From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Counsels on the Inner Life  (I)   
      
   'The Kingdom of God is within you,(Luke 17:21) says Our Lord. Turn to   
   the Lord with all your heart,(Joel 2:12) forsake this sorry world, and   
   your soul shall find rest (Matt.11:29). Learn to turn from worldly   
   things, and give yourself to spiritual things, and you will see the   
   Kingdom of God come within you. For the Kingdom is peace and joy in   
   the Holy Spirit;(Rom.14:17) these are not granted to the wicked.   
   Christ will come to you, and impart his consolations to you, if you   
   prepare a worthy dwelling for Him in your heart. All true glory and   
   beauty is within,(Ps. 45:14) and there He delights to dwell. He often   
   visits the spiritual man, and holds sweet discourse with him, granting   
   him refreshing grace, great peace, and friendship exceeding all   
   expectation.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2, Ch  1   
      
   ===========   
   July 20th - St Apollinaris of Ravenna, Bishop & Martyr   
   d. 79 AD   
      
   In Galatians 2:11-14, we read “And when Kephas (Peter) came to   
   Antioch…”, where Paul rebuked him for treating Gentile converts as   
   inferior to Jewish Christians.   
      
   The Liber Pontificalis (9th century) mentions Peter as having served   
   as bishop of Antioch (near modern day Antakya, Turkey, bordering   
   northwestern Syria) for 7 years and having potentially left his family   
   in the Greek (culturally, due to the conquests of Alexander the Great)   
   city before his journey to Rome. [Claims of direct blood lineage from   
   Simon Peter among the old population of Antioch existed in the 1st   
   century and continue to exist today, notably by certain Semaan   
   families of modern-day Syria and Lebanon.]   
      
   Historians have furnished other evidence of Peter’s sojourn in   
   Antioch.  Subsequent tradition held that Peter had been the first   
   Patriarch (bishop) of Antioch, before departing for Rome to become   
   Patriarch of Rome, and the first Pope, where he, like nearly all of   
   the Apostles, except John, would suffer martyrdom.  Electii to the   
   papacy have always had the words spoken to them after their election,   
   “Tu es Petrus…”, as in “…you are Peter…” Mt 16:18.   
      
   In the 1st century, Apollinaris, tradition holds, accompanied Peter   
   from Antioch to Rome. Peter consecrated him a bishop and appointed him   
   to proclaim the Gospel in the city of Ravenna, Italy.  Apollinaris,   
   like the Apostles, dedicated his time to public preaching and soon won   
   many converts to Christ.   
      
   The story goes Apollinaris’ first miracle was on behalf of the blind   
   son of a soldier who gave him hospitality when he first arrived in the   
   city of Ravenna. When the apostle told him of the God he had come to   
   preach and invited him to abandon the cult of idols, the soldier   
   replied: “Stranger, if the God you preach is as powerful as you say,   
   beg Him to give sight to my son, and I will believe in Him.” The Saint   
   had the child brought and made the sign of the cross on his eyes as he   
   prayed. The miracle was instantaneous, to the great amazement of all,   
   and news of it spread rapidly. A day or so later, a military tribune   
   sent for him to cure his wife from a long illness, which again he did.   
   The house of the tribune became a center of apostolic action, and   
   several persons sent their children to the Saint to instruct them   
   there. Little by little a flourishing Christian assembly was formed,   
   and priests and deacons were ordained. The Saint lived in community   
   with the two priests and two deacons.   
      
   Nobody likes competition.  The pagan priests grew angry.  They   
   attacked Apollinaris, beat him senseless, and left him for dead on the   
   beach. He was cared for by members of the small Christian community he   
   had founded and recovered.   
      
   Apparently, Apollinaris was not one to take a hint, or be easily   
   dissuaded.  A young girl whom he cured after having her father promise   
   to allow her full liberty to follow Christ, consecrated her virginity   
   to God.  It was after this he was arrested, interrogated, again   
   flogged, stretched on the rack and plunged into boiling oil. Alive   
   still, he was exiled to Illyria, east of the Adriatic Sea.   
      
   He remained 3 years in that country, having survived a shipwreck with   
   only a few persons whom he converted. Then he evangelized the various   
   districts, with the aid of his converts. When a pagan oracle ceased to   
   speak during his sojourn in one of these regions, the pagans again   
   beat him and threw him and his companions on a ship which took them   
   back to Italy.  Soon imprisoned, he escaped but was seized again and   
   subjected to another flogging.   
      
   A third time he returned to Ravenna. Again he was captured, hacked   
   with knives, had scalding water poured over his wounds, was beaten in   
   the mouth with stones because he persisted in preaching, and was flung   
   into a horrible dungeon, loaded with chains, to starve to death.   
      
   He and his flock were again exiled from Ravenna during the   
   persecutions of Emperor Vespasian. A fourth time, he returned to   
   Ravenna.  On his way out of the city he was identified, arrested, and   
   martyred by being run through with a sword.   
      
   He died on July 23rd of the year 79. His body lay first at Classis,   
   four miles from Ravenna, and a church was built over his tomb; later   
   the relics were returned to Ravenna. Pope Honorius had a church built   
   to honor the name of Apollinaris in Rome, about the year 630 AD.   
   Centuries after his death, he appeared in a vision to Saint Romuald.   
   Saint Apollinaris was Bishop of Ravenna for 26 years.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Zeal without knowledge is always less useful and effective than   
   informed zeal, and is very often dangerous!   
   --St. Bernard of Clairvaux   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   With all thy strength love him that made thee: and forsake not his   
   ministers. Honour God with all thy soul and give honour to the   
   priests, and purify thyself with thy arms. Give them their portion, as   
   it is commanded thee, of the first-fruits and of purifications: and   
   for thy negligences purify thyself with a few. Offer to the Lord the   
   gift of thy shoulders, and the sacrifice of sanctification, and the   
   first-fruits of the holy things: [Sirach 7: 32-36]  DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Meditation:   
   Following Jesus involves risks—sometimes the supreme risk of life   
   itself. Martyrs are people who would rather accept the risk of death   
   than deny the cornerstone of their whole life: faith in Jesus Christ.   
   Everyone will die eventually—the persecutors and those persecuted. The   
   question is what kind of a conscience people will bring before the   
   Lord for judgment. Remembering the witness of past and present martyrs   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)