From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Resentment   
      
   Resentment doesn't just happen, it grows like a poisonous plant that   
   grows entwined in our hearts. The weed increases in size until it   
   chokes the fruitful vine that should be growing there instead. It is   
   something that we can control, for if we don't it will invade all of   
   our thinking. Jesus forbids us bear anger in our heart if we are to   
   approach God with our prayers of petition, adoration, contrition or   
   thanksgiving.   
      
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   January 12th - St. Benedict Biscop   
      
   Benedict Biscop was born in 628 into the Northumbrian nobility. He was   
   raised in the court of the King of England. He served King Oswy and   
   distinguished himself, particularly in the use of arms. The King had   
   chosen him as his personal aide-de-camp and he exercised an important   
   role in the war campaigns of this monarch. Benedict received many   
   awards and proofs of esteem for his valor in combat and fidelity to   
   the King.   
      
   Nonetheless, after a pilgrimage to Rome, Benedict returned to England   
   and asked permission to leave a career of arms and to enter the   
   religious life. He dedicated himself for several years to study and   
   prayer with the idea of promoting on the British Isle the Roman   
   religious art and liturgy of Western Christianity.   
      
   Later he entered the Order of St. Benedict and founded numerous   
   monasteries, the most famous being the Monastery of St. Peter at   
   Wearmouth in 674. He also took charge and reformed others where   
   fidelity to the rule had become relaxed. He was a trusted adviser to   
   St. Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and St. Adrian in their   
   activities in England.   
      
   It was St. Benedict Biscop who initiated a great program in   
   architecture and art. He introduced on the English Isle stain glass   
   windows and paintings on the Church walls, as well as Roman music and   
   sacred chant. He sent for architects and artists from Italy to build   
   and decorate the Churches, and liturgists from Rome to train the monks   
   in the common practices. To regularize the religious ceremonies, he   
   wrote a book called On the Celebration of Feasts.   
      
   At the end of his life he suffered from a painful paralysis that   
   deprived him of the use of his lower limbs and tested his patience   
   greatly. He died in 690.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira:   
      
   Considering the historical period in which St. Benedict Biscop lived,   
   it is interesting to consider his special mission. He followed that   
   era of saints who founded nations. Those saints who founded nations   
   were replaced or succeeded by saints who embellished those nations.   
   And he was clearly a saint who embellished a nation.   
      
   He established the Roman religious styles of art and architecture in   
   England by sending for Italian artists with a true Catholic spirit. He   
   sent for stained glass windows, as well as Mass and music books. He   
   put order in the religious feasts, which at that time were almost the   
   only kind of feasts known. With all this, he introduced elements of   
   beauty into the religious life. Afterward, these elements of beauty   
   would spread from the religious to the temporal sphere. For, in all   
   the movements of the History of Christianity, such embellishments   
   began in the religious life and, afterward, spread to the temporal   
   sphere. For this reason, he was one who “embellished” the England of   
   his time.   
      
   This saint, this “embellisher” saint, was not soft, spineless, or   
   lacking in fiber. The embellishment he made had two great elements of   
   inspiration that all adornments need:   
      
     First, they reflected the meditation, seriousness, and depth of a   
   contemplative soul who carries out this action of embellishments with   
   great profundity of thought. Such a soul gives beauty a richness of   
   content and expression that makes it not only a thing that pleases the   
   eyes and ears, but also something that speaks to the mind.   
      
     Second, he carried out this act of embellishment with something of   
   the spirit of the warrior that he had been. Such warriors are strong,   
   virile men, men who know how to fight and command. It is men like   
   these who give rise to the dawn of the art of a nation. Soft, weak   
   men, fearful in the face of the fight, are the ones who produce the eras   
   of decadence in art.   
      
   The saints who know how to meditate profoundly and also how to be   
   warriors--these are the ones who give birth to all true artistic   
   development.   
      
   http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j002sdSt.BenedictBiscop.htm   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Those who go off to heretics, and all who leave the [Catholic Roman]   
   Church for heresy, abandon the name of Christ. Those who call these   
   men 'Christians' are in grievous error, since they neither understand   
   Scripture at all nor the faith which it contains."   
   --St. Athanasius (Doctor, 296-373) - "Discourse Against the Arians,"   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the   
   glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall cover   
   the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee,   
   and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  (Isaias 60:1-2) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   FOR OUR DEAR DEPARTED   
      
   O good Jesus, whose loving Heart was ever troubled by the   
   sorrows of others, look with pity on the souls of our dear ones   
   in Purgatory. O Thou who didst "love Thine own", hear our   
   cry for mercy, and grant that those whom Thou hast called   
   from our homes and hearts may soon enjoy everlasting rest   
   in the home of Thy Love in Heaven. Amen.   
      
   V. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.   
   R. And let perpetual light shine upon them. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)