Subj : December 14th - Blessed Mary Frances Schervier
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Sat Dec 14 2019 09:07:39

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

December 14th - Blessed Mary Frances Schervier

Feast December 15th on some calendars.
=C2  "One is as it were rich, when one has nothing; and another is as it
were poor, when he has great riches" (Prov 13,7). This passage of
scripture fits the servant of God, Frances, who with all her heart
espoused holy poverty and thus came into the possession of the grace
of God.

=C2  Born in 1819, Frances Schervier was a descendant of a distinguished
family in the old imperial city of Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle. While
she was perhaps not prominent in the eyes of the world, she enjoyed
the distinction of extraordinary supernatural privileges from the very
days of her youth. Her desire to enter a religious order was thwarted
by the early death of her mother in 1832, when Frances was only 13
years old. She was obliged to remain at home and attend to the
household. But she did not let these circumstances prevent her from
caring in a very special way for the poor and the sick. So lavish was
her liberality that one of the old servants once remarked, "One of
these days the child will have dragged everything out of the house."
Later she was an active member of several benevolent societies of
women and also of what was known as St. John's soup kitchen, a
charitable enterprise organized to feed the needy.

=C2  Frances joined the Third Order of St. Francis in 1844. Henceforth
she and four other young women resolved to lead a community life. They
found a dwelling at the old city gate of St. James, and took
possession of their first religious abode on the eve of the feast of
St. Francis in 1845. Prayer and works of mercy were their principal
occupation. Mother Frances and her first companions - the number soon
increased to 23--received the religious habit on August 12, 1851, and
a new religious family was formed. Very appropriately she called the
new congregation the Sisters of the Poor if St. Francis. The poverty
of St. Francis and his love for the poor of Christ superseded
everything else in the eyes of the foundress. On one occasion she
wrote to her sisters: "The impress of poverty and penance should mark
even our chapels and churches and be their distinctive feature."

=C2  The first foundation of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis in
the United States was made in 1858. Twice Mother Frances came to the
US, the first time in 1863 and the second time in 1868. During her
first sojourn in this country, she joined here sisters in ministering
to wounded soldiers of the Civil War and to the sick, the homeless,
and the orphaned. The second time, while visiting the various
institutions conducted by her sisters, she also lent a helping hand in
caring for the sick, the aged, and the poor.

=C2  Mother Frances sacrificed everything for the poor out of love for
God, and she was amply repaid by Him who cannot be outdone in
generosity. Her foundation increased visibly, and to this day it
enjoys the special blessing of Divine Providence. At her holy death on
December 14, 1876, Mother Frances was mourned by thousands of
daughters in religion as well as by the poor, and was venerated as a
saint. Unusual conversions and other remarkable events occurred even
during her lifetime in answer to her trustful prayer, and since her
departure from this world, such things have happened even more
frequently.


Saint Quote:
Oh, if you had tasted the delights with which God fills the souls of
those who serve him and suffer for him, how would you condemn all that
the world can promise! I now begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,
since for his love I am in prison, where I suffer much. But I assure
you, that when I am fainting with hunger, God hath fortified me by his
sweet consolations, so that I have looked upon myself as well
recompensed for his service. And though I were yet to pass many years
in prison, the time would appear short, through the extreme desire
which I feel of suffering for him, who even here so well repays our
labours. Besides other sickness, I have been afflicted with a
continual fever a hundred days without any remedies or proper
nourishment. All this time my heart was so full of joy that it seemed
to me too narrow to contain it. I have never felt any equal to it, and
I thought myself at the gates of paradise.
--Blessed Charles Spinola

Bible Quote:
=C2 Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you
are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be
able to bear it=C2  (1 Cor. 10:13) DRB


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