From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Zeal in Amending our Lives  (9)   
      
   If there were nothing else to do but praise the Lord God with all your   
   heart and voice, if you had never to eat, or drink, or sleep, but   
   could praise God always and occupy yourself solely with spiritual   
   pursuits, how much happier you would be than you are now, a slave to   
   every necessity of the body! Would that there were no such needs, but   
   only the spiritual refreshments of the soul which, sad to say, we   
   taste too seldom!   
   Thomas a Kempis--Imitation of Christ--Bk 1, Ch 25   
      
   ==============   
   October 3rd - The Two Ewalds, Martyrs   
      
   Soon after St. Willibrord with 11 companions in the year 690 had   
   opened the spiritual harvest in Friesland, two brothers, both priests   
   from Northumbria, followed their example and went over into the   
   country of the Old Saxons in Westphalia to preach the gospel. They had   
   previously been for some time in Ireland to improve themselves in   
   sacred learning. Both had the same name Ewald, or Hewald for   
   distinction the one was called the Dark, the other the Fair Ewald,   
   from the colour of their hair. The first was more learned in the Holy   
   Scriptures, but both were equal in fervour of devotion and zeal. The   
   two brothers arrived in Germany about the year 694 and met a certain   
   official, whom they desired to conduct them to his lord, because they   
   had tidings for his advantage. The man invited them into his house and   
   kept them there for several days. The missionaries passed the time in   
   prayer, singing psalms and hymns, and every day offered the sacrifice   
   of the Mass.   
      
   The barbarians observing this, and fearing lest the preachers might   
   prevail upon their chief to forsake their gods for a new religion,   
   resolved to murder them both. Fair Ewald they killed by the sword upon   
   the spot, but inflicted on the Dark cruel torments before they tore   
   him limb from limb. The lord of the territory, when he heard of what   
   had happened, was furious that the two strangers had not been brought   
   to him: he put the murderers to the sword and burned their village.   
   The bodies of the martyrs, which had been thrown into the river, were   
   discovered by a heavenly light which shone over them; an English monk,   
   Tilmon, was warned in a vision what this column of light portended and   
   gave the bodies honourable burial. St. Bede says this river was the   
   Rhine, but the traditional place of the Ewalds’ martyrdom is at   
   Aplerbeke on the Embscher, a tributary, near Dortmund. The Ewalds were   
   at once honoured as martyrs, and Pepin had their bodies taken up and   
   enshrined in the church of St. Cunibert at Cologne, where they still   
   are. They are named in the Roman Martyrology and venerated as the   
   patrons of Westphalia their feast is also kept by the   
   Premonstratensian canons regular, for whom St. Norbert obtained some   
   of their relics in 1121.   
      
   In the calendar known as St. Willibrord’s, which must have been   
   written in the early years of the eighth century (probably before   
   710), we have under October 4 the entry, natale sanctorum martyrum   
   Heuualdi et Heualdi. The Fulda martyrology and that preserved in   
   Anglo-Saxon both agree with Bede’s History in naming October 3 as the   
   proper day. See also the notes of C. Plummer’s edition of Bede,   
   especially pp. 289-290; and H. A. Wilson in The Calendar of St.   
   Willibrord (1918), p. 41   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   My wish for all of you is to die on the cross with Christ in defense   
   of your family's holiness and purity.   
   --Padre Pio   
      
   Bible Quote   
   Of the fruit of his own mouth shall a man be filled with good things:   
   but the soul of transgressors is wicked. 3 He that keepeth his mouth,   
   keepeth his soul: but he that hath no guard on his speech shall meet   
   with evils.  (Proverbs 13:2-3)   
      
   <><><><>   
   Our Lady of October   
      
   Our Lady of October!   
   How fitting such a name,   
   Now when the woods in grandeur   
   Put on their cloaks of flame.   
   It is to do you honor,   
   Before woods come to die;   
   They celebrate love's token:   
   Your holy Rosary.   
      
   We seem to see you standing   
   Down each dim, golden lane,   
   By the harvest moon enhaloed,   
   In nature's forest-fane,   
      
   While mellow earth soft raises   
   Its evening prayer on high,   
   And we repeat the Aves   
   Of your dear Rosary.   
      
   O Lady of October,   
   When death's autumn time is nigh,   
   May our golden key to Heaven   
   Be your holy Rosary.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)