From: richarra@gmail.com

Imitating Christ and Despising all Vanities on Earth  {1}

He who follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord.[ John 8:12.]
By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and
habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness
of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of
Jesus Christ. The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the
advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a
hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care
little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever
wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his
whole life on that of Christ.
--Thomas à Kempis--Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 1

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April 24th – Saint Ivo of Huntingdonshire

THE town of Saint Ives in Huntingdonshire recalls the memory of a
saint who was—supposing indeed that he ever existed—quite a different person from the St Ia who accounts for the Saint Ives in west
Cornwall. All that we can be reasonably sure of is that in accord with
some supposed dream or vision (though the vision may well have been
invented afterwards) certain bones and episcopal insignia were dug up
at Slepe, close to the abbey of Ramsey, about the year 1001 and were
enshrined in the abbey church.

In the vision St. Ivo had disclosed his name and history. He was a
Persian and a bishop, who had, with three companions, run away from
the comfort and honour he enjoyed in his own country and eventually
found his way to England. There he had settled in the wild fen
country, and after being mocked at first for his barbarous speech, had
been left alone to live or die unnoticed. After the bones had been
removed from the spot where they had lain hidden, a spring appeared at
which many miracles were reported. William of Malmesbury tells us that
he had been an eye-witness of the remarkable cure of a man suffering
from dropsy.

This story became well known after the Norman conquest, but no
satisfactory evidence is producible and the whole thing is very
suspicious. Since before 1281 this Ivo has been regarded as the patron
of Saint lye, near Liskeard in east Cornwall, probably taking the
place of some local patron. Saint Ives in Hampshire is not a saint’s
name, says Ekwall, but probably a derivative of Old English ifig, ivy.

An abbot of Ramsey, Withman, having gone as a pilgrim to Jerusalem in
1021 heard so much of the fame of St Ivo in the East that on his
return he wrote a life of him. This was reproduced in more polished
style by Goscelin when at Canterbury, and from an imperfect copy his
account has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. ii. See
DCB,, vol. iii, p. 324; G. H. Doble, St. Yvo (1935); and remarks in
Analecta Bollandiana, vol. liv (1936), p. 202.


Reflection:
“God often works more by the life of the illiterate
seeking the things that are God’s,
than by the ability of the learned
seeking the things that are their own.”

Bible Quote:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his
great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by
the power of God are safeguarded through faith to a salvation that is
ready to be revealed in the final time." [1 Peter 1:3-5]


<><><><>
 The power of prayer

   “Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a
mine never exhausted, a sky unobstructed by clouds, a haven unruffled
by storm. It is the root, the fountain, and the mother of a thousand
blessings. It exceeds a monarch’s power. ..I speak not of the prayer
which is cold and feeble and devoid of zeal. I speak of that which
proceeds from a mind outstretched, the child of a contrite spirit, the offspring of a soul converted -– this is the prayer which mounts to
heaven.
   The power of prayer has subdued the strength of fire, bridled the
rage of lions, silenced anarchy, extinguished wars, appeased the
elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, enlarged the
gates of heaven, relieved diseases, averted frauds, rescued cities
from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the
progress of the thunderbolt. In sum prayer has power to destroy
whatever is at enmity with the good.”
--St. John Chrysostom

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* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)