From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Many Blessings Granted to the Devout Communicant [V]    
      
   I labour in the sweat of my brow; (Gen 3:19) I am tortured by grief of   
   heart; I am burdened by my sins, troubled by temptations, entangled   
   and oppressed by many evil passions. There is none who can help, none   
   who can liberate and save, but You O Lord God, my Saviour: to You,   
   then, I commit myself and all I have, that You may guard and guide me   
   to eternal life. Receive me for the praise and glory of Your Name, who   
   have given Your Body and Blood to be my food and drink. O Lord God, my   
   Saviour, grant that through the reception of Your Mysteries, the fire   
   of devotion may kindle in me.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 4 Ch.4   
      
      
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   April 22nd - Saint Leonidas of Alexandria   
   (Also known as Leonides)   
      
   (d. 202)   
      
   The Emperor Severus, in the year 202, the tenth of his reign, raised a   
   bloody persecution which filled the entire empire with martyrs, but   
   especially Egypt. The most illustrious of those who by their triumphs   
   ennobled and edified the city of Alexandria was Leonides, father of   
   the great Origen. He was a Christian philosopher and excellently   
   versed both in the profane and sacred sciences. He had seven sons; the   
   eldest was Origen, whom he brought up with very great care, returning   
   thanks to God for having blessed him with a son of such an excellent   
   disposition for learning, and so remarkable a piety. After his son was   
   baptized, he would come to his bedside while he was asleep and,   
   bending over the child, would kiss his breast respectfully, as the   
   temple of the Holy Spirit.   
      
   When the persecution reached Alexandria in 202, under Laetus, governor   
   of Egypt, Leonides was cast into prison. Origen, who was then only   
   seventeen years of age, burned with a fervent desire for martyrdom,   
   and sought every opportunity of facing it. His ardor redoubled at the   
   sight of his father’s chains, and his mother was forced to lock up all   
   his clothes to oblige him to stay at home. She conjured him not to   
   forsake her; thus, unable to do more, he wrote a letter to his father   
   in very moving terms, strongly exhorting him to look at the crown that   
   was offered him with courage and joy. He added this exhortation: “Take   
   heed that for our sakes you do not change your mind!” Leonides was   
   indeed beheaded for the faith in 202.   
      
   Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Never see a need without trying to do something about it.   
   --Blessed Mary Mackillop   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall   
   be upon his arm, and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried   
   up, and his right eye utterly darkened.  (Zech 11:17)   
      
      
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   Humility   
      
   Humility so greatly pleases God that, in coming upon earth, He made it   
   His own special virtue.  In order to understand it, let us rise above   
   the highest heavens to that sublime solitude where the infinite   
   excellence of His Being places Him--at an incommensurable distance   
   from all created beings.  This will be the starting-point which will   
   enable us to measure the humility of the Incarnate Word.  He descends   
   first to the dazzling order of the Seraphim, which, for God, is   
   already an immense descent; it is to traverse the infinite.  He still   
   descends, and descends until He arrives at our nature.  It is in our   
   clay He wills His majesty to be.  But in this clay there are different   
   degrees.  There is the clay which shines beneath the splendor of gold   
   and of purple.  It is doubtless a false splendor, but yet it shines;   
   the Word of God will have none of it.  He, therefore, descends yet   
   lower.  First, He finds a stable, then the dwelling of an artisan.  He   
   finds a poor woman, who gains her bread by labor.  He descends even   
   lower than this, and He hides Himself in her womb; He chooses this   
   obscure person to be His first dwelling upon earth.  O abyss of   
   humility!  Who, after this, would desire esteem and glory? Who would   
   wish to appear in public, to attract notice, to make himself   
   applauded?  Who would not love a hidden life?   
      
    --Rev. M. Hamon, Meditations for All the Days of the Year, 19th century   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)