From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Turn out all thoughts of doubt and fear and resentment   
      
      Turn out all thoughts of doubt and fear and resentment. Never   
   tolerate them if you can help it. Bar the windows and doors of your   
   mind against them, as you would bar your home against a thief who   
   would steal in to take away your treasures. What greater treasures can   
   you have than faith and courage and love? All these are stolen from   
   you by doubt and fear and resentment. Face each day with peace and   
   hope. They are results of true faith in God. Faith gives you a feeling   
   of protection and safety that you can get in no other way.   
   --24 Hours a Day   
   ============   
      
   28 January – St Thomas Aquinas OP   
      
   (1225-1274 aged 49 )   
    Doctor angelicus (Angelic Doctor) and Doctor communis (Common   
   Doctor). Priest, Religious, Master Theologian, Philosopher, Writer,   
   Teacher, Jurist. Also known as – The Great Synthesiser, The Dumb Ox,   
   The Universal Teacher.   
      
   St Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino in Italy, in 1226. At   
   the age of nineteen he received the Dominican habit at Naples, where   
   he was studying.   
      
   Seized by his brothers on his way to Paris, he suffered a two years’   
   captivity in their castle of Rocca-Secca but neither the caresses of   
   his mother and sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his   
   brothers, could shake him in his vocation.   
      
   While St Thomas was in confinement at Rocca-Secca, his brothers   
   endeavoured to entrap him into sin but the attempt only ended in the   
   triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning brand, the   
   Saint drove from his chamber the wretched creature whom they had there   
   concealed. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray   
   and forthwith, being rapt in ecstasy, an angel girded him with a cord,   
   in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given him.   
   The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that St Thomas uttered a   
   piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room.   
      
   But he never told this grace to anyone save only to Father Raynald,   
   his confessor, a little while before his death. Hence originated the   
   Confraternity of the “Angelic Warfare,” for the preservation of the   
   virtue of chastity.   
      
   Having at length escaped, St Thomas went to Cologne to study under   
   Blessed Albert the Great and after that to Paris, where for many years   
   he taught philosophy and theology. The Church has ever venerated his   
   numerous writings as a treasure-house of sacred doctrine – while in   
   naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his science is   
   more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in   
   him with the tenderest piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more   
   than study.   
      
   His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament shines forth in the   
   Office and hymns for Corpus Christi, which he composed. To the words   
   miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples, “Well hast thou written   
   concerning Me, Thomas. What shall I give thee as a reward?” he   
   replied, “Naught save Thyself, O Lord.”   
      
   He died at Fossa-Nuova, 1274, on his way to the General Council of   
   Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X had summoned him.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2019/01/01/   
      
      
   Reflection.   
   The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden treasures are reserved for   
   those who have ever followed the Lamb.   
      
   And if He gave His life for us,   
   then it should not be difficult   
   to bear whatever hardships arise for His sake.   
   If you seek patience,   
   you will find no better example than the cross.   
   Christ endured much on the cross and did so patiently,   
   because “when he suffered he did not threaten,   
   he was led like a sheep to the slaughter   
   and he did not open his mouth.”   
   --St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Doctor of the Church   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A Prayer to Mary, the Gate of Paradise   
      
   "By one woman came death, by another life;   
   through Eve came perdition, through Mary, salvation."--St. Augustine.   
      
   Hail, thou resplendent star,   
   Which shineth o'er the main,   
   Blest Mother of our God,   
   And ever Virgin-Queen.   
      
   Hail, happy gate of bliss,   
   Greeted by Gabriel's tongue,   
   Negotiate our peace,   
   And cancel Eva's wrong.   
      
   Loosen the sinner's bands;   
   All evils drive away;   
   Bring light unto the blind;   
   And for all graces pray.   
      
   Exert the mother's care,   
   And thus thy children own;   
   To Him convey our prayer,   
   Who chose to be thy Son.   
      
   O pure, O spotless Maid,   
   Whose virtues all excel;   
   Oh make us chaste and mild,   
   And all our passions quell.   
      
   Preserve our lives unstained,   
   And guard us on our way,   
   Until we come to thee,   
   To joys that ne'er decay.   
      
   Praise to the Father be,   
   With Christ, His only Son,   
   And to the Holy Ghost,   
   Thrice blessed Three in One.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)