Surrounded by wealth, blind to charity

[Rich]

Surrounded by wealth, blind to charity

"'What does the rich man do, surrounded by a great supply of many
blessings beyond all numbering? In distress and anxiety, he speaks the
words of poverty. He says, 'What should I do?' ... He does not look to
the future. He does not raise his eyes to God. He does not count it
worth his while to gain for the mind those treasures that are above in
heaven. He does not cherish love for the poor or desire the esteem it
gains. He does not sympathize with suffering. It gives him no pain nor
awakens his pity. Still more irrational, he settles for himself the
length of his life, as if he would also reap this from the ground. He
says, 'I will say to myself, "Self, you have goods laid up for many
years. Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself." 'O rich man,' one may say,
"You have storehouses for your fruits, but where will you receive your
many years? By the decree of God, your life is shortened." 'God,' it
tells us, 'said to him, "You fool, this night they will require of you
your soul. Whose will these things be that you have prepared?"
by Cyril of Alexandria (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY
89)

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April 1st - St. Catherine of Palma, Virgin; had the gift of prophecy

The whole life of Catherine Tomàs--from the moment of her birth in the
little village of Valdemuzza until her death at Palma--was spent in
the Balearic island of Majorca. Her parents died when Catherine, their
seventh child, was 7 years old, leaving her unprovided for. Sad tales
are told of the indignities to which she was subjected in the house of
her paternal uncle, to whose custody she was transferred. Young as she
was, she became a regular little drudge whom the very servants were
encouraged to overwork and to slight. Nevertheless she bore her
sufferings with unfailing sweetness and patience. When she was about
15 years old, visions of St. Antony and of her patroness St. Catherine
awoke aspirations after the religious life which she confided to a
holy hermit priest, Father Antony Castagneda. Thinking that time was
required as a test of her vocation, he replied that she would receive
a reply in due course if she would continue to commend her case to
God, as he himself would do. She meekly agreed, but she had to wait
for a long time--a delay which was the more trying because the
unkindness of her relations was increased by their fear of losing her
services. Father Antony, however, had not forgotten her, although he
found it difficult to find a convent which could afford to take a
dowerless girl. As a preliminary step, he arranged for Catherine to
enter the service of a family in Palma where no hindrances would be
placed in the way of her spiritual life. The daughter of the house
taught her to read and write, but soon became her disciple in
religious matters, for Catherine had already advanced very far on the
road to perfection.

Eventually several convents offered to open their doors to Catherine
almost at the same moment, and she elected to join the canonesses of
St. Augustine in their convent of St. Mary Magdalen at Palma. She was
then in her 20th year. From the moment of her admission she won the
veneration of all by her sanctity and their love by her humility and
eagerness to serve others.

At first there was nothing about the convent life of Catherine Tomàs
to distinguish her from any other holy nun, but she soon began to be
subject to a number of strange phenomena which are carefully described
in the records of her life. Annually, for 13 or 15 days before the
feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, she was observed to lie in a
profound trance and always, after making her communion, she would
remain in an ecstasy which usually lasted for the greater part of the
day and occasionally extended to several days or even to a fortnight.
Sometimes she seemed to be in a cataleptic state, giving no signs of
life, but at other times she would move about with her feet together
and her eyes shut--sometimes holding converse as with celestial
spirits and oblivious of all around, at other times answering quite
intelligently questions that were put to her. She also possessed the
gift of prophecy.

Alternating with these occurrences were severe trials and assaults
from the powers of darkness. Not only did she suffer from evil
suggestions and alarming hallucinations or phantoms, but she was
subjected to physical violence of the most distressing nature. On such
occasions fearful shrieks and sounds were heard by the other nuns who,
however, could never see the attackers although they witnessed the
results and tried to alleviate St. Catherine’s sufferings. But she
tried never to allow her experiences to interfere with the punctual
discharge of her duties. The death of St. Catherine Tomàs, which she
had foretold, took place when she was forty-one. She was beatified in
1792 and canonized in 1930.

The bull of canonization, which is printed in the Acta Apostolicae
Sedis, vol. xxii (1930), pp. 371-380, gives a summary of her life and
details of the miracles approved in the last stages of the process.
Early biographies were written by Canon Salvador Abrines, who had been
her confessor, and by Father Pedro Caldes. Both are freely quoted in
the documents of the official process, the earliest portions of which
appear to have been printed in 1669. There was a Ristretto della Vita
della Beata Caterina Tomas published in Rome at the time of the
beatification.


Saint Quote:
Every virtue in your soul is a precious ornament which makes you dear
to God and to man. But holy purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic
virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like
the angels of God in Heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh.
--St. John Bosco

Bible Quote:
Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written: The Lord thy God
thou shalt adore, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left
him; and behold angels came and ministered to him. (Matt. 4: 10,
11.) DRB


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We must become like Jesus and Mary

Jesus took care of his mother, spoke to her, gave her for a son the
disciple he loved, and said to that disciple, Behold your mother. As
Saint John here represented all peoples, our Savior commanded us all
in his person to honor and serve the Blessed Virgin as our Mother. It
was, nevertheless, a great consolation to that afflicted Mother to
hear the voice of her only Son. She knew that by adopting a second son
she ceased not to be the mother of the first, whom she regarded as her
Creator and her God. The holy virgin accepted Saint John as her son in
the same way as she accepted, at the same time, all the human race as
her children. Mary accepted this trust because she clearly saw that it
was the will of Christ, and that people, after having treated him so
badly, would never presume to return to him if he did not give them
his own mother to act as a mediatrix.
She entered fully into her Son's intentions, assumed the heart of a
mother for all sinners,
and looked upon them as the children of sorrow whom she had brought
forth at the foot of
the cross. Thus that sea of sufferings into which Jesus and Mary were
plunged has become
for sinners a river of peace and a fountain of blessings.
--Thomas of Jesus, O.S.A.: