From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Lord of Angels,   
      
   "Do you see how he [Jesus] leads him [Nathanael] up little by little   
   from the earth and causes him no longer to imagine him as merely a   
   man? For one to whom angels minister and on whom angels ascend and   
   descend, how could he be a man? This is why he said, 'You shall see   
   greater things than these.' And to prove this, he introduces the   
   ministry of angels. What he means is something like this: Does this, O   
   Nathanael, seem to you a great matter, and have you for this confessed   
   me to be King of Israel? What then will you say when you see 'angels   
   ascending and descending on me'? He persuades him by these words to   
   receive him as Lord also of the angels. For on him as on the king's   
   own son, the royal ministers ascended and descended, once at the   
   season of the crucifixion, again at the time of the resurrection and   
   the ascension, and before this also, when they 'came and ministered to   
   him' (Matthew 4:11). They also ascended and descended when they   
   proclaimed the good news of his birth and cried, 'Glory to God in the   
   highest, and on earth peace' (Luke 2:14), when they came to Mary and   
   also when they came to Joseph... Our Lord made the present a proof of   
   the future. After the powers he had already shown, Nathanael would   
   readily believe that much more would follow."   
   by John Chrysostom (excerpt from the Homilies On the Gospel of John 21.1)   
      
   ===============   
   August 30th - Saint Fantinus of San Mercurius, Abbot   
   Also known as Fantinus of Calabria, Fantinus the Younger, Fantino….   
   c. 980   
      
   At Thessalonica, St. Fantinus, confessor, who suffered much from the   
   Saracens, and was driven from his monastery, in which he had lived in   
   great abstinence.  After having brought many to the way of salvation,   
   he rested at last at an advanced age.   
      
   This Fantinus is said to have been abbot of the Greek monastery of St.   
   Mercury in Calabria.  After some years he claimed that the voice of   
   God was telling him to leave the monastery and he accordingly did so,   
   wandering about the countryside from place to place, sleeping in the   
   open, and living on fruit and herbs. When he came to a church or   
   monastery he lamented and prophesied woe; when he met a monk he wept   
   over him as though he were a dead man.  When his friends, much upset   
   by this strange behaviour, tried to induce him to return to the   
   monastery, he only replied that there would soon be no monastery to   
   return to and that he would die in a foreign land.  In due course the   
   Saracens devastated Calabria, the monastery of St. Mercury was   
   destroyed, and St. Fantinus with two disciples went overseas and   
   landed in the Peloponnesus. He lived for a time at Corinth and at   
   Larissa in Thessaly, and then moved to Salonika, where his miracles   
   and virtues made him famous.  Here he died.   
      
   Not much that is reliable is known of this saint, though the   
   Bollandists have devoted a few pages to him in the Acta Sanctorum,   
   August, vol. vi.  It is apparently this Fantinus who figures in the   
   Constantinople synaxaries on November 14; though in an Italo-Greek   
   synaxary he is assigned to August 30.  See J. Rendel Harris, Further   
   Researches into the Ferrar Group (1900), with Delehaye's comments in   
   the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxi (1902); pp. 23-28.  The story seems   
   to be nothing but legend and confusion, including possibly confusion   
   between two holy men, both named Fantinus.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Let us raise ourselves from our fall and not give up hope as long as   
   we are free from sin. Jesus Christ came into this world to save   
   sinners. 'Come, let us adore and prostrate ourselves and weep before   
   him' (Psalm 95:6). The Word calls us to repentance, crying out: 'Come   
   to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened and I will refresh   
   you' (Matthew 11:28). There is, then, a way to salvation if we are   
   willing to follow it"   
   --Saint Basil the Great   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart   
       be acceptable in thy sight,   
       O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  (Psalm 19:14)   RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Great Truths   [6] How to Attain our End   
      
   One thing I do; forgetting the things that are behind and stretching   
   forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark.   
   (Phil. 3:13-14)   
      
   Every one desires to succeed in life. A man who desired ultimate   
   failure would justly be regarded as a lunatic. If I am to carry out my   
   desire, I must look around me and see what sort of men succeed.   
      
   When I look at successful men, I find, in them three characteristics:   
      
   (1) A spirit of cheerfulness and confidence. They know how to look at   
   everything from its best side. They are always hopeful about the   
   future and confident of success. This it is that brings success. Hence   
   I must pray for confidence.   
      
   (2) A spirit of perseverance. They are not discouraged by failures.   
   They recover themselves without delay. What a lesson for me not to   
   lose heart, but to say : "When I fall I will rise again, and that   
   promptly."   
      
   (3) A spirit of single-mindedness. They keep the end in view steadily   
   before them. If I am to achieve the purpose of my life, to succeed in   
   coming to God at last, I must keep Him always before me.   
      
   What can make my life so happy as this-- to know that I am drawing   
   nearer to God? Yet there will be dark times and days of despondency.   
   Still, beneath the surface, there will be hope and peace, even amid   
   the darkness.   
      
   Pray for cheerfulness and an earnest purpose to live for God.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)