Avoid Pride and Grasp Wisdom

Avoid Pride and Grasp Wisdom

    "After hearing that they should be humble some persons do not wish
to learn anything.
    They think they will be proud if they have anything. It has been
made clear to us where God wishes us to be in the depths and where he
wishes us to be in the heights. He wishes us to be humble to avoid
pride, and he wishes us to be on high to grasp wisdom."
--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 130, 12

Prayer: While I move and bear this body I pray that I may be pure,
generous, just, and prudent. May I be a perfect lover and knower of
your Wisdom.
--St. Augustine--Soliloquies 1, 6

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23 August – St Rose of Lima T.O.S.D.

Virgin and Penitent, Mystic, Visionary, Stigmatist (invisible),
Apostle of the Poor – born on 20 April 1586 at Lima, Peru as Isabel
Flores de Oliva and died on 24 August 1617 at Lima, Peru of natural
causes. Patronages – against vanity, embroiderers, florists,
gardeners, needle workers, people ridiculed for their piety, Peru,
Lima, Peru, Americas, Central America, Latin America, New World, South
America, India, Philippines, West Indies, diocese of Santa Rosa,
California, Villareal Samar, Philippines, World Youth Day 2011. St
Rose was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in Lima, Peru,
who became known for both her life of severe asceticism and her care
of the needy of the city through her own private efforts.  She was the
first person born in the Americas to be canonised as a saint. She is
the primary patroness of Peru and of the indigenous natives of Latin
America. Her image is featured on the highest denomination banknote of
Peru.

This lovely flower of sanctity was born at Lima in 1586. She was
christened Isabel but the beauty of her infant face earned for her the
title of Rose, which she ever after bore.

As a child, while still in the cradle, her silence under a painful
surgical operation proved the thirst for suffering already consuming
her heart. At an early age she took service to support her
impoverished parents and worked for them day and night. In spite of
hardships and austerities her beauty ripened with increasing age and
she was much and openly admired. From fear of vanity she cut off her
hair, blistered her face with pepper and her hands with lime.

For further security she enrolled herself in the Third Order of St
Dominic, took St Catherine of Siena as her model and redoubled her
penance. Her cell was a garden hut, her couch a box of broken tiles.
Under her habit Rose wore a hair-shirt studded with iron nails, while,
concealed by her veil, a silver crown armed with ninety points
encircled her head. More than once, when she shuddered at the prospect
of a night of torture, a voice said,“My cross was yet more painful.”

The Blessed Sacrament seemed almost her only food. Her love for it was
intense. When the Dutch fleet prepared to attack the town, Rose took
her place before the tabernacle, and wept that she was not worthy to
die in its defence. All her sufferings were offered for the conversion
of sinners and the thought of the multitudes in hell was ever before
her soul.

She died in 1617, at the age of thirty-one on the date she had predicted.

Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX on 10 May 1667 and Canonised on
12 April 1671, by Pope Clement X, the first in the Americas to be
declared a saint. Her shrine, alongside those of her friends St Martin
de Porres (1585-1645) and St John Macias (also 1585-1645)), is located
inside the convent of St Dominic in Lima. Many miracles followed her
death:  there were stories that she had cured a leper and that, at the
time of her death, the city of Lima smelled like roses, roses also
started falling from the sky. Many places in the New World are named
Santa Rosa after her.


Thought for the Day – 23 August – Thursday of the Twentieth week in
Ordinary Time, Year B – Today’s Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14 and the
Memorial of St Rose of Lima (1586-1617)
Who can begin to imagine how the smallest of our actions, done in love
of God and neighbour, can lead to immense results? For we know that
the mustard seed is tiny and grows into the greatest of shrubs.

When St Rose began taking in the destitute, the old and infirm, the
poor and the sick, could she have dreamed that this small service
would become the beginning of social services in Peru? Moreover, she
became known and loved throughout Peru and remains so, by rich and
poor alike, who look to her for protection from calamity and for the
protection of God, by her prayers.

City officials and senators, carried her body to its grave and she was
revered as a saint from the moment she died, in fact whilst she lived.
It was impossible to hold her funeral for several days due to the
immense crowds and so, she was finally buried privately. St Rose found
her own unique pathway to sanctity when her plans to become a nun were
frustrated. Remembering, all is God’s will, nothing is random or
wasted, go forth, find a way and set the world on fire in your wedding
garment!

https://anastpaul.com/2018/08/23/


Saint Quotes:
Lord, increase my sufferings, and with them increase Your love in my heart.

Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.
--Saint Rose of Lima

“We must not fail
to help our neighbours,
because in them we serve Jesus.”
--St Rose of Lima (1586-1617)

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Glorious St Rose of Lima,
you who knew what it was to love Jesus
with such a fine and generous heart.
You, whom since infancy,
despised the world’s vanities
in order to embrace His Cross.
You who loved, with unfailing devotion,
our Heavenly Mother
and professed a great tender dedication
to the destitute,
serving them, in the same way, Jesus did.
Teach us to imitate your greatest virtues,
so that we, following your example,
may enjoy your glorious protection.
Through our Lord, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns forever.
Amen


Bible Quote:
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his
right hand upon me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18
and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I
have the keys of Death and Hades.  [Revelation 1:17-18]  RSVCE


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 The Need of God’s Blessing: His Gift of Sons

1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat--
for he grants sleep to [a] those he loves.
3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.  Psalm 127:1-5