From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The oil: Christ's gift   
      
       The oil of gladness with which Christ was anointed was a spiritual   
   oil; it was in fact the Holy Spirit himself, who is called the oil of   
   gladness because he is the source of spiritual joy. But you also have   
   been anointed with oil, and by this anointing you have entered into   
   fellowship with Christ and have received a share in his life. Beware   
   of thinking of this chrism as merely ordinary oil. As the Eucharistic   
   bread after the invocation of the Holy Spirit is no longer ordinary   
   bread but the body of Christ, so also the oil after the invocation is   
   no longer plain ordinary oil but Christ's gift which by the presence   
   of his divinity becomes the instrument through which you receive the   
   Holy Spirit. While symbolically, on your foreheads and organs of   
   sense, your bodies are anointed with this oil that we see, your souls   
   are sanctified by the holy and life-giving Spirit.   
   --St. Cyril of Jerusalem   
      
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   December 30th - St. Egwin   
      
   Third Bishop of Worcester; date of birth unknown; d. (according to   
   Mabillon) 20 December, 720, though his death may have occurred three   
   years earlier. His fame as founder of the great Abbey of Evesham no   
   doubt tended to the growth of legends which, though mainly founded on   
   facts, render it difficult to reconcile all the details with those of   
   the ascertained history of the period. It appears that either in 692,   
   or a little later, upon the death of Oftfor, second Bishop of   
   Worcester, Egwin, a prince of the Mercian royal blood, who had retired   
   from the world and sought only the seclusion of religious life, was   
   forced by popular acclaim to assume the vacant see. His biographers   
   say that king, clergy, and commonalty all united in demanding his   
   elevation; but the popularity which forced on him this reluctant   
   assumption of the episcopal functions was soon wrecked by his   
   apostolic zeal in their discharge.   
      
   The Anglo-Saxon population of the then young diocese had had less than   
   a century in which to become habituated to the restraints of Christian   
   morality; they as yet hardly appreciated the sanctity of Christian   
   marriage, and the struggle of the English Benedictines for the   
   chastity of the priesthood had already fairly begun. At the same time   
   large sections of England were more or less permanently occupied by   
   pagans closely allied in blood to the Anglo-Saxon Christians. Egwin   
   displayed undaunted zeal in his efforts to evangelize the heathen and   
   no less in the enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline. His rigorous   
   policy towards his own flock created a bitter resentment which, as   
   King Ethelred was his friend, could only find vent in accusations   
   addressed to his ecclesiastical superiors. Egwin undertook a   
   pilgrimage to seek vindication from the Roman Pontiff himself.   
   According to a legend, he prepared for his journey by locking shackles   
   on his feet, and throwing the key into the River Avon. While he prayed   
   before the tomb of the Apostles, at Rome, one of his servants brought   
   him this very key--found in the maw of a fish that had just been   
   caught in the Tiber. Egwin then released himself from his self-imposed   
   bonds and straightway obtained from the pope an authoritative release   
   from the load of disgrace which his enemies had striven to fasten upon   
   him.   
      
   It was after Egwin's triumphant return from this pilgrimage that the   
   shepherd Eoves came to him with the tale of a miraculous vision by   
   which the Blessed Virgin had signified her will that a new sanctuary   
   should be dedicated to her. Egwin himself went to the spot pointed out   
   by the shepherd (Eoves ham, or "dwelling") and to him also we are told   
   the same vision was vouchsafed. King Ethelred granted him the land   
   thereabouts upon which the famous abbey was founded. As to the precise   
   date of the foundation, although the monastic tradition of later   
   generations set it in 714, recent research points to some year   
   previous to 709. At any rate it was most probably in 709 that Egwin   
   made his second pilgrimage to Rome, this time in the company of   
   Coenred, the successor of Ethelred, and Offa, King of the East Saxons,   
   and it was on this occasion that Pope Constantine granted him the   
   extraordinary privileges by which the Abbey of Evesham was   
   distinguished. One of the last important acts of his episcopate was   
   his participation in the first great Council of Clovesho.   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should   
   approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you   
   with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish   
   what you desire.   
   --Saint Vincent Ferrer from On the Spiritual Life   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according   
   to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the   
   resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  (1 Peter 1:3)   
      
      
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   Please Lord, Make me Worthy   
   Prayer of St Thomas a Becket   
      
   My Lord,   
   I find it difficult to talk to You.   
   What can I say?   
   I, who have turned away from You   
   so often with indifference.   
   I have been a stranger to prayer,   
   undeserving of Your friendship and love.   
   I’ve been without honour   
   and feel unworthy.   
   I am a weak and shallow creature,   
   clever only in the second-rate   
   and worldly arts,   
   seeking my comfort and pleasure.   
   I gave my love,   
   such as it was, elsewhere,   
   putting service to my earthly king,   
   before my duty to You.   
   Please Lord,   
   teach me how to serve You   
   with all my heart,   
   to know at last,   
   what it really is,   
   to love,   
   to adore.   
   So that I may worthily administer   
   Your kingdom here on earth   
   and find my true honour,   
   in observing Your divine will.   
   Please Lord, make me worthy.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)