From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The harvest of righteousness   
      
   And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make   
   peace.  [James 3:18]   
      
   The Venerable Bede in commenting on this passage urges Christians to   
   sow the earth with the best seed to yield a fruitful harvest:   
   "Everything we do in this life contains within it the seed of future   
   regard.  Paul says the same thing when he writes: 'Whatever a man   
   sows, that will he also reap.' Therefore it is rightly said that the   
   fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  For   
   the fruit of righteousness is eternal life, which is the reward for   
   good works, so that those who desire peace and implement it sow the   
   earth with the best of seed there is, and by their daily actions gain   
   an increase which entitles them to inherit the fruits of life in   
   heaven.  The reprobates also reap what they sow, because they will   
   also receive their just reward at the judgment.  But that reward will   
   not be the fruits of eternal life, but corruption, because they will   
   reap the eternal punishment due to the corruption in which they passed   
   their lives on earth."   
   --The Venerable Bede, quoting St. Paul from Gal. 6:7; Concerning the   
   Epistle of St. James, ch. 3.   
      
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   March 10th - St. Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem   
      
   d.335   
   PRESERVED in the pages of the historian Eusebius is the letter which   
   Constantine wrote to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, entrusting him   
   with the construction of a church on the spot where the Empress Helen   
   had discovered the site of Christ’s sepulchre, and giving him   
   practically a free hand in its design and in the choice of workmen and   
   materials. He lived to complete the basilica he had undertaken. We   
   know from the testimony of St. Athanasius that Macarius was a sincere   
   and upright man, filled with the true apostolic spirit. He succeeded   
   Bishop Hermon in 314 at the time when the Arian heresy was beginning   
   seriously to menace the Church, and we know from the testimony of St.   
   Athanasius that he proved himself a valiant champion of the true   
   faith. At the Council of Nicaea his name appears first of the   
   Palestinian bishops in the list of the signatories.   
      
   According to the popular legend, Macarius was not only present at the   
   finding of Christ’s cross, but was also actually the means of   
   identifying it. When the necessary excavations had been made three   
   crosses were discovered, and it was at first doubtful which of the   
   three was that on which our Lord had suffered. If we may trust the   
   account which Rufinus gives in his Ecclesiastical History: “It   
   happened that in the city there was a woman lying ill, nigh unto   
   death. Macarius was bishop of that church at the time. When he saw the   
   queen and the rest standing by, he said, ‘Bring hither all the crosses   
   that have been found, and God will show us which it was that bore the   
   Lord’. Then having entered with the queen and the others into the   
   house of the woman who was ill, he knelt down and prayed thus:  ‘0   
   God, who through thine only-begotten Son hast inspired the heart of   
   thine handmaid to seek the holy wood upon which our salvation depends,   
   show plainly which cross was identified with the glory of the Lord and   
   which served for the punishment of slaves. Grant that as soon as the   
   health-giving wood touches this woman who is lying half-dead, she may   
   be recalled to life from the gates of death.’ When he had spoken these   
   words, he touched her with one of the crosses--and nothing happened.   
   Then he applied the second--equally without effect. As soon, however,   
   as he touched her with the third cross, she started up open-eyed and,   
   with her strength fully restored, began to glorify God and to run   
   about the house with greater agility than before her illness. The   
   queen; having obtained her desire through such a clear indication,   
   erected with royal pomp a marvellous temple on the spot where she had   
   found the cross.”   
      
   Constantine’s great basilica was consecrated on September 13, 335, the   
   year which is generally considered to have been that of the death of   
   its supervisor and builder Macarius.  It must be confessed that there   
   is some discrepancy between the accounts given by St. Ambrose and the   
   church historians concerning the miracle by which the cross was   
   identified, but this is dealt with more fully on May 3.   
      
   See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; DCB., vol. iii, p. 765 and F.   
   J. Bacchus in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. ix, pp. 482-483.   
      
      
   Quote/s of the Day – 10 March   
      
   “Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial.   
   We progress by means of trial.   
   No-one knows himself except through trial,   
   or receives a crown,   
   except after victory,   
   or strives,   
   except against an enemy or temptations.”   
   --St Augustine (354-430)   
      
   “Love never says   
   ‘I have done enough.’”   
   --St Marie Eugénie de Jésus (1817-1898)   
      
      
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   O Mother of Sorrows,   
   Stand by Me in My Last Agony   
   By St Gabriel Francis Possenti   
   of Our Lady of Sorrows (1838-1862)   
      
   O Mother of Sorrows,   
   by the anguish and love   
   with which thou did stand at the Cross of Jesus,   
   stand by me in my last agony.   
   To thy maternal heart   
   I commend the last three hours of my life.   
   Offer these hours to the Eternal Father   
   in union with the agony of our dearest Lord,   
   in atonement for my sins.   
   Offer to the Eternal Father   
   the most precious blood of Jesus,   
   mingled with your tears on Calvary,   
   that I may obtain the grace of receiving Holy Communion   
   with the most perfect love and contrition   
   before my death   
   and that I may breathe forth my soul   
   in the adorable presence of Jesus.   
   Dearest Mother,   
   when the moment of my death has at last come,   
   present me as your child to Jesus.   
   Ask Him to forgive me for having offended Him,   
   for I knew not what I did.   
   Beg Him to receive me into His kingdom of glory   
   to be united with Him forever.   
   Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)