Subj : September 19th - St. Emily de Rodat To : All From : rich Date : Tue Sep 18 2018 10:08:30 From: rich September 19th - St. Emily de Rodat (1787-1852) St. Emily de Rodat belonged to a prominent and prosperous French rural family. Although by nature an independent person, she was raised devoutly. True, in her mid teens she became for a while attracted by the charms of a =E2=80=9Cworldly=E2=80=9D life, and it even led to her cutt= ing down on her daily prayers. However, she had a spiritual experience in 1804 that convinced her that God intended her for some special service. Later on, speaking of her most =E2=80=9Cworldly=E2=80=9D period, she confes= sed, =E2=80=9CI was bored only once in all my life, and that was when I had turned away from God.=E2=80=9D God wanted her, but He let her find out for herself why He wanted her. She sensed that her vocation was to educational work. First she became a lay teacher in her own convent school at Villefranche. Then she tried out living for a while, successively, in convents of three religious orders. None of them had exactly what she wanted. However, one spring day in 1815, Emily overheard some mothers complaining that the could not send their daughters to school because the tuition was beyond their means. At once she was inspired: =E2=80=9CI wi= ll teach poor children!=E2=80=9D Emily de Rodat opened her first poor-school in May 1816, with two other young laywomen as a staff. The enterprise had many difficulties to hurdle, but by 1820 she and her companions had taken final vows as members of a new religious community, the Congregation of the Holy Family. As time went on, despite her own uncertain health (cancer and a constant ringing in her ears), plus a period of spiritual anguish, Mother Emily set up 38 new convents. Schools were her principal labor, but the Holy Family nuns gradually expanded their efforts to cover most of the corporal works of mercy: visiting the jailed, sheltering orphans, and caring for endangered women. Along with her convents of very active sisters, she also established groups of contemplative sisters to pray for the aims of their congregation. Because they were to see themselves as servants of the poor, St. Emily firmly insisted that her nuns live a life without frills. Even their chapels, she said, were to be poor: no expensive statues or rich marbles. The Abbe Marty, her spiritual director, disagreed with her in the matter of chapel d=C3=A9cor, and on other points as well. But he and this very positive woman (=E2=80=9Ca saint, but a headstrong saint=E2=80=9D= ) got along very well together, and his guidance was crucial in the development of her community. Emily de Rodat died of cancer on September 18, 1852, after a long illness patiently borne. Pope Pius XII canonized her during the Holy Year of 1950. St. Emily was noted for her crisp common sense. For instance, although many young women applied to enter her religious order, she rarely invited them to =E2=80=9Cleave the world.=E2=80=9D That invitation, she sai= d is God's business. =E2=80=9CReligious vocations are brought about by the grace of Go= d, not by any words of ours.=E2=80=9D Mother Emily also had a flair for being quotable. =E2=80=9CIt is good to be an object of contempt,=E2=80=9D she said at times= when many people were criticizing her. When her secretary deplored the criticism, Emily retorted, =E2=80=9Cdon't you know that we are the = scum of the earth, and that anyone is entitled to tread on us?=E2=80=9D (So much for hu= man pride!) =E2=80=9CThere are some people,=E2=80=9D she once observed, =E2=80=9Cwho ar= e not good for a convent, but a convent is good for them; they would be lost in the world and they don't do much good in a convent, but at least they k= eep out of mischief.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CConfession,=E2=80=9D she admonished one = nun, =E2=80=9Cis an accusation, not a conversation.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CKeep your enthusiasm,=E2= =80=9D she wrote to one discouraged postulant. =E2=80=9CBe brave. Put all your trust in God. An= d always maintain a holy cheerfulness.=E2=80=9D And as if to illustrate her respect for the church whose poor she served, Emily once said, =E2=80=9CIf = I meet an angel with a priest, I bow to the priest first.=E2=80=9D No namby-pamby person, Mother Emily de Rodat. But God doesn't inten= d for us to be namby-pamby. He gives us all a certain number of talents to invest, and He jolly well expects us to produce dividends. =E2=80=93Father Robert Saint Quote: Prayer is a fragrant dew; but we must pray with a pure heart to feel this dew. There flows from prayer a delicious sweetness, like the juice of very ripe grapes. Prayer disengages our soul from matter; it raises it on high, like the fire that inflates a balloon. The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish which at first swims on the surface of the water, and afterward plunges down, and is always going deeper, the soul plunges, dives, and loses itself in the sweetness of conversing with God. -- Cure d'Ars Bible Quote: Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often, and did not stir up all his wrath. (Psalm 78:38) RSVCE <><><><> Canticle Nunc Dimittis Keep us safe, Lord, while we are awake, and guard us as we sleep, so that we can keep watch with Christ and rest in peace. Alleluia. Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace. You have fulfilled your promise. My own eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples. A light to bring the Gentiles from darkness; the glory of your people Israel. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Keep us safe, Lord, while we are awake, and guard us as we sleep, so that we can keep watch with Christ and rest in peace. Alleluia. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .