-- Proverbs 23:17-18 --

-- Proverbs 23:17-18 --

Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord
all the day long:
Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation
shall not be taken away.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
How easy it is to envy those who get ahead unharmed by Christian
responsibility or God's laws. For a time they do seem to get ahead
without paying any attention to what God wants. But to those who
follow him, God promises a hope and a wonderful future even if we
don't realize it in this life.

<<>><<>><<>>
January 11th - Blessed William Carter

(1548-1584)
A layman all his life, born into Elizabethan London, William Carter
entered the printing business at an early age. For many years he
served as apprentice to well-known Catholic printers, one of whom
served a prison sentence for persisting in the Catholic faith. William
himself served time in prison following his arrest for =E2=80=9Cprinting le=
wd
[i.e., Catholic] pamphlets=E2=80=9D as well as possessing books upholding
Catholicism.

But even more, he offended public officials by publishing works that
aimed to keep Catholics firm in their faith. Officials who searched
his house found various vestments and suspect books, and even managed
to extract information from William=E2=80=99s distraught wife. Over the nex=
t
18 months William remained in prison, suffering torture and learning
of his wife=E2=80=99s death.

He was eventually charged with printing and publishing one thousand
copies of the Treatise of Schisme written by Dr. Gregory Martin, which
was fallaciously alleged to be intended to incite violence by
Catholics due to a paragraph in the pamphlet where confidence was
expressed that the Catholic Hope would triumph, and pious Judith would
slay Holofernes =E2=80=93 a reference to a well known, at that time, Old
English poem about Judith of Bethulia, inspired, of course, by the
Book of Judith in the Old Testament, in which the Jewess heroine
beheads the enemy general. This was interpreted as an incitement to
slay the queen, though it obviously had no such meaning.  The pamphlet
was accused of having been written by a traitor and addressed to
traitors.

While William calmly placed his trust in God, the jury met for only 15
minutes before reaching a verdict of =E2=80=9Cguilty.=E2=80=9D William, who=
 made his
final confession to a priest who was being tried alongside him, was
hanged, drawn and quartered the following day: January 11, 1584.  He
was 35 yrs old.  This was the customary punishment for =E2=80=9Ctraitors=E2=
=80=9D to
an earthly crown and faithful servants of the Divine Crown.  William
gave his life for his efforts to encourage his brothers and sisters to
keep up the struggle, to keep the faith.


Saint Quote:
Do you desire to study to your advantage? Let devotion accompany all
your studies, and study less to make yourself learned than to become a
saint. Consult God more than your books, and ask him, with humility,
to make you understand what you read. Study fatigues and drains the
mind and heart. Go from time to time to refresh them at the feet of
Jesus Christ under his cross. Some moments of repose in his sacred
wounds give fresh vigor and new lights. Interrupt your application by
short, but fervent and ejaculatory prayers: never begin or end your
study but by prayer. Science is a gift of the Father of lights; do not
therefore consider it as barely the work of your own mind or industry.
--Saint Vincent Ferrer

Bible Quote:
"For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it
is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those
who are in the flesh cannot please God." (Romans 8:6-8)


<><><><>
Sea of Sorrow
Oh! on what a sea of sorrow
Was the Virgin-Mother cast,
When her eyes with tears o'erflowing
Gazed upon her Son aghast,
From the bloodstained gibbet taken,
Dying in her arms at last.

In her bitter desolation,
His sweet mouth, His bosom too,
Then His riven side beloved,
Then each hand, both wounded through,
Then His feet, with blood encrimsoned,
Her maternal tears bedew.

She, a hundred times and over,
Strains Him closely to her breast
Heart to Heart, arms enfolding,
Are His wounds on her impressed:
Thus, in sorrow's very kisses,
Melts her anguished soul to rest.

Oh, dear Mother! we beseech thee,
By the tears thine eyes have shed,
By the cruel death of Jesus
And His wounds' right royal red,
Make our hearts o'erflow with sorrow
From thy heart's deep fountainhead.

To the Father, Son, and Spirit,
Now we bend on equal knee:
Glory, sempiternal glory,
To the Most High Trinity;
Yea! perpetual praise and honor
Now and through all ages be.