From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Help for a Complete Conversion   
      
   "When we transform our old life and give our spirit a new image, we   
   find it very hard and tiring to turn back from the darkness of earthly   
   passions to the serene calm of the divine light.   
   We thus ask God to help us that a complete conversion may be brought   
   about in us."   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 6, 5   
      
   Prayer: Because of your Name may you have mercy on me according to   
   your great mercy, Lord, and by no means abandon the work you have   
   begun but complete what is imperfect in me.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 10, 4   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   April 23rd - St. George, Martyr   
   (c. 303 AD)   
      
   St. George the Martyr has been venerated for centuries by Christians   
   of both East and West. It is commonly thought that he met his death at   
   Lydda in Palestine early in the fourth century. By the early Middle   
   Ages his tomb at Lydda was a center of pilgrimage, and many churches   
   were given his name. But as early as 496 A.D. a list of recognized   
   saints put out under Pope Gelasius frankly called him one of those   
   saints “whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts   
   are known only to God.”   
      
   You may ask, “How could a saint’s life be so unknown, even less than   
   two centuries after his death?” There are many possible reasons. The   
   main reason, perhaps, is that while he was great in God’s eyes, he was   
   not so important in human eyes to have left any personal records.   
   Furthermore, in a society where few people are literate, what records   
   there are often perish.   
      
   A parallel may help us understand. I ask readers who are interested in   
   their family trees, “What do you know about the lives of your   
   ancestors before they left the old country?” Next to nothing, I’ll   
   bet.   
      
   Now, when a barely-known person becomes famous, the spinners of tales   
   often try to fashion a biography of him. This was especially true of   
   ancient Christian saints. Composers of legends seemed to think that so   
   long as the fictions they devised were edifying, their historical   
   truth did not matter.   
      
   St. George proved to be a real challenge to many creators of legends.   
   The full-fledged popular “life” of St. George appeared in the “Golden   
   Legend,” a highly popular collection of saints’ legends edited in the   
   13th century by the Italian, Bl. James de Voragine.   
      
   According to the Golden Legend, George was a knight who lived in the   
   Mideast. One day when he rode into a Libyan town called Sylene, he   
   found the townsfolk in a panic of fright. A fierce dragon dwelt in a   
   nearby swamp. They had tried to kill him, but his fiery breath fended   
   them off.   
      
   Finally he became their master, demanding to be fed by them. When they   
   ran out of sheep (two per day), he insisted on human victims. These   
   victims were chosen by lots, and on the day of Sir George’s arrival   
   the short draw had gone to the king’s own daughter, who was even then   
   walking to her doom.   
      
   George set out at once to rescue the princess. He attacked the beast   
   fearlessly and skewered it with his spear, wounding it severely. Then   
   he asked the rescued princess for her sash girdle. Having put it   
   around the neck of the dragon, he told her to lead it back into town.   
   The old wounded dragon went along meekly, no longer breathing flames.   
   St. George told the Sylenians not to fear. He said he would put the   
   monster out of its misery if the king and his subjects would agree to   
   accept Christianity. They were all happy to comply, so over 15,000   
   were baptized then and there. Then the knight dispatched the dying   
   animal. It took four carts to carry off the four quarters into which   
   his body had to be cut. The King of Sylene then offered George the   
   richest rewards; but he declined any recompense, advising the monarch   
   to apply the money instead to Christian purposes.   
      
   This dragon episode was a late addition to the Georgian legend.   
   Earlier narratives represented him as being saved miraculously from   
   three earlier attempts to execute him; and as achieving by prayer the   
   collapse of a pagan temple upon its votaries. The Roman magistrate was   
   able to have the saint beheaded, but after having done so he himself   
   was struck dead by lightning. All this melodrama marks the whole   
   narrative as a folk tale. The Walt Disney producers could have made a   
   good movie out of it!   
      
   The real saint, however unfamiliar, had meanwhile gained in   
   popularity. Perhaps because he was thought to have been a military   
   man, he became a favorite of the Western knights engaged from the   
   eleventh century on in the Crusades. Today he is patron saint of   
   (Russian) Georgia, Portugal, Aragon, Lithuania, and particularly,   
   England, where his feast was once even a holy day of obligation. Six   
   British monarchs have borne his name, and his red cross is a part of   
   the British flag. When we pray to the saints, therefore, we don’t need   
   to know their life stories. Friendship with them is a person-to-person   
   affair.   
   –Father Robert   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Be assured that one great means to find favor when we appear before   
   God is to have pardoned the injuries we have received here below.   
   --Ven. Louis de Granada   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    but no human being can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of   
   deadly poison.  [James 3:8] RSVCE   
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to the Holy Ghost   
      
   Cardinal Mercier said about this prayer: “I am going to reveal to you   
   the secret of sanctity and happiness. Every day for five minutes   
   control your imagination and close your eyes to the things of sense   
   and your ears to all the noises of the world, in order to enter into   
   yourself. Then, in the sanctity of your baptized soul (which is the   
   temple of the Holy Ghost) speak to that Diving Spirit, saying to Him:   
      
   “Holy Ghost, beloved of my soul, I adore Thee. Enlighten me, guide me,   
   strengthen me, console me. Tell me what to say and do. Give me Your   
   orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to   
   accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your   
   Will. Amen.”   
      
   If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely, and full   
   of consolation, even in the midst of trials. Grace will be   
   proportioned to the trial, giving you the strength to carry it and you   
   will arrive at the Gate of Paradise, laden with merit. This submission   
   to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)