• =?UTF-8?Q?September_2nd_=E2=80=93_Bl=2E_Margaret_of_Louvain?=

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Sun Sep 1 09:06:34 2019
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    September 2nd =E2=80=93 Bl. Margaret of Louvain, Virgin and Martyr

    In the sixth book of his =E2=80=9CDialogue on Miracles=E2=80=9D, dealing wi=
    th
    Singleness of Heart, the Cistercian monk Caesarius of Heisterbach
    tells the story of this young girl whose cultus in the diocese of
    Malines was confirmed in 1905. She was born at Louvain about the year
    1207 and went into domestic service with a relative named Aubert. He
    was an innkeeper and a good and charitable man, who would entertain
    pilgrims and necessitous travellers free of charge. Margaret entered whole-heartedly into these good works, but the recollected way with
    which she went about them and her indifference to the attentions of
    men got her the nickname of =E2=80=9Cthe proud Margaret=E2=80=9D.

    =C2 About the year 1225 Aubert and his wife determined to become
    religious. Having sold their business and made the necessary
    preparations, they were spending their last night at home when they
    were visited by some evil-disposed men under the pretence of saying
    good-bye. Margaret was sent out to get some wine for the visitors, and
    while she was gone they set on Aubert and his wife, murdered them, and
    seized their money which they had by them to take to the monasteries
    to which they were going. On her return with the wine the robbers
    carried off Margaret and at a lonely spot near the river Dyle proposed
    to kill her too, as a witness to their crime. One of them offered to
    marry her if she would keep silence, but she refused, and thereupon an
    extra ten marks was added to the share of one of them to make away
    with her. =E2=80=9CHe, taking the innocent lamb like a cruel butcher, cut h=
    er
    throat, stabbed her in the side, and threw her into the river.=E2=80=9D The body was found and, in consequence of the supernatural light and
    angelic voices that were reported to accompany it, was taken by the
    clergy to St Peter's collegiate church at Louvain and buried in a
    special chapel in their churchyard. Miracles were vouchsafed at this
    tomb and there Bl. Margaret has been venerated from that day to this.

    Concerning this story the novice in the Dialogue asks =E2=80=9CWhat would y=
    ou
    say was the cause of martyrdom in the case of this girl?=E2=80=9D To which = his
    preceptor replies =E2=80=9CSimplicity and an innocent life, as I have alrea=
    dy
    said. There are different kinds of martyrdom, namely, innocence, as in
    Abel; uprightness, as in the prophets and St John Baptist; love of the
    law, as in the Machabees confession of the faith, as in the apostles.
    For all these different causes Christ the Lamb is said to have been =E2=80=98slain from the beginning of the world'.=E2=80=9D All Chris=
    tian virtues, being
    protestations of our faith and proofs of our fidelity to God, are a
    true motive of martyrdom.

    The Bollandists, in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. i, find
    nothing to add to the account given by Caesarius, but they supply
    evidence regarding the later cultus, and translate from the Flemish a
    relation of a number of miracles wrought at the shrine. Several
    booklets of a popular kind have been printed about Bd Margaret in
    modern times; the most note worthy, by M. G. Ollivier, originally
    appeared as an article in the Revue Thomiste, vol. iv (1896), pp.
    592-618. The Dialogue of Caesarius was published in English in 1929.


    Saint Quote:
    The poor and the sick are our owners and they represent the very
    person of Jesus Christ.
    -- Saint Luigi Scrosoppi of Udine

    Bible Quote:
    Religion pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to keep
    oneself unspotted from this world.=C2 (James 1:27)


    <><><><>
    On The Foundation of Humility=C2 [III]

    No one can review his past life without finding therein motives enough
    and to spare for humbling himself before Almighty God. "We have
    sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, we have
    revolted; to us belongeth shame and confusion of face" (Dan. ix. 5,
    7). If ever we are inclined to think much of ourselves, we have only
    to look back on our past years; on the deliberate sins against
    charity, against truthfulness, against purity; on the pride, the
    selfishness, the self-will, the neglect of God that have stained our
    lives.

    Besides the actual sins, how many infidelities to grace! God has been
    so liberal with His graces, and I have been so negligent in availing
    myself of them. How many I might have earned if I had been faithful
    and had not wilfully turned aside from what God asked of me to follow
    my own will and pleasure. What cause for humiliation of myself! If
    others who have perhaps lived and died in sin had had my graces, would
    they not have made a far better use of them than I have? To me, O God,
    shame and confusion of face! I must throw myself on Thy mercy and
    humbly beg forgiveness.

    When, moreover, I look at what I now am, I find fresh cause for
    humbling myself. I might have been a saint if I had been more
    faithful, and now I am one of the vilest of sinners. My soul in the
    sight of God is disfigured by sin, as a body is by the ulcers and
    sores that spoil its natural beauty and comeliness. I abound with
    faults innumerable; I am unworthy to appear in the presence of God. "O
    hide Thy face from my sins, blot out all my iniquities!"
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