From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Love is sufficient of itself   
      
   Love is sufficient of itself; it gives pleasure by itself and because   
   of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no   
   cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in the   
   practice. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul,   
   love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator   
   and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For   
   when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return. The sole   
   purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who   
   love him are made happy by their love of him.   
   --from a sermon by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux   
      
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   December 22nd - St. Ischyrion, St. Chaeremon and other Martyrs   
      
   The third century was marked by Roman persecutions of the Church.   
   Today's saints were martyred during the reign of Emperor Decius.   
   They lived in Egypt. Many of the Christians were driven out into the   
   desert. There they died in a variety of ways: hunger, thirst, cold   
   nights, wild animals, criminals. Naturally, if the Christians tried to   
   return to civilization, they were killed. The young, healthy   
   Christians were sold into slavery.   
      
   St. Chaeremon was a priest and bishop of Nilopolis. He was very old   
   when the persecution became extreme. The elderly bishop and a   
   companion went for shelter to the mountains of Arabia. They were never   
   seen again, nor were their bodies ever found.   
      
   St. Ischyrion worked for an official in one of Egypt's cities. It may   
   have been Alexandria. His employer required that he sacrifice to the   
   gods. Ischyrion refused because this was against the first   
   commandment. The official was angry and insulted.    
   He had Ischyrion killed.   
   A great many other martyrs are included here who gave their lives for   
   Jesus at this time in Egypt.   
      
   Today, there are still many people who suffer for their faith in   
   Jesus. Let us pray for them, that they will have the courage they need   
   to be faithful to the Gospel.   
      
   Reflection:   
   It is not a man's terrestrial condition, but his virtue that can make   
   him truly great and truly happy. However lowly a person's station or   
   circumstances may be, the road to both greatness and happiness is open   
   to him; and there is not a servant or slave whom God will not sustain,   
   if he is fired with the laudable ambition of arriving at the summit of   
   Christian perfection. (Rev. Alban Butler)   
      
      
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   Who abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him.--1 John 4:16   
      
   13. To lose ourselves in God is simply to give up our own will to Him.   
   When a soul can say truly, "Lord, I have no other will than Thine," it   
   is truly lost in God, and united to Him.   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
   The venerable Father Daponte made this prayer, and repeated it every   
   day: "Fiat, Domine de me, in me, pro me, et circa me et omnia mea,   
   sancta voluntas Tua, in omnibus et per omnia et in   
   aeternum--Concerning me, in me, for me, in regard to me, and all that   
   I have, may Thy holy will, O Lord, be done, in all things, and through   
   all things, and to eternity."   
      
   The Lord appeared one day to St. Gertrude and said to her: "Daughter,   
   behold I bring you in one hand health, and in the other sickness.   
   Choose which you please!" The Saint, throwing herself at His feet,   
   with her hands crossed upon her bosom, answered: "O Lord, I pray Thee   
   not to consider my will at all, but solely Thine own, and to do with   
   me whatever will result in Thy greatest glory and satisfaction; for I   
   have no desire except to have whatever Thou wishest me to have." The   
   Lord was much pleased with this reply, and added: "Let those who   
   desire that I should often visit them give Me the key of their will,   
   and never take it back?' Instructed by these words, the Saint composed   
   for herself this aspiration, which she frequently repeated ever after:   
   "Non mea, sed Tua voluntas fiat, Jesu amantissime!--Not my will, but   
   Thine be done, O most loving Jesus!"   
      
   ("A Year with the Saints".  December: Union)   
      
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   Prayer: Lord, grant us the grace to be courageous in times of peril   
   and to stand fast in our faith always, knowing that You are with us,   
   even unto death. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)