From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   -- Proverbs 8:1-4 --   
      
   Does not wisdom call out?   
   Does not understanding raise her voice?   
   At the highest point along the way,   
   where the paths meet, she takes her stand;   
   beside the gate leading into the city,   
   at the entrance, she cries aloud:   
   "To you, O people, I call out;   
   I raise my voice to all mankind.   
   ========================   
   Wisdom calls out to us. Apparently, so does folly (Proverbs 9:12-15).   
   Their methods of communication are similar-- they sit in public places   
   shouting their advice to all who will listen. The difference between   
   them is what they say and the hearts they connect with. Those who are   
   inclined toward God-- who love him and do his will-- will hear the   
   voice of wisdom and respond. Those who have little depth and no desire   
   for God-- who can't see beyond themselves and the present moment--   
   will hear the voice of folly and respond. Two voices, two kinds of   
   hearts; as a result, two very drastically different journeys. Which   
   voice will we choose to trust? The question is more complicated than   
   it seems. It doesn't involve just a single choice but rather a series   
   of choices every day, and sometimes folly imitates wisdom. But prayer,   
   patience and a commitment to truth will reveal the difference and give   
   us the discipline and courage to choose well. Hearts that crave wisdom   
   will choose the right.   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   March 15th - St. Leocritia, or Lucretia, Virgin and Martyr   
   d. 859   
      
   St. Leocritia lived in Cordova when it was a Moorish city and when the   
   conversion of a follower of Islam was punishable by death. Her parents   
   were wealthy and influential Moslems, but she herself had been   
   converted to Christianity by a relation called Litiosa, and had been   
   baptized. At first she kept her religion secret, but as time went on   
   she practised it more openly and admitted her faith to her parents.   
   Angry and alarmed, they sought to make, her apostatize by entreaties,   
   by threats and finally by blows and confinement. She managed to send   
   word to St. Eulogius, asking if he could find her a refuge with his   
   sister Anulona, and the messenger brought back a favourable answer.   
      
   She now awaited an opportunity to escape. Her apparently passive   
   attitude had led her parents to think she was about to comply with   
   their wishes, and they accordingly gave her permission to attend a   
   wedding; she contrived to slip away from the gathering and to rejoin   
   her Christian friends. Her absence was soon discovered and a great hue   
   and cry was raised, followed by the arrest and examination of any   
   Christians suspected of having had communication with her. Leocritia   
   was handed on from one Christian family to another, St. Eulogius   
   visiting her from time to time to instruct her more fully and to   
   strengthen her for the fate that awaited her.   
      
    At length she was discovered, and both she and St. Eulogius were   
   brought before the judge. When St. Eulogius was asked why he had   
   concealed her, “I have been entrusted with the office of a preacher”,   
   he replied, “and it is my holy duty to enlighten all who seek the,   
   light of the faith. To no seeker may I refuse to show the way of life.   
   What I have done for her I would also have done for you, if you had   
   asked me.” They were both flogged and condemned to death, After St.   
   Leocritia had been decapitated, her body was thrown into the   
   Guadalquivir. It was afterwards deposited at Oviedo, beside that of   
   St. Eulogius.   
      
   A short account of St. Leocritia is given in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol.   
   ii.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God will not hear our prayers unless we acknowledge ourselves to be   
   sinners. We do this when we ponder on our own sins alone, and not on   
   those of our neighbor.   
   -- Saint Moses the Ethiopian   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "You see, anyone who keeps the whole of the Law but trips up on a   
   single point, is still guilty of breaking it all. He who said, 'You   
   must not commit adultery' said also, 'You must not kill.' Now if you   
   commit murder, you need not commit adultery as well to become a   
   breaker of the Law. Talk and behave like people who are going to be   
   judged by the law of freedom. Whoever acts without mercy will be   
   judged without mercy, but mercy can afford to laugh at judgment."   
   [James 2:10-13]   
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer:   
   Moderate, O Jesus, my eagerness to know so much, and correct my   
   negligence in doing so little for salvation, since Thou wilt not judge   
   me according to what I have known, but by what I have done, or   
   neglected to do, to obtain it. Can I apply my thoughts to know Thee   
   thoroughly, and not admire and love Thee? And can I truly know myself,   
   and not despise and hate myself? O life unknown! life hidden in Jesus   
   Christ, in God! what an excellent means art thou of sanctification and   
   salvation, yet how little art thou practiced amongst Christians!   
   Grant, O Lord, that all may know, esteem, and love it, and be directed   
   by it. 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)