From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Put on the garment of holiness   
      
   Do not forfeit what Divine authority confers on you. Put on the   
   garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let   
   Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your   
   unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God   
   that He Himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet   
   smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your   
   heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your   
   body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not   
   for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter,   
   but by the offering of your free will.”   
   --from a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus   
      
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   July 30th - Blessed Manés de Guzmán   
   (Also known as Mamerto, Mamés, Manez)   
      
   †. 1230   
      
   Of the 3 sons of Felix de Guzman and Bl. Joan of Aza, Manés was the   
   middle one, Antony being the elder, and St. Dominic, founder of the   
   Friars Preachers, the younger.  Manés was born at Calaruega, in the   
   province of Burgos, in the middle of the 12th century and had already   
   devoted himself to God when Dominic was born in 1170.  Of most of his   
   life nothing is known, but he was among his younger brother's first   
   followers, one of the 16 who adopted the Rule of St. Augustine in 1216   
   and made their profession at Prouille in the following year. These men   
   were "all in fact and in name excellent preachers", and Manés had   
   already shared his brother's labours in Languedoc. After they had made   
   their vows Dominic decided on the bold stroke of sending them straight   
   out into the world, and Manés with six others went to Paris and made   
   the first French foundation, under Brother Matthew of France, near the   
   university. He is next heard of as chaplain to the nuns at Prouille,   
   whom St. Dominic had established in 1207, and later on was put in   
   charge of their new convent at Madrid; the founder refers to him in a   
   letter to the sisters: "Our very dear brother, Brother Manés, who has   
   spared no pains to bring you to this high state, will take what steps   
   seem to him necessary to secure its continuance. He has authority from   
   us to make visitation of the convent, to correct what he finds amiss,   
   and if he so judge fitting, to change the prioress, so long as the   
   greater number of the sisters consent thereto."   
      
    Dominic evidently had a very high opinion of the qualities of his   
   brother, who had always had an attraction to the contemplative life,   
   making him a particularly suitable director for the Madrid nuns, an   
   office he filled for a dozen years.  He clearly shared the peaceful   
   gentle disposition and personality which strongly attracted men to St.   
   Dominic, and had a similar serene and reasonable knowledge of the   
   difficulties of souls. Bl. Manés outlived his great brother, but the   
   year of his death is not certain; it is generally given as 1230, but   
   there is a story that he visited Calaruega after St. Dominic's   
   canonization in 1234 and urged the people to build a chapel in his   
   honour, saying, "Be satisfied with a small one for the present: my   
   brother will know how to enlarge it when he chooses to", a prophecy   
   fulfilled by King Alfonso X thirty years after. Bl. Manés was buried   
   at the Cistercian church of St. Peter at Gamiel d'Izan, and his cult   
   us was approved in 1834.   
      
   See Mortier, Maîtres, Généraux 0.P., vol. i, pp. 2, 29, 90; Procter,   
   Dominican Saints, pp. 213-215  Année Dominicaine, vol. vii, p. 819.   
      
      
   Bible Quote   
   let him turn away from evil and do right;   
   let him seek peace and pursue it.   
   12 For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,   
   and his ears are open to their prayer.   
   But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil.”  (1 Peter   
   3:11-12)  RSVCE   
      
      
    Reflection   
    29 July – Today’s Gospel: John 6:1–15   
   “This is indeed the Prophet, the one who is to come into the w   
   rld!”…John 6:14   
      
   “The disciples say that they have only five loaves and two fish. The   
   five loaves signified that they were still subject to the five books   
   of the Law and the two fish that they were fed by the teachings of the   
   prophets and John the Baptist… This was what the apostles had to offer   
   to begin with since this was the point they were at and it was from   
   this point, that the preaching of the Gospel began…   
      
   Our Lord took the loaves and the fish. He raised his eyes to heaven,   
   said the blessing and broke them. He gave thanks to the Father because   
   the Good News was being changed into food after centuries of the Law   
   and the prophets…  The loaves were then given to the apostles, it was   
   at their hands, that the gifts of divine grace were to be handed out.   
   Then the people were fed with the five loaves and two fish and, when   
   those who were invited were satisfied, the leftovers of bread and fish   
   were so plentiful that 12 baskets were filled with them. What this   
   means is that the crowd was filled with God’s word coming from the   
   teaching of the Law and the prophets. But it is an abundance of divine   
   power, kept aside for the gentiles, that overflows after the provision   
   of the food that lasts forever. It comes to its full complement, that   
   of the number 12, the same as the number of the apostles. Now, it   
   happens that the number of those who ate is the same as that of those   
   who would come to believe--5000  (Mt 14:21; Acts 4:4).”   
   --St Hilary (c 315-367) Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)