[Salvation]

Interactive Saints for Kids

Blessed Mary of the Incarnation

Feast Day: April 18
Born: 1566 :: Died: 1618

Barbe (Barbara) Aurillot was born at Paris in France. When she was seventeen, she married Pierre (Peter) Acarie. Barbra and her husband loved their Catholic faith and practiced it. They had six children and were a happy family.

Barbara tried to be a good wife and mother. Her family learned from her a great love for prayer and works of charity. Her husband was once wrongly blamed for a crime he had not committed. To save him, Barbara herself went to court, and, all alone, proved that he was not guilty.

Although she was busy with her own family, she always found time to feed those who were hungry. She taught people about the Catholic faith. She helped the sick and dying. She gently encouraged people who were living sinfully to change their ways. The good deeds she did were works of mercy.

When Barbara was forty-seven Pierre died. She then joined the Carmelite convent and spent the last four years of her life as a nun. Three of her daughters became Carmelite nuns, too and one son became a priest. Barbara's new name as a nun was Sister Mary of the Incarnation.

She worked with joy in the kitchen among the pots and pans. When her own daughter became the superior of the monastery, Blessed Mary willingly obeyed her.

When she was dying, she humbly said: "The Lord forgive the bad example I have given you." The nuns were very surprised because Barbara had always tried so hard to live a good life. Blessed Mary died in 1618 at the age of fifty-two.

[Salvation]

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for: April 18, 2012
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: As we recall year by year the mysteries by which, through the restoration of its original dignity, human nature has received the hope of rising again, we earnestly beseech your mercy, Lord, that what we celebrate in faith we may possess in unending love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

ACTIVITIES

• Raising Truthful Children

PRAYERS

• Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven)
• Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Season (2nd Plan)

Easter: April 18th

  Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

Jesus declared publicly: "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I am not the one to condemn him; for I have come, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me, and does not receive my word, already has a judge: the very word I have spoken will condemn him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has instructed me in what to say and how to speak. I know that his commandment is eternal life, and that is why the message I give, I give as the Father instructed me (Jn 12:44-50)."

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Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me
Jesus cries out; He cries out just as someone who is saying words everybody should clearly listen to. His clamor synthesizes his saving mission, as He has come "to save the world" (Jn 12:47), but not on his own but in the name of "the Father who sent me and has instructed me in what to say and how to speak" (Jn 12:49).

It is not yet a month ago when we were celebrating the Paschal Triduum: how much present was the Father in the final hour, the hour of the Cross! As His Holiness John Paul II has written, "Jesus, overwhelmed by his foreknowledge of the trial waiting for him, alone before God, invokes him with his usual and tender expression of trust: ‘Abbá, Father’." The next hours clearly show the intimate dialogue of the Son with the Father: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34); "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Lk 23:46).

The importance of this work by the Father and his Messenger, well deserves the personal response of he who is listening. This response is to believe, that is, a profession of faith (cf. Jn 12:44); faith that gives us the light — by the same Jesus — so that we shall not remain in darkness. But, he who rejects all these gifts and manifestations, and does not listen to those words "already has a judge: the very Word I have spoken" (Jn 12:48).

Therefore, to accept Jesus is to believe in, see and listen to the Father, not to be in darkness, to obey the command of eternal life. We certainly deserve Saint John of the Cross' rebuke: "[The Father] with this Word said everything in one go (...). Consequently, if you would like to ask God now, or should you pretend some kind of vision or revelation, it would not only be a piece of nonsense, but an offense for God, for not looking up only at Christ without asking for any other thing or novelty."

Fr. Julio César Ramos González SDB (Salta, Argentina), Contemplating Today's Gospel