From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Don't forget the presence of Christ   
      
   When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are being buffeted by   
   the wind; when your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the   
   waves. So when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in   
   danger, your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On   
   hearing yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of   
   revenge brings with it another kind of misfortune—shipwreck. Why is   
   this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do I mean? I mean you have   
   forgotten his presence. Rouse him, then; remember him, let him keep   
   watch within you, pay heed to him. Now what was your desire? You   
   wanted to get your own back. You have forgotten that when Christ was   
   being crucified he said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what   
   they do. Christ, the sleeper in your heart, had no desire for   
   vengeance in his. Rouse him, then, call him to mind.   
   --Augustine of Hippo:   
      
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   May 18th - Saint Potamon of Heraclea   
      
   d. 341   
   ST. POTAMON (Potamion) was bishop of Heraclea in Egypt. St.    
   Athanasius says that he was doubly a martyr, inasmuch as he    
   suffered cruel persecution first for vindicating the Catholic faith before   
   the heathen and then for defending the divinity of our Lord before the   
   Arians. When Maximinus Daia persecuted the Christians in the early    
   fourth century, St Potamon made a bold confession,    
   and was subjected to savage tortures which entailed permanent    
   lameness as well as the loss of an eye. These marks of his    
   sufferings rendered him a conspicuous figure at the   
   Council of Nicaea in 325, where he took a vigorous part. Ten years   
   later he accompanied St. Athanasius to the Council of Tyre and nobly   
   defended that champion of the faith.   
      
   Under the Arian Emperor Constantius,   
    the prefect of Egypt, Philagrius, and the heretical   
   priest Gregory who had usurped the see of Athanasius, travelled over   
   all Egypt, tormenting and banishing the orthodox. Foremost among their   
   victims was St. Potamon, whose uncompromising attitude had specially   
   incurred their animosity. By their order he was arrested and beaten   
   with clubs until he was left for dead. The tender care of those who   
   rescued him enabled him to make a partial recovery, but he died soon   
   afterwards as the result of the ill-treatment he had received.   
      
   The available information, gathered almost entirely from SS.   
   Epiphanius and Athanasius, is set out in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol.   
   iv. See also Hefele. Leclercq, Conciles, vol. i, pp. 658-659.   
   He was condemned to the mines and had one eye gouged out and one leg   
   rendered lame, as was the custom of branding prisoners. Released by   
   the decree of Emperor Constantine the Great, Potamon took part in the   
   Council of Nicaea but was then severely persecuted by the Arians of   
   Egypt, who were outraged by his unequivocal support for the equally   
   persecuted St. Athanasius of Alexandria. He died from the indignities   
   and cruelties inflicted upon him by the heretics. Some accounts state   
   that the Arians beat him to death.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   O my soul, bless Jesus. Never forget the many graces He has given   
   thee. Love that God who so loves thee. Lift thyself up to Him, who has   
   lowered Himself for thee; show thyself as He shows Himself with thee;   
   be clean of heart, be pure. Love thy Jesus, who has lifted thee out of   
   so much misery. Love thy God, bless thy Lord.   
   -- Saint Gemma Galgani   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   But Jesus called them to him, and said: You know that the princes of   
   the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater,   
   exercise power upon them.  26. It shall not be so among you: but   
   whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: 27.   
   And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. 28. Even   
   as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister,   
   and to give his life a redemption for many.  (Matthew 20:25-28) DRB   
      
      
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   God Our Creator   
      
   Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power,   
   because Thou. hast created all things.--(Apoc. iv. 11.)   
      
   Why is it that God has such an absolute and all-embracing claim to   
   ourselves and to all that is ours? It is because we are made by Him,   
   and not only made, but created. We are His, not only as the statue is   
   the sculptor's and the picture the painter's, but He made out of   
   nothing the very materials of which we consist. There is therefore   
   nothing in us which is not God's. Every sort of excellence, strength,   
   virtue, talent, beauty, skill energy, affection--all are God's not our   
   own.   
      
   God created every one with certain gifts of his own that He did not   
   give to another, and He gave him those gifts to do a special work that   
   God had for him to do. He created me with a certain object; from all   
   eternity He had been planning my soul and body, and providing me with   
   all that I needed, that both one and the other might serve Him. Have I   
   on the whole carried out God's plan? Shall I be able to say, when I   
   come to die: "I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do?"   
      
   What a serious thought this is, that God had a plan for my life! He   
   meant me to occupy a certain position in society and to have certain   
   employments; to influence certain persons for good; to overcome   
   certain temptations; to practise certain virtues beyond the rest to   
   attain a certain place in Heaven. Has my life been ordered by God's   
   holy inspirations; has not my own self-will too often had part in it?   
      
   Pray that you may not fail in fulfilling God's intentions concerning you.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)