From: richarra@gmail.com

Meditation for troubled times:

   I will try to make the world better and happier by my presence in
it. I will try to help other people find the way God wants them to
live. I will try to be on the side of good, in the stream of
righteousness, where all things work for good. I will do my duty
persistently and faithfully, not sparing myself. I will be gentle with
all people. I will try to see other people's difficulty and help them
to correct it. I will always pray to God to act as interpreter between
me and the other person. I pray that I may live in the spirit of
prayer. I pray that I may depend on God for the strength I need to
help me to do my part in making the world a better place.
--From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

<<>><<>><<>>
February 20th - St. Sadoth, Bishop, and Ctesiphon, with 128 other Martyrs

(Also known as Sadosh, Sadot, Sadota Sahdost, Schadost, Schiadustes,
Shahdost, Zadok)

Memorial
18 February
20 February on some calendars

D. 342.

SADOTH, as he is called by the Greeks and Latins, is named in the
original Persian language, Schiadustes, which signifies “friend of the king,” from schiah, king, and dust, friend. His unspotted purity of
heart, his ardent zeal, and the practice of all Christian virtues,
prepared him, from his youth, for the episcopal dignity, and the crown
of martyrdom. St. Simeon, bishop of Selec, or Seleucia, and Ctesiphon,
then the two capital cities of Persia, situate on the river Tigris,
being translated to glory by martyrdom, in the beginning of the
persecution raised by Sapor II in 341. St. Sadoth was chosen 3 months
after to fill his see, the most important in that empire, but the most
exposed to the storm. This grew more violent on the publication of a
new edict against the Christians, which made it a capital offence to
confess Christ.

To wait with patience the manifestation of the divine will, St.
Sadoth, with part of his clergy, lay hid for some time; which did not
however hinder him from affording his distressed flock all proper
assistance and encouragement, but rather enabled him to do it with the
greater fruit. During this retreat he had a vision which seemed to
indicate that the time was come for the holy bishop to seal his faith
with his blood. This he related to his priests and deacons, whom he
assembled for that purpose. “I saw,” said he, “in my sleep, a ladder environed with light and reaching from earth to the heavens. St.
Simeon was at the top of it, and in great glory. He beheld me at the
bottom, and said to me, with a smiling countenance: ‘Mount up, Sadoth,
fear not. I mounted yesterday, and it is your turn to-day:’ which
means, that as he was slain last year, so I am to follow him thus.” He
was not wanting on this occasion to exhort his clergy, with great zeal
and fervour, to make a provision of good works, and employ well their
time, till they should be called on in like manner, that they might be
in readiness to take possession of their inheritance. “A man that is
guided by the Spirit,” says St. Maruthas, author of these acts, “fears
not death: he loves God, and goes to him with an incredible ardour;
but he, who lives according to the desires of the flesh, trembles, and
is in despair at its approach: he loves the world, and it is with
grief that he leaves it.”

  The 2nd year of the persecution, King Sapor coming to Seleucia,
Sadoth was apprehended, with several of his clergy, some ecclesiastics
of the neighbourhood, and certain monks and nuns belonging to his
church, to the amount of 128 persons. They were thrown into dungeons,
where, during 5 months’ confinement, they suffered incredible misery
and torments. They were thrice called out, and put to the rack or
question; their legs were straight bound with cords, which were drawn
with so much violence, that their bones breaking, were heard to crack
like sticks in a faggot. Amidst these tortures the officers cried out
to them: “Adore the sun, and obey the king, if you would save your
lives.” Sadoth answered in the name of all, that the sun was but a
creature, the work of God, made for the use of mankind, that they
would pay supreme adoration to none but the Creator of heaven and
earth, and never be unfaithful to him; that it was indeed in their
power to take away their lives, but that this would be the greatest
favour they could do them; wherefore he conjured them not to spare
them, or delay their execution. The officers said: “Obey! or know that
your death is certain and immediate.” The martyrs all cried out with
one voice: “We shall not die, but live and reign eternally with God
and his son Jesus Christ. Wherefore inflict death as soon as you
please; for we repeat it to you that we will not adore the sun, nor
obey the unjust edicts.”

Then sentence of death was pronounced upon them all by the king; for
which they thanked God, and mutually encouraged each other. They were
chained two and two together, and led out of the city to execution,
singing psalms and canticles of joy as they went. Being arrived at the
place of their martyrdom, they raised their voices still higher,
blessing and thanking God for his mercy in bringing them thither, and
begging the grace of perseverance, and that by this baptism of their
blood they might enter into his glory. These prayers and praises of
God did not cease but with the life of the last of this blessed
company.

St. Sadoth, by the king’s orders, was separated from them, and sent
into the province of the Huzites, where he was beheaded. He thus
rejoined his happy flock in the kingdom of glory. Ancient Chaldaic
writers quoted by Assemani say, St. Schiadustes, or Sadoth, was nephew
to Simeon Barsaboe, being son to his sister. He governed his church
only 8 months, and finished his martyrdom after 5 months imprisonment,
in the year 342, and of King Sapor II. the 33rd. These martyrs are
honoured in the Roman Martyrology on this day.

   From his genuine acts in Metaphrastes, Bollandus, and Ruinart; but
more correctly in the original Chaldaic given us by Assemani, t. 1. p.
83. Orsi, Hist. t. 5. l. 13. See Le Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 2. p.
1108.


Saint Quote:
Be assured that he who shall always walk faithfully in God's presence,
always ready to give Him an account of all his actions, shall never be separated from Him by consenting to sin.
-- St. Thomas Aquinas

Bible Quote:
And you shall say in that day: Praise ye the Lord, and call upon his
name: make his works known among the people: remember that his name is
high. Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath done great things: shew this
forth in all the earth.  [Isaiah 12:4-5] DRB


<><><><>
O glorious Virgin Mary! Queen of Carmel, Mother of God and of poor
sinners; special Protectress of all those who wear thy holy Scapular,
I supplicate thee, by the glory that has been accorded thee by the
Incarnate Word in choosing thee for His Mother, to obtain for me the
pardon of my sins, amendment of my life, salvation of my soul,
consolation in my pains, and in particular the grace I now ask,
provided it be conformable to the will of thy divine Son. Amen

O Queen, who art the beauty of Carmel, pray for us.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: richarra@gmail.com

Meditation for troubled times:

   Turn out all thoughts of doubt and fear and resentment. Never
tolerate them if you can help it. Bar the windows and doors of your
mind against them, as you would bar your home against a thief who
would steal in to take away your treasures. What greater treasures can
you have than faith and courage and love? All these are stolen from
you by doubt and fear and resentment. Face each day with peace and
hope. They are results of true faith in God. Faith gives you a feeling
of protection and safety that you can get in no other way.
-- From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

<<>><<>><<>>
August 5th - Sts. Addai and Mari

1st century (?). There was a Christian colony in Edessa, Syria, by the
2nd century, and from there it appears the faith spread to Mesopotamia
and Persia. However, a local ecclesiastical tradition in these latter
areas attributes their evangelization to Saint Thomas, who is said to
have been the Apostle of India, and who sent Saint Addai who converted
Saint Mari. This story (recorded in Walsh) is a combination of the
narratives of Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history and the Syriac
The doctrine of Addai (written about 400):

"At the time when our Lord was still incarnate upon earth there
reigned in Osroene a king called Abgar the Black, who lived at Edessa.
He suffered from some incurable disease and, having heard of the
miracles of healing of our Lord, he sent to Him a letter by the hand
of his secretary, Hannan. In it he addresses Christ as 'the good
Physician' and asks Him to come to Edessa and heal him. Hannan found
our Lord in the house of Gamaliel, and He replied to Abgar that, 'I am
about to return to my Father, all for which I was sent into the world
being finished. But when I shall have ascended to Him I will send one
of my disciples, who shall heal you of your sickness and bring you and
yours to eternal life.'"

According to Eusebius our Lord wrote out this message Himself and it
was accordingly greatly reverenced throughout Christendom during the
middle ages. The Syriac document states that Hannan also brought back
to Abgar a portrait of our Lord which he had painted (later, 'not-made-by-human-hands'). This is the beginning of the legend of the Mandylion (possibly the Holy Shroud), which is said to have been kept
at Edessa until it was taken to Constantinople in the 8th century.

After the Ascension, Thomas sent Addai (Thaddeus), one of the 72
commissioned by Jesus, to the Abgar's court. He lodged with a Jew,
named Tobias, and when he was presented to the king, he healed him and
taught him the faith. Addai converted Abgar and multitudes of his
people, among other the royal jeweler, Aggai, whom he made bishop and
his successor, and Palut, whom Addai ordained priest on his deathbed.

Eventually, Aggai was martyred and Palut went to Antioch to be
consecrated by Saint Serapion, who had been consecrated by Pope Saint Zephyrinus at Rome. This seems improbably because Serapion died in 199
and Zephyrinus became bishop that same year. Confusion also seems to
surround Abgar. There was another Abgar who was a Christian king,
probably the first, of Edessa from about 179 to 213. Therefore, it is
most unlikely that Serapion consecrated a convert of one of the 72. So
it seems that Addai was a missionary to Edessa, who like many other
saintly men was attached to the apostles to emphasize the connection
to Jesus--and isn't that what we are here for, to grow as close as
possible to our Savior?

Saint Mari's existence is even questioned. His acta claim that he was
a disciple of Saint Addai, who sent him to Nisibis, where he preached
before renewing the work of Jonas the prophet at Nineveh. He then
traveled down the Tigris River until he began "to smell the smell of
the Apostle Thomas," and died near Seleucia- Ctesiphon after
consecrating its bishop Papa bar Aggai, who was indeed the first
katholikos of the East Syrian churches--at the beginning of the 4th
century. We are told that wherever Mari went, he made numerous
converts, destroyed temples, built churches, and founded
monasteries--on a scale rarely found in sober history.

Nevertheless, even with all these historical problems, Addai and Mari
have been venerated since the earliest times as the evangelists of the Tigris-Euphrates region, and still are by their successors, the
Catholic Chaldeans and the Nestorians of Iraq and Kurdistan
(Benedictines, Delaney, Walsh).


Saint Quote:
We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing
that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds
back nothing for self.
-- Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne

Bible Quote:
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."  (1 John 4:8)

<><><><>
Teach Us, Good Lord
By St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve You as You deserve;
to give
and not to count the cost,
to fight
and not to heed the wounds,
to toil
and not to seek for rest,
to labour
and not to ask for reward,
except that of knowing
that we are doing Your will.
Amen

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: richarra@gmail.com

Meditation for troubled times:

Like a tree, I must be pruned of a lot of dead branches before I will
be ready to bear good fruit. Think of changed people as trees that
have been stripped of their old branches, pruned, cut, and bare. But
through the dark, seemingly dead branches flows silently, secretly,
the new sap, until with the sun of spring comes new life. There are
new leaves, buds, blossoms, and fruit, many times better because of
the pruning. I am in the hands of a Master Gardener, who makes no
mistakes in His pruning. I pray that I may cut away the dead branches
of my life. I pray that I may not mind the pruning, since it helps me
to bear good fruit later.
--From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

<<>><<>><<>>
February 10th – St. William of Maleval, Hermit, Prophet
(Also known as William of Malval or Malvalla)

Born in France; died at Maleval, Italy, February 10, 1157; canonized
by Innocent III in 1202. After carefree years of licentious military
life, William experienced a conversion of heart of which we are told
nothing. The first real piece of information we have is that the
penitent Frenchman made a pilgrimage to the tombs of the apostles at
Rome. Here he begged Pope Eugenius III for pardon and to set him on a
course of penance for his sins. Eugenius enjoined him to make a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1145. William followed his counsel and
spent eight years on the journey, returning to Italy a changed man.

In 1153, William became a hermit on the isle of Lupocavio (near Pisa)
in Tuscany for a time. So many joined him until he was prevailed upon
to undertake the governance. He wasn't well suited to lead other men.
First, he failed to maintain discipline at the abbey. Unable to bear
the tepidity and irregularity of his monks, he withdrew to Monte
Bruno. But the same thing happened when he organized the disciples who
had gathered around him into his own abbey on Monte Bruno.

Finally, in September 1155, he realized this was not God's plan for
him and he embraced the eremitical life amid the solitude of Maleval
(then called the Stable of Rhodes) near Siena. At Maleval he lived in
an underground cave until the lord of Buriano discovered him some
months later and built him a cell. For the first four months, William
had only the beasts for company and only forage for food.

The example of his life soon attracted another of like mind. On the
Feast of the Epiphany 1156, he was joined by a companion named Albert,
who lived with him the rest of his life--only 13 months--and recorded
William's vita. Like most of the early hermits, William used extreme
penances to atone for his earlier sinful life. He slept on the bare
ground, ate sparingly of only the coarsest fare, and drank only
limited amounts of water. Prayer, contemplation, and manual labor
employed all his waking moments. William had the gift of working
miracles and of prophecy.

Shortly before William's death, which he predicted, he and Albert were
joined by a physician named Rinaldo. The two disciples buried William
in his little garden, and together studied to live according to
William's maxims and example. Later their number increased and they
built a chapel over their founder's grave with a hermitage; however
his relics were dispersed in the wars between Siena and Grosseto.

This was the origin of the Gulielmites, or Hermits of Saint William,
which spread throughout Italy, France, Flanders, and Germany. Gregory
IX, mitigating their austerities, gave the Rule of Saint Benedict to
the group organized as the Order of Bare-Footed Friars, but they were eventually absorbed by the Augustinian hermits except for 12 houses in
the Low Countries.

William is honored in the new Paris Missal and Breviary, where his
feast is kept at the Abbey of Blancs-Manteaux, founded in 1257 as a
mendicant order, called the Servants of the Virgin Mary, but bestowed
on the Gulielmites after the second council of Lyons in 1297
(Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).

In art, William of Maleval is similar to William of Aquitaine but with
no ducal coronet. He carries a pilgrim's staff and sometimes wears a
monastic habit over armor. At times he may be shown (1) bearing a
cross staff, one arm of which ends in a crescent, or (2) bearing a
shield with four fleur-de-lys (Roeder). He is the patron of armorers
and venerated in Siena, Italy (Roeder), and Paris (Husenbeth).


Quotes:
"Persons who keep themselves low in their own estimation and love to
be considered of little account and despised by others please God in
the highest degree; and, therefore, He willingly lowers Himself to
them, pours upon them the treasures of His graces, reveals to them His
secrets, invites and draws them sweetly to Himself. Thus, the more one
lowers and abuses himself before men, the more he rises and becomes
great in the sight of God, and the more clearly he will, one day,
behold the Divine Essence"
--Thomas a Kempis


St. Gertrude, one day hearing the little bell ring for Communion
and not feeling as well prepared as she desired, said to the Lord: "I
see that Thou art even now coming to me; but why hast Thou not first
adorned my heart with some ornaments of devotion, with which I might
be more suitably prepared to come and meet Thee?" But the Lord
answered: "Know that sometimes I am more pleased with the virtue of
humility than with exterior devotion"
(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)