From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   -- John 20:24-25 --   
      
   24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them   
   when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the   
   Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of   
   the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my   
   hand in his side, I will not believe.”   
   =================================   
    “This was, therefore, a work of divine providence, that the   
   separation of the disciple, would become a harbinger of increasing   
   safety and surety.   For if Thomas had not been absent, he would not   
   have doubted; and, if he would not have doubted, he would not have   
   sought strangely; and, if he would not have sought, he would not have   
   felt; and, if he would not have felt, he would not have been convinced   
   of the Lord and God; and, if he did not call Him Lord and God, then   
   neither would we have been taught to hymn Him thus.   For Thomas, by   
   not being present, has led us towards the truth and later, became more   
   confirmed regarding the faith.”   
   … St John Chrysostom (347-407) Father and Doctor   
      
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   July 4th - St. Andrew of Crete, Archbishop of Gortyna   
   (A.D. 740?)   
      
   This Andrew was born at Damascus about the middle of the seventh   
   century. In contrast with the ready tongue of his later years, he is   
   said to have been quite dumb until he received holy communion when he   
   was seven years old. At the age of fifteen he went to Jerusalem (after   
   which city he is sometimes named) and became a monk of St. Sabas and   
   of the Holy Sepulchre, where he received the orders of lector and   
   subdeacon. He in 685 was sent to Constantinople by Theodore, Patriarch   
   of Jerusalem, to reiterate the adhesion of his church to the sixth   
   oecumenical council, which had recently condemned the monothelite   
   heresy. Andrew remained in the city and was ordained a deacon of the   
   Great Church, and put in charge of an orphanage and of a hospice for   
   old men. His character and all-round abilities caused him soon to be   
   advanced to the bishopric of Gortyna, the metropolitan see of Crete.   
   Here he became himself involved in the final recrudescence of   
   Monothelism in 711, when Philippicus Bardanes seized the imperial   
   throne, burned the acts of the sixth ecumenical council, restored the   
   names of those it had anathematized to the diptychs in the liturgy,   
   and summoned a synod to approve his actions. Andrew was present at   
   this synod in 712, but came to his senses in the following year and   
   doubtless associated himself with the long letter of apology and   
   explanation (pleading force majeure) which his patriarch sent to Pope   
   Constantine, when the orthodox Anastasius II had driven out Bardanes.   
      
   For the rest of his life St. Andrew distinguished himself as a   
   preacher and hymnographer. More than 20 of his discourses are extant,   
   which have been edited and published; but it is as a writer of hymns   
   that he has left a permanent mark on the Byzantine liturgy. He is said   
   to have introduced that form of hymnody called a kanon; certain it is   
   that he wrote a large number of these and associated compositions,   
   some of which are still sung. Unfortunately the kanon is a form that   
   lends itself to empty verbosity; St. Andrew himself wrote one of 250   
   strophes, sung in Lent, "with much hard work and weariness of the   
   lungs", wrote Combefis. St. Andrew's homilies are of importance in the   
   history of the development of Mariology. This saint must not be   
   confused with another Andrew of Crete, "the Calybite" (October 17).   
      
   The panegyric of Nicetas Quaestor (BHG., 16) tells us something of the   
   life of St. Andrew, and cf, S. Vailhe in Échos d’Orient, vol. v   
   (1902), pp. 378-387. Upon Andrew as homilist and hymn-writer see   
   Bardenhewer, Patrology (Eng. Trans.), ….   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   In the trials, annoyances and anxieties we daily experience, may we   
   ever recognise that loving Fatherly Hand that only seeks to draw us   
   closer to himself by giving us opportunities to suffer something for   
   him.   
   -- Saint Mary MacKillop   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    Therefore seeing we have this ministration, according as we have   
   obtained mercy, we faint not. But we renounce the hidden things of   
   dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor adulterating the word of   
   God: but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every   
   man's conscience, in the sight of God. [2Co 4:1-2] DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayers   
      
   We adore Thee, O Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, here and in   
   all Thy churches that are in the whole world, and we bless   
   Thee; for by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.   
      
   Grant me Thy grace, most merciful Jesus, that it may be with   
   me and labour with me and continue with me unto the end.   
   Grant me always to will and desire that which is most   
   acceptable to Thee and which pleaseth Thee best.   
   Let Thy Will be mine, and let my will always follow Thine   
   and agree perfectly with it.   
   Let me always will or not will the same with Thee; and let me   
   not be able to will or not to will otherwise than as Thou willest   
   or willest not.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)