Don't let anything hold you back from following the Lord Jesus

Don't let anything hold you back  from following the Lord Jesus
 [Luke 9:57-62]

Another would-be disciple said he would follow as soon as he had
buried his father. What he meant by this expression was that he felt
the need to return to his home to take care of his father through old
age until he died. The third had no obligation to return home, but
simply wanted to go back and say good-bye. Jesus surprised these
would-be disciples with the stark truth that nothing should hinder us
from following the Lord. Was Jesus being harsh and rude to his
would-be followers? Not really. We are free to decide whether we will
take the path which Jesus offers. But if we choose to go, then the
Lord wants us to count the cost and choose for it freely.

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December 15th - St. Mary De Rosa, Virgin

St. Mary Di Rosa acquired an unusual knowledge of theology; co-
Foundress of The Handmaids of Charity of Brescia; anticipating
Florence Nightingale by several years, the Handmaids of Charity
ministered to the souls and bodies of the wounded on the battlefields.
In the following year came the terrible =E2=80=9CTen Days of Brescia=E2=80=
=9D. Paula
and her sisters were at the disposal of all sufferers without
distinction, but some disorderly troops made an attempt on the
hospital. Paula, supported by half-a-dozen sisters, went to the front
door to meet them: they carried a great crucifix, with a lighted
candle on either side. The soldiers wavered, halted, and slunk away.
And the crucifix (still preserved at Brescia) was carried from
sick-bed to sick-bed that each occupant might give it a grateful kiss.

Three and a quarter centuries after Savonarola had foretold woe on the
wickedness of the city of Brescia (prophecy that was fulfilled when
the French seized and sacked the city in 1512), there was born there
the third of the holy ones who, in the first half of the nineteenth
century, were the contemporary glories of its citizens; the other two
were Bl. Ludovic Pavoni and Bl. Teresa Verzeri.

Mary di Rosa (called Paula or Pauline at home), born in 1813, was
sixth of the nine children of Clement di Rosa, and his wife, Countess
Camilla Albani. Her childhood was uneventful, but saddened by the
death of her deeply loved mother when Paula was eleven. When she was
seventeen Paula left school to look after the household for her
father, and he began to look around for a suitable husband for her.
When he had found one, Paula was rather startled, and took her
difficulties to the archpriest of the cathedral, Mgr Faustino Pinzoni,
a sagacious priest who had already dealt prudently with her spiritual
problems. He decided himself to see Clement di Rosa, and explained
gently to him that his daughter had decided that she would never
marry. At a time when it was common, especially at the higher social
levels, for fathers to pay little attention to the likes and dislikes
of their children, notably in the matter of daughters=E2=80=99 marriages, i=
t
speaks well for Cay. Clement that he agreed to respect Paula=E2=80=99s
resolution almost without demur, and throughout his life he seems to
have supported her in what may have appeared to him as wild schemes.

During the next ten years Paula continued to live at home, but
engaging herself more and more in social good works, in which she had
the worthy example of her father before her eyes. Among his properties
was a textile mill at Acquafredda where a number of girls worked, and
one of Paula=E2=80=99s first undertakings was to look after the spiritual
welfare of these young women; this solicitude she extended to those of
Capriano, where the Rosas had a country house.

Here, with co=C2=ADoperation of the parish priest, she established a
women=E2=80=99s guild and arranged retreats and special missions in the
parish, with such good results that the rector hardly knew his own
flock.

Reference has already been made, in speaking of Bl. Ludovic Pavoni and
Bl. Teresa Verzeri, to the cholera epidemics that devastated northern
Italy at this time, and the outbreak at Brescia in 1836 gave Paula di
Rosa another opportunity. She asked her father=E2=80=99s permission to work
among the stricken in the hospital, and after some doubt and with
considerable trepidation he agreed. The hospital welcomed Paula, who
was accompanied by a widow, Gabriela Echenos-Bornati, who had already
had some experience of nursing the sick, and they set an example of
selfless hard work and gentle care that made a very deep impression on
everybody. *{* Manzoni=E2=80=99s description in The Betrothed (I Promessi
Sposi) of the isolation-hospital in Milan gives an idea of the
conditions in which they worked.}

In consequence Paula was asked to undertake the supervision of an
institution, which was a sort of workhouse for penniless and abandoned
girls=E2=80=94a delicate and difficult post for a young woman of only
twenty-four. She filled it successfully for two years, but then
resigned in consequence of a difference with the trustees, who did not
want the girls to lodge in the house at night. Paula herself then
established a small lodging-house with room for a dozen girls to
sleep, and at the same time gave her attention to a work that had been
projected by her brother Philip and Mgr Pinzoni, namely, a school for
deaf-and-dumb girls, on the lines of what Ludovic Pavoni was doing for
boys. This school was still in its infancy when Paula handed it over
to the Canossian sisters, who wished to do the same work in Brescia on
a bigger scale.

All this was a really extraordinary ten-year record for a woman still
under thirty and of delicate health and physique. But there was a
certain virile quality in Paula di Rosa, and she had a physical energy
and courage hardly to be expected=E2=80=94she once rescued somebody from a
bolting horse and carriage in very dangerous circumstances. And her
mind was to match, quick, acute and steady, so that, while living with
heroic virtue, she was not content that intellectually and
psychologically her religion should remain at the level of the =E2=80=9Cpen=
ny
catechism=E2=80=9D.


Saint Quote:
The saints are like the stars. In his providence Christ conceals them
in a hidden place that they may not shine before others when they
might wish to do so. Yet they are always ready to exchange the quiet
of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in
their heart the invitation of Christ.
-- Saint Anthony of Padua

Bible Quote:
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to
him that believeth.  (Mark 9:23)


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EVIL REPORTS

NOTHING is more opposite to charity, or more fatal to salvation, than
the evil reports we make of one another, whether they be true or
false; because they irritate the mind, disorder the heart, foment
divisions, and embitter hatreds, and because we cannot obtain God's
pardon for them, unless we resolve, in our confessions, to repair the
evil we have done and to reconcile those we may have set at variance.
We should, therefore, neither spread evil reports of others, nor
listen to them and if we do hear anything against our neighbor we
should be careful not to repeat it.