From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Season of Angels   
      
   Now is the season of angels,   
   Of wondrous signs in the skies,   
   While in the cold and the darkness,   
   Below in a manger lies Jesus.   
   -- Bea Lotz   
      
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   December 26th - St. Tathai of Wales   
      
   (also known as Meuthin, Tathan, Tahai, Tathaeus, Tathar, Athaeus)   
      
   Hermit of Glamorganshire, Abbot of Llantathan Nephew of Saint Sampson   
   of Dol, Brittany   
      
   5th century or early 6th century. Nephew of Saint Samson of Dol, this   
   Irish saint planted himself in the land of Wales, first as a hermit,   
   where he founded a church at Glamorganshire and bore good fruit. His   
   monastery at Llantathan, named after him, was one of the most famous   
   schools in Wales. From there he went to Caerwent (Gwent), where he   
   founded another monastic school that produced the great Celtic   
   scholar, Saint Cadoc.   
      
   According to his vita, Tathai was famous as a miracle-worker and as   
   the "Father of all Gwent, he was the defender of the woodland country   
   . . . he was never angry . . . whatever was given to him, he gave to   
   others . . . no one was more generous in the West for receiving guests   
   and giving them hospitality." Both Caerwent and Llantathan claim to be   
   the place where he died (Benedictines, Encyclopaedia, Farmer,   
   Montague).   
      
   Troparion of St Tathai tone 8   
      
   Teacher of true piety and blessed adornment of Christ's Church, O Father   
   Tathai:   
   / as thou didst serve Wales with thy tireless endeavours, teach us,   
   O Saint, the virtues of unshakeable stability and loyalty to the true Faith,   
   / that at the end Christ our God will grant great mercy to our souls.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection   
   does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in   
   denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer   
   everything for love of Christ. And if there is failure in this   
   exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely   
   a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person   
   should have a very high contemplation and communication with God.   
   --St. John of the Cross   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him   
   in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also   
   will hear their cry and save them."  (Psalm 145:18-19)   
      
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   The Truth Speaks within Us without Noise of Words   
      
    God speaks to the understanding by the light of His Spirit, and to   
   the heart by His holy inspirations. All that the Prophets deliver in   
   the Word of God, all the truths which preachers announce to us, cannot   
   enlighten the understanding nor touch the heart, if God Himself speak   
   not to us by the motions of His grace. We should therefore entreat the   
   Lord to speak to our interior while we exteriorly attend to or read   
   divine truths, for fear that hearing the word of God and not keeping   
   it, knowing His doctrines and not following them, conscious of His   
   will and not doing it we should become more and more culpable in His   
   sight.   
      
   Prayer: Speak to me, O Lord, speak in such a manner to my soul that I   
   may hear and obey Thee. Make known to me Thy designs for my salvation   
   and enable me to execute them. Teach me and all Christians, O Jesus,   
   what Thou art to us, and what we ought to be to Thee. Instruct us in   
   the sacred maxims of Thy Gospel, and induce us to practice them, for   
   what will it avail us to believe Thy heavenly doctrines, if we   
   endeavor not to follow them, and to live, as well as to believe, as   
   becometh Christians? O eternal Word of the Father, by which He spoke,   
   and all things were made, speak to my soul, say to it, I am thy   
   salvation. Work in me to will and to do, and consummate my salvation.   
   Amen.   
   --Thomas à Kempis, From the Imitation of Christ   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)