From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The truth will make you free   
      
   The Lord Jesus poses the same question to us today. Do you accept the   
   claim of Jesus--that the Father in heaven sent his only begotten Son   
   into the world to set us free from slavery to sin and to give us   
   eternal life (John 3:16-18). Many want to mold Jesus to their own way   
   of thinking and preferences and to reject or ignore whatever is   
   disagreeable to them. Jesus came to give us the greatest freedom   
   possible--freedom from ignorance, deception, and sin, and the freedom   
   to live as sons and daughters of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.   
   Do you know the joy and freedom of living according to God's word of   
   truth, joy, and eternal life?   
      
   "Lord Jesus, your word is life and truth. Instruct my heart that I may   
   grow in the knowledge of your truth and live according to your word."   
      
   ==========   
   June 11th - St. Barnabas   
   (Died c. 60)   
      
   St. Paul is called the “Apostle to the Gentiles”. It is too often   
   forgotten that his colleague in his early mission to the Gentiles was   
   St. Barnabas.   
      
   Barnabas’s given name was Joseph. He was a Jew of the Tribe of Levi, a   
   tribe whose male members were dedicated to divine service. Although he   
   was a native of Cyprus, he moved to the Holy Land, and it was there   
   that he became one of the early disciples of the living Christ.   
      
   The Acts of the Apostles tell us that the earliest followers of Christ   
   in Jerusalem showed wonderful charity to each other, even selling   
   their property to provide for their needy members. Acts mentions one   
   such donor by name: Joseph Barnabas. (The disciples had probably given   
   him the nickname Barnabas because he had a special gift of inspiring   
   other people. Barnabas means “son of Encouragement”.)   
      
   Before long St. Peter received a special heavenly revelation that the   
   preachers of the Word needed no longer to restrict their message to   
   Jews, but could now approach Gentiles as well. Soon the report came   
   back to the Church in Jerusalem that some Christian teachers in   
   Antioch had made converts of a number of pagans. Barnabas, as “a good   
   man, full of the Holy Ghost and faith”, was sent to Antioch to study   
   the new development. He was enthusiastic about it. Able to make   
   converts himself of a number of non-Jews, he went off to Tarsus to   
   seek the assistance of Saul, who from an anti-Christian, Jewish   
   persecutor had become a zealous champion of the Christian faith.   
   Barnabas and Saul spent a very successful year evangelizing at   
   Antioch. But note well that it was Barnabas who first defended the   
   genuinity of Saul’s conversion, and who first welcomed him to the   
   official apostolate.   
      
   While they were at Antioch, the Holy Spirit ordered the Christian   
   leaders there to impose hands upon the pair and commission them to   
   travel west on their new mission to both Gentiles and Jews. Taking   
   with them John Mark (the future St. Mark the evangelist), they first   
   went to Barnabas’s homeland, Cyprus, where they began a fruitful   
   preaching career. (This was where Saul changed his name to Paul.) Then   
   they turned back to Asia Minor, again with remarkable missionary   
   success, although not without persecution. They ended up back in   
   Antioch.   
      
   St. Paul, with the approval of the church leaders in Jerusalem, now   
   charted a 2nd missionary journey, planning to revisit the churches   
   already established and to carry the Gospel still farther afield. This   
   time Paul took over the leadership. After a disagreement between them,   
   Barnabas went back to Cyprus and continued there the work he had   
   earlier begun.   
      
   The Acts of the Apostles tell us nothing further about Joseph   
   Barnabas. Legend says that he died a martyr in Cyprus, presumably   
   before AD 60. He left no writings: the famous so-called “Epistle of   
   Barnabas” was not his but another’s, for it was not written until 130.   
      
   The Church honors St. Barnabas with the title “apostle”. That word,   
   which means “one sent”, was first used in the New Testament of any   
   Christian missionary, and only later restricted to “The Twelve” who   
   had been chosen especially by Our Lord, (plus St. Paul, because of his   
   special calling). The title is applied to Barnabas in the broader   
   sense. There can be no doubt, however, that St. Barnaby (as he is   
   called in English), was “a good man”. He spent his wealth to help the   
   poor and his lifeblood to spread the Gospel. Truly he was “one sent by   
   God”.   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   He who truly loves God prays entirely without distraction, and he who   
   prays entirely without distraction loves God truly. But he whose   
   intellect is fixed on any worldly thing does not pray without   
   distraction, and consequently he does not love God.   
   --St. Maximos the Confessor   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let love be without dissimulation. Hating that which is evil, cleaving   
   to that which is good, Loving one another with the charity of   
   brotherhood: with honour preventing one another.  [Romans 12:9-10] DRB   
      
      
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   Prayer in the Time of Illness   
      
   Almighty Master, Physician of our souls and bodies, who both humbles   
   and uplifts, who chastises and heals; visit me with Your mercy in my   
   time of illness. Stretch forth Your arm that is full of health and   
   healing, and heal me, and allow me to leave my sick-bed. Banish my   
   weakness and pains, heal my wounds, quench my fever, and prevent a   
   relapse. If I am guilty of sins or transgressions, loose, remit and   
   forgive them for the sake of Your love toward mankind. Yes, O Lord,   
   pity me, Your creature, through Jesus Christ our Lord with Whom You   
   are blessed , together with Your all-holy, gracious and life-giving   
   Spirit, now and ever and forever. - Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)