From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Patient endurance   
      
   The apostle Paul writes: With patient endurance we run the race of   
   faith set before us. For what has more power than virtue? What more   
   firmness or strength  than patient endurance? Endurance, that is, for   
   God's sake. This is the queen of virtues, the foundation of virtue, a   
   haven of tranquility. It is peace in time of war, calm in rough   
   waters, safety amidst treachery and danger. It makes those who   
   practice it stronger than steel. No weapons or brandished bows, no   
   turbulent troops or advancing siege engines, no flying  spears or   
   arrows can shake it. Not even the host of evil spirits, nor the dark   
   array of hostile powers, nor the devil himself standing by with all   
   his armies and devices will have power to injure the man or woman who   
   has acquired this virtue through Christ.   
   --St. Nilus of Ancyra   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   February 16th - Martyrs of Cilicia    
      
   IN the year 309, when the Emperors Galerius Maximian and Maximus were   
   continuing the persecution begun by Diocletian, five Egyptians went to   
   visit the confessors condemned to the mines in Cilicia, and on their   
   return journey were stopped by the guards of the gates of Caesarea in   
   Palestine. They readily declared themselves to be Christians and   
   acknowledged the motive of their journey. There-upon they were   
   arrested, and on the following day, together with St. Pamphilus and   
   others, were brought before Firmilian the governor. The judge, as was   
   his custom, ordered the five Egyptians to be stretched on the rack   
   before beginning his examination. After they had suffered all manner   
   of torture, he addressed the one who appeared to be their chief and   
   asked him his name and his country. The martyr, using the names which   
   they had taken upon their conversion, said that he was called Elias   
   and that his companions were Jeremy, Isaias, Samuel and Daniel.   
   Firmilian asked him their country, and Elias answered that it was   
   Jerusalem--meaning the heavenly Jerusalem, the true country of all   
   Christians. Elias was then tortured again, his body being scourged   
   whilst his hands were tied behind him, and his feet squeezed into   
   wooden stocks. The judge then commanded that they should be beheaded,   
   and his order was immediately carried out.   
      
   Porphyry, a youth who was a servant of St. Pamphilus and who heard the   
   sentence passed, exclaimed that they ought not to be denied burial.   
   Firmilian, angry at this boldness, ordered him to be apprehended, and,   
   finding that he was a Christian and that he refused to sacrifice,   
   ordered his sides to be so cruelly torn that his very bones and bowels   
   were exposed. He underwent this without a sigh or a groan. The tyrant   
   then gave orders that a great fire should be kindled with a vacant   
   space in the middle in which the martyr should be placed when removed   
   from the rack. This was accordingly done, and he lay there a   
   considerable time, surrounded by the flames, singing the praises of   
   God and invoking the name of Jesus until at length he achieved a slow   
   but glorious martyrdom. Seleucus, an eyewitness of this victory, was   
   heard by the soldiers applauding the martyr's constancy. They who   
   without more ado ordered his head to be struck off.   
      
   This story is one of overwhelming interest for all who are concerned   
   with Christian hagiography, for it is the account given by Eusebius,   
   the father of Church history, who was not only living in Caesarea at   
   the time, but was the intimate friend of the St. Pamphilus here named,   
   the principal martyr who suffered on the same occasion. To mark his   
   devotion to his friend, the historian loved to call himself "Eusebius   
   (the disciple) of Pamphilus". St. Pamphilus, however, is commemorated   
   separately on June 1, and will come before us again on that date. The   
   Greek text of Eusebius, with a French translation en face, may   
   conveniently be consulted in the edition of E. Grapin (vol. iii, pp.   
   259-283), forming part of the series of Textes et documents pour   
   l'étude historique die Christianisme. It forms the eleventh chapter of   
   the Book on the Martyrs of Palestine, of which there is an English   
   version, with the Ecclesiastical History, by H. J. Lawlor and J. E. L.   
   Oulton (1929).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Dismiss all anger, and look a little into yourself. Remember that he   
   of whom you are speaking is your brother, and, as he is in the way of   
   salvation, God can make him a Saint, notwithstanding his present   
   weaknesses. You may fall into the same faults or perhaps into a worse   
   fault. But supposing that you remain upright, to whom are you indebted   
   for it, if not to the pure mercy of God?   
   -- St. Thomas of Villanova   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And he came to Nazareth, where he was brought up: and he went into the   
   synagogue, according to his custom, on the sabbath day: and he rose up   
   to read. And the book of Isaias the prophet was delivered unto him.   
   And as he unfolded the book, he found the place where it was written:   
   The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he hath anointed me to   
   preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the contrite of   
   heart, To preach deliverance to the captives and sight to the blind,   
   to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year   
   of the Lord and the day of reward.  (Luke 4:16-19) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   "He that keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from distress."   
    (Proverbs 21:23)   
      
   "To restrain the tongue is therefore a great good, and on the other   
   hand, not to restrain it, a poisonous evil"   
      
   "Behold also ships, whereas they are great, and are driven by strong   
   winds, yet are they turned about with a small helm, whithersoever the   
   force of the governor willeth. Even so the tongue is indeed a little   
   member, and boasteth great things.   
      
   "Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood. And the tongue is a   
   fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue ... defileth the whole body, and   
   inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell. For   
   every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the   
   rest, is tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of man.   
      
   "But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly   
   poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who   
   are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth   
   blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." -   
   James 3:4-10   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)