From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God wants a contrite heart   
      
   "The reason why our prayers ought to be frequent and brief is in case   
   the enemy, who is out to trap us, should slip a distraction to us if ever we   
   are long-drawn-out. There lies true sacrifice. `The sacrifice which God   
   wants is a contrite heart' (Ps. 50:19). This indeed is the saving oblation,   
   the pure offering, the sacrifice of justification, the sacrifice of praise.   
   These are the real and rich thank offerings, the fat holocausts offered   
   by contrite and humble hearts."   
   --St. John Cassian.   
      
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   December 20th - Saint Philogonius, Bishop of Antioch   
   (d. 322)   
      
   Saint Philogonius, born in Antioch in the third century, was educated   
   for the law and appeared at the bar with great success. He was admired   
   for his eloquence, but still more for his integrity and the sanctity   
   of his life. This was considered a sufficient motive for dispensing   
   with the canons which require that time be spent as a priest, before a   
   layman can be placed in the higher echelons of the Church’s hierarchy.   
   By this dispensation Saint Philogonius was chosen to be placed at the   
   head of the see of Antioch, following the death of its bishop in 318.   
      
   When Arius introduced his blasphemies in Alexandria in that same year   
   of 318, Saint Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria, condemned him and   
   communicated the sentence in a synodal letter to Philogonius.   
   Afterwards the bishop of Antioch strenuously defended the Catholic   
   faith before the assembly of the Council of Nicea. In the storms which   
   raged against the Church, caused first by the Roman emperor Maximin II   
   and the Oriental emperor Licinius, Saint Philogonius earned the title   
   of Confessor by his sufferings. He died in the year 322, the fifth of   
   his episcopal dignity. We possess an excellent panegyric in his honor,   
   composed by Saint John Chrysostom.   
      
   Chrysostom speaks in moving terms of the peace which this saint now   
   enjoys in a state where there are no conflicts, no insurgent passions,   
   no more of “those icy words, ‘mine ‘ and ‘yours’,” which fill the   
   world with wars, families with quarrels, and individuals with   
   disquiet, envy and malice. St. Philogonius had so renounced the world   
   that he received in this life the earnest of Christ’s spirit in its   
   fullest degree. A soul must here learn that spirit and state of the   
   blessed if she hopes to reign with them hereafter: she must have some   
   acquaintance beforehand with the mysteries of grace and the works of   
   love and praise. People are not invited to consort even with a   
   temporal king, as St. Macarius says, until they have been instructed   
   in the manners and customs of a court, so that they may not come to it   
   in complete ignorance of its ways.   
      
   Here again all the information we possess comes from a single source,   
   a sermon of St. John Chrysostom. The text is printed in Migne, PG.,   
   vol. xlviii, pp. 747-756. On the degree of credit which attaches to   
   the evidence of such panegyrics see the warnings given by Delehaye in   
   his book Les Passions des Martyrs et les Genres littéraires (1921),   
   ch. ii, pp. 183-235.   
      
   Reflection: Saint Philogonius had so perfectly renounced the world and   
   crucified its inordinate desires in his heart, that he received in   
   this life the gage of Christ’s Spirit, and was admitted to the sacred   
   council of the heavenly King with unhindered access to the Almighty.   
   Let us imitate his zeal for the glory of God and the Church, to share   
   his reward. (Rev. Alban Butler)   
      
   Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   We must begin with a strong and constant resolution to give ourselves   
   wholly to God, professing to Him, in a tender, loving manner, from the   
   bottom of our hearts, that we intend to be His without any reserve,   
   and then we must often go back and renew this same resolution.   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote   
   In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.   
   (Ecclesiasticus 7:40)   
      
      
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   Who abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him.--1 John 4:16--   
   December: Union   
      
   19. When we have totally abandoned ourselves to the pleasure of God,   
   submitting without any reserve our will and affections to His   
   dominion, we shall see our souls so united to His Divine Majesty that   
   we shall be able to say with that perfect model of Christians, St.   
   Paul: "In myself I no longer live, but Jesus Christ in me."   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
   This Saint, according to the testimony of one who knew him intimately,   
   in the last years of his life had reached such a point that he   
   desired, loved, or regarded only God in all things. As a result, he   
   seemed always absorbed in God and said that there was nothing in the   
   world which could satisfy him except God. He frequently uttered with   
   ecstatic feeling these words of the Psalmist: "Lord, what is there in   
   Heaven for me, or what do I desire upon earth save Thee? Thou art my   
   portion and my inheritance forever." All that was not God was nothing   
   for him, and this was one of his principal maxims.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".  December: Union)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)