CAPG's Blog 

"What is sloth? Sloth is a kind of cowardice and disgust, which makes us neglect and omit our duties, rather than do violence to ourselves.

Alas, my children, how many slothful people there are on this earth: how many are cowardly, how many are indolent in the service of the good God! We neglect, we omit our duties of piety, just as easily as we should take a glass of wine. We will not do violence to ourselves; we will not put ourselves to any inconvenience. Everything wearies, everything disgusts the slothful man. Prayer, the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which do so much good to pious souls, are a torture to him. He is weary and dissatisfied in church, at the foot of the altar, in the presence of the good God. At first, he feels only dislike and indifference towards everything that is commanded by religion. Soon after, you can no longer speak to him either of Confession or Communion; he has no time to think of those things.

O my children! how miserable we are in losing, in this way, the time that we might so usefully employ in gaining Heaven, in preparing ourselves for eternity! How many moments are lost in doing nothing, or in doing wrong, in listening to the suggestions of the devil, in obeying him! Does not that make us tremble? If one of the lost had only a day or an hour to spend for his salvation, to what profit would he turn it! What haste he would make to save his soul, to reconcile himself with the good God! And we, my children, who have days and years to think of our salvation, to save our souls - we remain there with our arms crossed, like that man spoken of in the Gospel. We neglect, we lose our souls. When death shall come, what shall we have to present to Our Lord? Ah! my children, hear how the good God threatens the idle: "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. " "Take that unprofitable servant, and cast him out into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "

Idleness is the mother of all vices. Look at the idle; they think of nothing but eating, drinking, and sleeping. They are no longer men, but stupid beasts, giving up to all their passions; they drag themselves through the mire like very swine. They are filthy, both within and without. They feed their soul only upon impure thoughts and desires. They never open their mouth but to slander their neighbor, or to speak immodest words. Their eyes, their ears, are open only to criminal objects. . . .

O my children! that we may resist idleness, let us imitate the saints. Let us watch continually over ourselves; like them, let us be very zealous in fulfilling all our duties; let the devil never find us doing nothing, lest we should yield to temptation. Let us prepare ourselves for a good death, for eternity. Let us not lose our time in lukewarmness, in negligence, in our habitual infidelities. Death is advancing: tomorrow we must, perhaps, quit our relations, our friends. Let us make haste to merit the reward promised in Paradise to the faithful servant in the Gospel!"

Source: The Blessed Curé of Ars in His Catechetical Instructions, 1951

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

Source: The Bulletin

Sisters of Mercy, Catholic Encyclopedia

Sisters of Mercy have been serving in North Carolina close on to ninety years
1951, The Bulletin.
Belmont, NC.

In 1862, an urgent appeal was made to the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Charleston, SC., to rush to the assistance of the city of Wilmington, NC, which was stricken with an epidemy of yellow fever. Father Thomas Murphy, the pastor, and at one time the only priest in North Carolina, was himself a victim of the plague.
As the result of their work of mercy and charity the Sisters, endeared themselves to the people of Wilmington, and were bade farewell with reluctance when they returned to their home in Charleston.
At the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866, the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina, was erected. Father James Gibbons, of Baltimore, who later became Cardinal Gibbons, was appointed Vicar Apostolic. Upon his arrival in Wilmington, he found an impoverished South, its mills and factories closed, its farms laid waste, and its people disheartened. Race riots were of frequent occurrence. In fact, on the very night of his arrival there was a torchlight procession of black people through the streets.
Father Gibbons saw the urgent need for Catholic schools and requested Sisters from the community at Charleston. Three Sisters were sent to establish the new mission. People gathered in crowds on street corners to gaze in amazement at the Sisters and their religious habits.
Immediately upon their arrival the three Sisters began the work of instructing children and of visiting patients in the local hospital. Money was needed for the care and relief of charity patients. The Mayor of Wilmington, Silas Martin, having been approached in order to obtain assistance, gave the Sisters a sum each week to be used for the need of the poor.
The fist postulant to be received into the young community, and also the first to die, was Miss Margaret Price, a sister of the famed "Tar-Heel Apostle," Father Frederick Price, co-founder of Maryknoll.
In 1872, the Wilmington community became a foundation separate from the Charleston House. In the same year, Bishop Gibbons became Bishop of Richmond, and although his visits to his "children in Wilmington" were infrequent, he sent them many letters of encouragement and continued his financial assistance. In one letter he wrote: "Though my calls are numerous and means not colossal, I can never forget the cherished home, my own creation, whose children prosecute the good work after their father was snatched from  them."
When the Sisters planned to establish their first branch house in Western North Carolina, Bishop Gibbons was dubious about the venture, but consented because he felt that it would give the Sisters an opportunity to get away from the swampy lowland in which they were then located. To pay for the equipment in this new school at Hickory, the Sisters saved by using one fire and one lamp at night. Finally, this house was closed because of the impossibility of securing a priest to minister to the community.
Other places were considered as sites for a permanent foundation, but for various reasons were not found suitable. In 1891, Bishop Leo Haid, Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery at Belmont, NC, and Bishop of North Carolina, advised the Sisters that there was a valuable piece of property for sale between the monastery and the city of Belmont. After much negotiating, the property was purchased and a frame building was erected.
When the Sisters arrived at their new home late on summer afternoon, they found to their dismay that as yet no doors had been hung in the building. In the midst of their discussion about preparation for the coming night, several Monks from the monastery arrived with supper for them. The Benedictines continued to supply food for the Sisters for several days.
 Up to this time, the Sisters still retained the habit of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy of Charleston. In 1893, they adopted the habit of the Mother McAuley Sisters of Mercy but they did not become officially affiliated with that Order until 1812.
At home, the community has grown from the original three Sisters in 1869 to one hundred and thirty-three Sisters in 1951. The Sisters of Mercy, as is characteristic of their labors, are engaged in caring for the poor, the sick and the ignorant in the State of North Carolina.
In their two large hospitals, Mercy Hospital, Charlotte, and St. Joseph's Hospital, Asheville, hundreds of charity patients have been given the same care and consideration as provided for paying patients. A training school for nurses is operated in connection with Mercy Hospital in Charlotte. The Sisters also visit the poor and sick in their homes. The needy of Charlotte will long remember the charity of Sister Benedict, who distributed food and clothing among them.
St. Leo's Military School for small boys, located near the Mother-house in Belmont, fills a great need in this area since there is no other Catholic boarding school for young boys between Northern Virginia and Georgia.
Besides teaching on all levels of education from kindergarten  through junior college, the Sisters travel miles on Saturdays and Sundays to do catechetical work. They conduct vacation schools during the summer months.
Numerous requests are received from pastors asking that Sisters be sent for their schools. Many of these requests have to be refused because of the lack of a sufficient number of Sisters. Vocations are increasing in number, it is true, but not in numbers to supply the demand. The hospitals plead, " We need more Sister nurses," the schools urge, " Mother, send us more teaching Sisters." The field is ripe to the harvest, but more laborers are needed.
The present Superior of the Sisters of Mercy of Belmont is Reverend Mother M. Immaculate, a native of Savannah, Ga. Her Council is composed of Mother M. Juliana, Mother Assistant; Mother M. Benignus, Burser, and Mother M. John, Mistress of Novices.
Gradually the Sisters were able to open schools in nearby town, and soon hospitals were established. After their gallant services in nursing flu patients in the government hospital in Wilmington in 1918, each Sister received a letter from the government stating: " You risked your life as truly as any soldier on the field of battle."
An orphanage for girls was erected on the grounds of the Mother-house at Belmont. Father Price founded an orphanage for boys near Raleigh. The first children admitted were two boys found starving on the streets of Raleigh, and a third boy sent to the Sisters by the courts.
In 1946, the Belmont Community undertook its first foreign mission at the request of the Bishop of Guam. Three Sisters, left for the South Pacific in the fall of that year to open a native novitiate and a school. Today there are a Guam forty-five Sisters, who have four missions, two schools, and do catechetical work.

Source: The Bulletin