From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   I have made you the foundation of the holy Church.   
      
   "[Jesus said:] Simon, my follower, I have made you the foundation of   
   the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because you will support   
   all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on   
   Earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false,   
   you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the   
   fountain from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my   
   disciples. Through you I will give drink to all peoples. Yours is that   
   life-giving sweetness which I dispense. I have chosen you to be, as it   
   were, the first-born in my institution so that, as the heir, you may   
   be executor of my treasures. I have given you the keys of my kingdom.   
   Behold, I have given you authority over all my treasures"   
   --Ephraim the Syrian  (Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 351]).   
      
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   February 22nd - Chair of Peter the Apostle   
      
    This feast commemorates Christ's choosing Peter to sit in his place   
   as the servant-authority of the whole Church.   
      
   After the "lost weekend" of pain, doubt and self-torment following   
   Christ's crucifixion and burial, Peter hears the Good News. Angels at   
   the tomb say to Mary Magdalene, "The Lord has risen! Go, tell his   
   disciples and Peter." John relates that when he and Peter ran to the   
   tomb, the younger outraced the older, then waited for him. Peter   
   entered, saw the wrappings on the ground, the headpiece rolled up in a   
   place by itself. John saw and believed. But he adds a reminder:   
   "...They did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from   
   the dead" (John 20:9). They went home. There the slowly exploding,   
   impossible idea became reality. Jesus appeared to them as they waited   
   fearfully behind locked doors. "Peace be with you," he said (John   
   20:21b), and they rejoiced.   
      
   The Pentecostal event completed Peter's experience of the risen   
   Christ. "...They were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4a) and   
   began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold   
   proclamation as the Spirit prompted them.   
      
   Only then can Peter fulfill the task Jesus had given him: "...Once you   
   have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:32). He   
   at once becomes the spokesman for the Twelve about their experience of   
   the Holy Spirit-before the civil authorities who wished to quash their   
   preaching, before the council of Jerusalem, for the community in the   
   problem of Ananias and Sapphira. He is the first to preach the Good   
   News to the Gentiles. The healing power of Jesus in him is well   
   attested: the raising of Tabitha from the dead, the cure of the   
   crippled beggar. People carry the sick into the streets so that when   
   Peter passed his shadow might fall on them.   
      
   Even a saint experiences difficulty in Christian living. When Peter   
   stopped eating with Gentile converts because he did not want to wound   
   the sensibilities of Jewish Christians, Paul says, "...I opposed him   
   to his face because he clearly was wrong.... They were not on the   
   right road in line with the truth of the gospel..." (Galatians 2:11b,   
   14a).   
      
   At the end of John's Gospel, Jesus says to Peter, "Amen, amen, I say   
   to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where   
   you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,   
   and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to   
   go" (John 21:18). What Jesus said indicated the sort of death by which   
   Peter was to glorify God. On Vatican Hill, in Rome, during the reign   
   of Nero, Peter did glorify his Lord with a martyr's death, probably in   
   the company of many Christians.   
      
   Quote: Peter described our Christian calling in the opening of his   
   First Letter: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,   
   who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through   
   the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." (1 Peter 1:3a).   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   "The Lord is loving toward men, swift to pardon but slow to punish.   
   Let no man despair of his own salvation. Peter, the first and foremost   
   of the apostles, denied the Lord three times before a little servant   
   girl, but he repented and wept bitterly"   
   --Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures 2:19 [A.D. 350]).   
      
   "[Simon Magus] so deceived the city of Rome that Claudius erected a   
   statue of him . . .While the error was extending itself, Peter and   
   Paul arrived, a noble pair and the rulers of the Church, and they set   
   the error aright. . . . [T]hey launched the weapon of their   
   like-mindedness in prayer against the Magus, and struck him down to   
   earth. It was marvelous enough, and yet no marvel at all, for Peter   
   was there-he that carries about the keys of heaven [Matt. 16:19]"   
   (ibid., 6:14).   
   --Cyril of Jerusalem   
      
      
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   Meditation for the Day   
      
      The world doesn't need super men or women, but supernatural people.   
   People who will turn the self out of their lives and let Divine Power   
   work through them. Let inspiration take the place of aspiration. Seek   
   to grow spiritually, rather than to acquire fame and riches. Our chief   
   ambition should be to be used by God. The Divine Force is sufficient   
   for all the spiritual work in the world. God only needs the   
   instruments for His use. His instruments can remake the world.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)