From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   -- 1 Peter 1:6-7 --   
      
    In this you rejoice,[a] though now for a little while you may have to   
   suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith, more   
   precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may   
   redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus   
   Christ.   RSVCE   
   =================   
       As we realize that God brings benefit from our adversities, we   
   will begin to face challenging times with confidence that he always   
   has our best interest in mind. This leads to joy, because we know he   
   is building our endurance, purifying our hearts, and making us people   
   with unshakable trust in Him.   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 5th - St. Oswald, Martyr   
   (604-642)   
      
   When the pagan Angles and Saxons invaded Britain, the British   
   Christians resented the invasion. Actually, the invaders were to   
   profit spiritually, for in Britain they gradually became acquainted   
   with Christianity and accepted it. It was a slow process, however.   
   Penda, king of Mercia, was opposed to Christianity. When he slew King   
   St. Edwin and conquered his kingdom, Northumbria (in northern England   
   above the Humber River), there was a danger that the Northumbrians   
   would never get to hear the Gospel.   
      
   Fortunately, Oswald, the proper heir to the Northumbrian throne as   
   nephew of St. Edwin, was an earnest Christian. When he gathered his   
   troops to drive Penda out of the kingdom, it was his intention, on   
   winning, to consolidate the Christian faith among his countrymen.   
      
   The battle with King Penda was joined in 634. On the night before the   
   engagement, Oswald had a huge wooden cross made and planted in the   
   battlefield. Then he asked all his soldiers (although only a few of   
   them were Christian) to pray for heavenly help: “Let us all kneel and   
   jointly beseech the true and living God almighty, in his mercy, to   
   defend us from the haughty and fierce enemy, for he knows that we have   
   undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.” The soldiers all   
   complied. That night Oswald had a dream in which St. Columba of Iona   
   assured him of victory. They did indeed triumph, and Northumbria was   
   recovered. Oswald’s great cross was highly venerated thereafter for   
   miracles, and a church was built on the spot.   
      
   Young King Oswald did not delay to express his gratitude to God. He   
   invited monks to come down from Scotland (where he himself had been   
   baptized) to preach the faith to the Northumbrians. He also asked that   
   one monk be sent to become a bishop. The monastery of Iona chose the   
   Irish-born St. Aidan, and Oswald established his see on the island of   
   Lindisfarne. Soon the region north of the Humber had its Christians   
   and its churches and monasteries, thanks to the zeal and generosity of   
   the devout king.   
      
   Oswald’s piety was obvious. In his spare moments he prayed much and   
   gave thanks to God, resting his hands on his knees, the palms facing   
   heaven. He was most considerate of the poor, and one Easter day when a   
   crowd appeared at the castle gate asking for alms, he sent out a large   
   silver dish of meat, and ordered that after the meat had been taken,   
   the dish be broken up and its silver fragments distributed among the   
   poor. St. Aidan, then at the king’s table, seized Oswald’s right hand   
   and prayed, “May this hand never perish.”   
      
   However, after King Oswald had reigned in peace for several years,   
   Penda, whom he had defeated, returned with an army bent on recovering   
   control of Northumbria. The two royal armies met on a battlefield in   
   Shropshire, Oswald with a smaller force than the invaders. King   
   Oswald, seeing his soldiers doomed to defeat, prayed for the souls of   
   those who would die. It became a local proverb ever after: “O God, be   
   merciful to their souls, as said Oswald when he fell.” He died on the   
   field of battle on August 5, 642, aged only 38. It was a political   
   death, but it was also a martyrdom, for Penda had remained a bitter   
   enemy to the Christian faith.   
      
   St. Bede the Venerable, who lived just a century later, collected most   
   of the information we have about this holy English ruler. He relates   
   some of the miracles that happened afterwards, especially on the site   
   of this death, and were still happening from time to time, to man and   
   beast alike. St. Bede also recounts the sequel to St. Aidan’s prayer   
   over Oswald’s generous right hand, “May this hand never perish.” When   
   the king died, his arm was cut off as a relic. It remained incorrupt   
   for almost five centuries.   
      
   St. Oswald was for years considered one of the great national heroes   
   of England, and devotion to him also spread to the Continent. Although   
   his cult has since become dimmer, his feast is still observed in   
   several dioceses in England and Scotland, and even in Germany, at   
   Meissen and Trier.   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful   
   noise to him with psalms.  (Psalms 94:2)   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The goal of all our undertakings should be not so much a task   
   perfectly completed as the accomplishment of the will of God.   
   --St. Therese of the Child Jesus   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O glorious Maid, exalted far   
   Beyond the light of burning star,   
   From him who made thee thou hast won   
   Grace to be Mother of his Son.   
      
   That which was lost in hapless Eve   
   Thy holy Scion did retrieve;   
   The tear-worn sons of Adam’s race   
   Through thee have seen the heavenly place.   
      
   Thou wast the gate of heaven’s high Lord,   
   The door through which the light hath poured.   
   Christians rejoice, for through a Maid   
   To all mankind is life conveyed!   
      
   All honor, laud and glory be,   
   O Jesus, Virgin-born to thee!   
   All glory, as is ever meet,   
   To Father and to Paraclete. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)