need of both food and medicine. She carefully
dressed his wounds, and she was rewarded by the revelation that it was in
reality her Redeemer whom she had served.
Saint Catherine of Siena visited Pisa at about this time, and the two
saintly women were drawn together into a holy friendship. As they prayed
together in the Dominican church one day, they were surrounded by a bright
cloud, out of which flew a white dove. They conversed joyfully on
spiritual
matters, and were mutually strengthened by the meeting.
On the advice of Saint Catherine of Siena, Catherine Mancini retired to
the
enclosed Santa Croce convent of the Second Order. In religion, she was
given
the name Mary, by which she is usually known. She embraced the religious
life in all its primitive austerity and reformed the convent. With Blessed
Clare Gambacorta and a few other members of the convent, she founded a new
and much more austere house, which had been built by Peter Gambacorta. Our
Lady's prophecy of his benefaction was thus fulfilled.
Blessed Mary was favored with many visions and was in almost constant
prayer. She became prioress of the house on the death of her friend
Blessed
Clare Gambacorta, and ruled it with justice and holiness until her death
(Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).
taken from:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/ss-index.htm
Saint Quote:
"When one is going on really well, he feels in himself a continual desire
to
advance; and the more he grows in perfection, the more this desire grows.
Since his light is increasing every day, it always seems to him that he
has
no virtue and is doing no good; or if, perhaps, he sees that he has and is
doing some good, it yet appears to him very imperfect, and he makes little
account of it. And so it comes to pass that he always goes on laboring for
the acquisition of virtue without ever being weary"
-St. Lawrence Justinian
Bible Quote
25. But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they
were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to
contain the books that should be written. (John 21:25)
<><><><>
Faithful Cross! above all other,
One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest Wood and Sweetest Iron!
Sweetest Weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O Tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Thou alone wast counted worthy
This world's ransom to uphold
For a shipwrecked race preparing
Harbor, like the Ark of old;
With the sacred Blood anointed
From the smitten Lamb that rolled.
Roman Breviary, Invention and Exaltation of the Cross, Crux fidelis inter
omnes at Laods. (From hymn Pange Lingua Gloriosi) (Tr. Neale) (Fortonatos,
6th cent.)
|
