From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The good shepherd feeds us with the words of God   
      
   "The pastures that this good shepherd has prepared for you, in which   
   he has settled you for you to take your fill, are not various kinds of   
   grasses and green things, among which some are sweet to the taste,   
   some extremely bitter, which as the seasons succeed one another are   
   sometimes there and sometimes not. Your pastures are the words of God   
   and his commandments, and they have all been sown as sweet grasses.   
   These pastures had been tasted by that man who said to God, 'How sweet   
   are your words to my palate, more so than honey and the honeycomb in   
   my mouth!'   
   --St. Augustine--(Psalm 119:103)." (excerpt from Sermon 366.3)   
      
   ===============   
   April 12th - St. Sabas the Goth, Abbot and Martyr   
   (Martyred A.D. 372)   
      
   To the north of the Danube River, the ancient boundary of the Roman   
   Empire, lived the barbarian (i.e. “foreign”) peoples. One of these was   
   the Germanic Goths, who had come down from Sweden and settled near the   
   Roman boundary. The emperors warred to keep them out, but in the third   
   century they broke through and settled in the Roman provinces of Dacia   
   and Moesia (around Rumania). From there they sent out raiding parties   
   into Asia Minor, bringing home many captives as slaves. But these   
   Christian captives taught Christian doctrine to their pagan masters,   
   and soon many Goths asked for baptism.   
      
   In 370, one of the Gothic commanders started to persecute the   
   Christianized Goths, and at least 50 died for the faith. One of them   
   was St. Sabas.   
      
   Sabas had become a Christian in his early youth, and served as a lay   
   lector to a local priest named Sansala. At the outset of the   
   persecution the officials commanded the Christians to eat meat that   
   had been sacrificed to Gothic idols. Some non-Christian Goths,   
   thinking to save their Christian friends and relatives, talked the   
   officials into substituting nonsacrificial meat for the required meat   
   forbidden to Christians. But Sabas stood firm. He refused to have any   
   part of this deceit, and declared that those who did so betrayed their   
   Christian faith. He was ousted from the town, but before long was   
   allowed to return.   
      
   A year later, when the persecution flared up once more, some of the   
   principal citizens, again eager to protect the Christians, offered to   
   swear to the king’s men that there were no Christians in the village.   
   Sabas again spoke up. “Let no one swear for me,” he cried. “I am a   
   Christian!”   
      
   Though twice preserved, Sabas won his crown two years later. A pagan   
   Goth named Atharidus, leading a marauding band of soldiers, attacked   
   the town and arrested Sansala and Sabas. Sabas they dragged naked   
   through briars and beat with sticks. The next morning he pointed out   
   to his tormenters that there was not a scratch or bruise on his body.   
   They saw that it was miraculously true; but rather than relent, they   
   subjected him to further tortures. When he and Sansala still refused   
   to eat the sacrificial meat, one of the soldiers thrust his spear into   
   the lector’s side. Although the blow would normally have been mortal,   
   it had no effect at all. “I felt no more,” he told his captors, “than   
   if that javelin had been a skein of wool.”   
      
   Atharidus, learning of Sabas’ immunity to spear thrusts, ordered that   
   he be drowned in the river. At the very river bank, one of the   
   officials, knowing that the condemned was guiltless, suggested that   
   they simply set him free, and allow their leader to think the   
   execution had taken place. But Sabas, ever truthful, would not go   
   along with the suggestion. “Obey your orders,” he told them. Anyhow,   
   he said he could see what they could not: “I see people on the   
   opposite side of the river who are ready to receive my soul and   
   conduct me to glory. They are only waiting for the moment when it will   
   leave my body.”   
      
   So the executioners held his head under water until he was dead. Then   
   the angels and saints “across the river” gave him a joyful welcome.   
   Other Christian Goths wrote up the whole story in a letter they sent   
   to St. Basil the Great.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Man's value before God is estimated by the dispositions of his heart,   
   its uprightness, its good-will, its charity, and not by keenness of   
   intellect or extent of knowledge."   
   --Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For neither did his brethren believe in him. 6 Then Jesus said to   
   them: My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. 7 The   
   world cannot hate you; but me it hateth: because I give testimony of   
   it, that the works thereof are evil.  (John 7:5-7)   
      
   <><><><>   
   Sancti venite,   
      
   Come all ye holy,   
   take the Body of your Lord,   
   Drink of His chalice,   
   take the Blood for you outpoured.   
      
   Saved by His Body,   
   by His sacred Blood, we raise   
   grateful our voices   
   unto God hymns of praise.   
      
   Giver of life, He   
   Christ our Savior, Son of God,   
   saved the world   
   by His Cross and precious Blood.   
      
   Dying for all men,   
   he the Lord prepared this feast,   
   offered as a victim,   
   offering Himself as priest.   
      
   God to our fathers   
   ordered sacrifice of old;   
   so He in symbols   
   Christ the victim true unfold.   
      
   Giver of light, the   
   one Redeemer of our race,   
   He to His hold   
   servants gives abundant grace.   
      
   Come, who with pure hearts   
   in the Savior's word believe;   
   come and partaking   
   saving grace from Him receive.   
      
   God our defender,   
   guardian sure in this our strife,   
   gives to His faithful   
   after death eternal life.   
      
   He to the hungry   
   gives as food this heavenly bread,   
   fountain of life, He   
   gives to drink the blood He shed.   
      
   Christ, the source of all things,   
   who here feeds us sinful men,   
   when this great day dawns,   
   judge of all, will come again.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)