From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How Surrender of Self Brings Freedom of Heart  [I]   
      
   CHRIST.   
    My son, renounce self and you shall find me. (Matt. 16:24) Retain no   
   private choice or personal interest and you will always be the gainer.   
   As soon as you yield yourself unreservedly into My hands, I will grant   
   you even richer graces.   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
    How often shall I yield myself and in what way forsake myself, Lord?   
      
   CHRIST.   
   Always and at all times, in small things as well as in great. I make   
   no exceptions, for I desire to have you wholly divested of self:   
   otherwise, unless you are wholly stripped of self-will, how can you be   
   Mine, or I yours? The sooner you do this the better it will be with   
   you and the more completely and sincerely you do it, the better you   
   will please Me and the greater will be your gain.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 37   
      
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   January 10th – St. Marcian of Constantinople B (RM)   
      
   Died c. 480. Marcian was a saint of Constantinople, though connected   
   with a Roman family. He was ordained a priest and appointed treasurer   
   of Santa Sophia. Many churches were in disrepair in Constantinople   
   but, in his official capacity, Marcian superintended their restoration   
   to former beauty, and the building of several churches, most notably   
   the Anastasis. He was also inspired to write splendid hymns. So he   
   used all his talents to bring people to worship Jesus.   
      
   He modeled his life after that of Saint John the Baptist, always   
   trying to serve God by fasting and praying. But unlike John the   
   Baptist, he came of a rich family. Marcian gave away much money to the   
   poor—secretly, so as not to gain the approval of his fellow men.   
      
   At times he suffered persecution because he was wrongly suspected of   
   being a Novatian. One of his persecutors, threatening to kill Marcian,   
   asked him, "Why do you talk of life, if you wish to die?" Marcian   
   replied, "Because it is everlasting life I look for, not the life of   
   this world." Eventually people saw that this was an uncommonly good   
   man, one who should be copied, not persecuted.   
      
   One day when he was hurrying to the consecration of a new church, he   
   passed a miserable, nearly naked beggar. Saint Marcian gave him all   
   his clothing. All he had left was a chasuble. The congregation,   
   however, seemed to see a fine golden robe under Marcian's chasuble.   
   Afterwards Patriarch Gennadius even rebuked the saint for dressing so   
   ostentatiously. Marcian plucked off the chasuble and revealed that he   
   was wearing nothing else (Benedictines, Bentley).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "A greedy appetite for food is terminated by satiety and the pleasure   
   of drinking ends when our thirst is quenched. And so it is with the   
   other things... But the possession of virtue, once it is solidly   
   achieved, cannot be measured by time nor limited by satiety. Rather,   
   to those who are its disciples it always appears as something ever new   
   and fresh."   
   --Saint Gregory of Nyssa   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the   
   kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in   
   heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me   
   in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast   
   out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? [Mat   
   7:21-22] DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   HAIL THOU STAR OF OCEAN   
      
   Hail thou star of ocean Portal of the sky   
   Ever virgin Mother Of the Lord Most High   
      
   O! by Gabriel's Ave Uttered long ago,   
   Eva's name reversing, Established peace below   
      
   Break the captives' fetters, Light on blindness pour,   
    All our ills expelling, Every bliss implore   
      
   Show thyself a Mother, Offer Him our sighs,   
   Who for us incarnate Did not thee despise   
      
   Virgin of all virgins To thy shelter take us,   
   Gentlest of the gentle Chaste and gentle make us   
      
   Still, as on we journey, Help our weak endeavor,   
   Till with thee and Jesus We rejoice forever   
      
   Through the highest heaven, To the almighty Three   
   Father, Son, and Spirit, One same glory be.  Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)