From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The power of God's spirit:   
      
      The power of God's spirit is the greatest power in the universe.   
   Our conquest of each other, the great kings and conquerors, the   
   conquest of wealth, the leaders of the money society, all amount to   
   very little in the end. But he who conquers himself is greater than he   
   who conquers a city. Material things have no permanence. But God's   
   spirit is eternal. Everything really worthwhile in the world is the   
   result of the power of God's spirit.   
      I pray that I may open myself to the power of God's spirit. I pray   
   that my relationships with others may be improved by this spirit.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
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   October 6th - St. Faith, Virgin and Martyr   
      
    WHEN this maiden was summoned to answer for her Christianity before   
   the procurator Dacian at Agen she signed herself with the cross and   
   called to Heaven for help. Thus strengthened, she turned to Dacian,   
   who asked her, “What is your name ?  She answered, “My name is Faith   
   (Fides) and I endeavour to have that which I am named”. Then he asked,   
   “What is your religion?” and she said, “I have served Christ from my   
   infancy, and to Him I have consecrated myself”.   
      
    Dacian was disposed to be merciful, and appealed to her. “Come,   
   child, remember your youth and beauty. Renounce the religion you   
   profess and sacrifice to Diana; she is a divinity of your own sex and   
   will bestow on you all sorts of good things.”   
      
    But Faith replied, “ The divinities of the Gentiles are evil. How   
   then can you expect me to sacrifice to them ? ”--“ You presume to call   
   our gods evil! ”exclaimed Dacian. “You must instantly offer sacrifice,   
   or die in torment.”-- “No!” she cried, “ I am prepared to suffer   
   everything for Christ. I long to die for Him.”   
      
    Dacian ordered a brazen bed to be produced and the saint to be bound   
   on it. A fire was kindled under, the heat of which was made still more   
   intolerable by the addition of oil. Some of the spectators, struck   
   with pity and horror, exclaimed,   
      
    “How can he thus torment an innocent girl only for worshipping God!”   
   There- upon Dacian arrested certain of them, and as these refused to   
   sacrifice they were beheaded with St. Faith.   
    The legend of St. Faith is untrustworthy and confused with that of   
   St. Caprasius (October 20), but her cultus was widespread in Europe   
   during the middle ages.   
      
    The chapel in the eastern part of the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral   
   in London is still called St. Faith’s. Its predecessor before the   
   Great Fire was the church of the parishioners of St. Faith’s parish in   
   Faringdon Ward Within, their parish church having been pulled down   
   when the choir of the cathedral was lengthened in the year 1240.   
      
   The legend of St. Faith and of the miracles worked at her shrine was   
   unusually popular in the middle ages. In BHL. 38 distinct Latin texts,   
   nn. 2938-2965, are enumerated, and these gave rise to a considerable   
   literature in the vernacular which is of great philological interest.   
   See, for example, Hoepfener and Alfaric, La Chanson de Ste Foy (2   
   vols., 1926), and the review of the same work in the Analecta   
   Bollandiana, vol. xlv (1927), pp. 421-425. An early and relatively   
   sober text of the passio (which does not mention St. Caprasius by   
   name) is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. iii. Cf. also   
   Bouillet-Servières, Ste Foy (1900) and Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux,   
   vol. ii, pp. 144-146. The mention of St. Faith in the Hieronymianum   
   (CMH., p. 543) affords some presumption that she did actually suffer   
   at Agen, but the date is problematical.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The Sacred Heart of Christ is an inexhaustible fountain and its sole   
   desire is to pour itself out into the hearts of the humble so as to   
   free them and prepare them to lead lives according to his good   
   pleasure.   
   --St. Margaret Mary Alacoque   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And he spoke also to them a similitude: Can the blind lead the blind?   
   do they not both fall into the ditch?  The disciple is not above his master:   
   but every one shall be perfect, if he be as his master.  (Luke 6:39-40)   
      
      
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   Love what is in the image of God   
      
   "Whatever you love is either the same as yourself, below you or above   
   you. If what you love is beneath you, love it to comfort it, care for   
   it and to use it but not to cling to it. For example, you love gold.   
   Do not become attached to the gold, for how much better are you than   
   gold? Gold, indeed, is a shining piece of earth, while you have been   
   made in the image of God in order that you may be illumined by the   
   Lord. Although gold is a creature of God, still God did not make it   
   according to his own image, but you he did. Therefore, he put the gold   
   beneath you. This kind of love should be despised. Those things are to   
   be acquired for their usefulness, but we should not cling to them with   
   the bond of love as if with glue. Do not make for yourself members   
   over which, when they have begun to be cut away, you will grieve and   
   be afflicted. What then? Rise from that love with which you love   
   things that are lower than you, and begin to love your equals, that   
   is, things that are what you are... The Lord himself has told us in   
   the Gospel and clearly showed us in what order we may have true love   
   and charity. For he spoke in this way, 'You shall love the Lord your   
   God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul and with your   
   whole strength. And your neighbor as yourself'' (Luke 10:27).   
   Therefore, first love God and then yourself. After these, love your   
   neighbor as yourself."   
   --Caesarius of Arles (excerpt from  SERMONS 173, 4-5.25)    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)