From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

August 24th - Saint Mar=C3=ADa Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament
25 August on some calendars

(1809-1865)

Maria Soledad Micaela Desmaisieres y Lopez de Dicastillo, often called
Madre Sacramento because she founded a religious Order of Sisters
consecrated especially to the Blessed Sacrament, was born in Madrid on
the first day of January, 1809, during a time of political unrest.
From the age of nine to twelve, she was a pupil of the Ursulines of
the city of Pau in France. At the age of thirteen, she lost her noble
father, a general in the royal army. Her life as she grew older was
divided between religious duties, which attracted her, and social ones involving trips, festivals and visits. In 1844, when she visited the
Hospital of Saint John of God in Madrid, she saw with compassion the
plight of young girls living a disordered life, and in 1845
established a school to re-educate them. She personally took on the
direction of the school in January of 1849, and gave it new force.

She resolved in 1847 to live for God alone, and in Paris, during the
same year on Pentecost, received a mystical grace of union with God.
She was drawn to an ardent love for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament,
as well as to an apostolate for the feminine youth of Madrid. Until
1856, she dedicated herself entirely to the school she had founded
there, and then founded the Institute of Religious Adorer-Slaves of
the Most Blessed Sacrament and of Charity. She was directed by Saint
Anthony Mary Claret for several years after 1857; and the foundations multiplied. She promoted and animated various apostolic works for the laity--the Conferences of Saint Vincent de Paul, Sunday Schools for
public school children; she counseled the Sisters of the Love of God
at Zamora, at the request of their founder. Her Institute of the
Blessed Sacrament was definitively approved by the Holy See in 1866, a
year after the death of the Foundress on August 24, 1865, a victim of
her charity for the cholera victims of Valencia.

For Madre Sacramento, religious consecration is a service of love. The religious is at the disposition of God to procure His glory; and God
gives Himself to her, as she has given herself to Him. For God she
loves suffering as a proof of love. The Foundress herself, in the last
four years of her life, made the exceptional vow to choose what
appeared to her as most perfect, in the practice of her vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience; this vow requires a total and heroic
gift of self. She was beatified in 1925 and canonized on March 4, 1934
by Pope Pius XI.


Saint Quote:
Many things seem good and yet are not, because they be not done with a
good mind and intention; and therefore our Saviour saith in the
Gospel, "If thy eye has naught, all thy body shall be dark." For when
the intention is wicked, all the work that follows is naught, although
it seemed to be never so good.
--St. Gregory the Great

Bible Quote:
2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he
was hungry. 3. And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son
of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4. Who answered and
said: It is written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every
word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:2-4)


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Angel-guardians of men
Hymn: Custodes hominum

Angel-guardians of men, spirits and powers we sing, Whom our
Father hath sent, aids to our weakly frame, Heavenly friends and
guides, help from on high to bring, Lest we fail through the foeman's
wile.
He, the spoiler of souls, Angel-traitor of old, Cast in merited
wrath out of his honored place, Burns with envy and hate, seeking
their souls to gain Whom God's mercy invites to heaven.
Therefore come to our help watchful ward of our lives:Turn aside
from the land God to thy care confides Sickness and woe of soul, yea,
and what else of ill Peace of heart to its folk denies.
Now to the Holy Three praise evermore resound: Under whose hand
divine resteth the triple world Governed in wondrous wise: glory be
theirs and might While the ages unending run. Amen
(Roman Breviary)
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