From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God First Loved Us   
      
   "Fulfill the commandments out of love. Could anyone refuse to love our   
   God, so abounding in mercy, so just in all his ways? Could anyone deny   
   love to him who first loved us despite all our injustice and all our   
   pride?   
      
   Could anyone refuse to love the God who so loved us as to send his   
   only Son not only to live among human beings but also to be put to   
   death for their sake and at their own hands?"   
   --St. Augustine--Catechetical Instructions 39   
      
   Prayer: You, the Omnipotent and Good, care for each of us as if each   
   was your sole care, and for all as for one alone!   
   --St. Augustine--Confession 3, 11   
      
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   July 7th – St. Maolruain of Tallaght, Abbot (AC)   
   (also known as Maelruain)   
      
   Died 792.   
   "Labor in piety is the most excellent work of all. The kingdom of   
   heaven in granted to him who directs study, him who studies, and him   
   who supports the student."   
   --Saint Maolruain.   
      
   Saint Maolruain was the founder and abbot of the monastery of Tallaght   
   in County Wicklow, Ireland, on land donated by King Cellach mac   
   Dunchada of Leinster in 774. Tallaght Abbey became the mother house of   
   the Culdee movement, which Maolruain co-founded with Saint Oengus.   
      
   The Culdee movement, intended to regularize the rules of Irish   
   monasticism according to traditional ascetical practices, was codified   
   in several of the saint's writings: The teaching of Maelruain, Rule of   
   the Celi-Dé, and The monastery of Tallaght. These promoted both for   
   both the ascetic and the intellectual life, promoted community prayer   
   with repetitions of the Psalter and genuflections, insisted upon   
   stability and enclosure, and called for clerical and monastic   
   celibacy.   
      
   In typical Irish fashion, the Culdee movement was marked by extremism.   
   Women were discussed as "men's guardian devils." Ascetic practices   
   included total abstinence from alcohol. Sundays were observed like the   
   Jewish sabbath. Vigils in cold water or with the arms extended in   
   cruciform and self-flagellation were recommended. Fortunately or not,   
   the movement failed because it lacked all constitutional means of   
   making the reform permanent, although it called for tithes from the   
   laity to support it.   
      
   Like other Irish reformers, Maolruain emphasized spiritual direction   
   and confession of sins by establishing rules for both. Tallaght's   
   devotional life was marked by special veneration of both its patrons:   
   the Blessed Virgin and Saint Michael the Archangel.   
      
   Intellectual and manual work were integral to life at Tallaght. There   
   are, Maolruain wrote, "three profitable things in the day: prayer,   
   labor, and study, or it may be teaching or writing or sewing clothes   
   or any profitable work that a monk may do, so that none may be idle."   
      
   Maolruain, with Oengus, was also the compiler of the Martyrology named   
   after that place. The movement led to the production of the Stowe   
   Missal, formerly enshrined, which is a unique record of early Irish   
   liturgical practices. A church was built in 1829 on the medieval   
   remains of Maolruain's abbey. The locals maintained a long-standing   
   custom of processing house-to-house, dancing jigs and drinking, on his   
   feast, until it was suppressed by the Dominicans in 1856   
   (Benedictines, Farmer, Montague).   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. For, we know not what   
   we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself asketh for us   
   with unspeakable groanings,  (Romans 8:26 ) DRB   
      
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   Be simple as doves.  [Matt. 10:16 ]   
      
   10. If you happen to say or do something that is not well received by   
   all, you should not, on that account, set yourself to examine and   
   scrutinize all your words and actions; for there is no doubt that it   
   is self-love which makes us anxious to know whether what we have said   
   or done is approved or not. Simplicity does not run after its actions,   
   but leaves the result of them to Divine Providence, which it follows   
   above all things, turning neither to the right nor to the left, but   
   simply going on its way.   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
   This Saint himself acted in this manner, for he never sought to know   
   whether his words or actions were acceptable to others or not. When it   
   was reported to him that a certain action of his had been disapproved   
   by some persons, he answered without any discomposure: "That is not to   
   be wondered at, for not even the works of Christ our Lord were   
   approved by all; and there are many, even at this day, who speak   
   blasphemously of them."   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".   July: Simplicity)   
      
      
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   Salutatio ad Dominum Iesum Christum   
   (Salutation to the Lord Jesus Christ),   
   a prayer to the Body and Blood of Christ,   
   by St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church.   
      
      
   Body of Christ, Hail! Of the holy Virgin born,   
   Living flesh, Deity entire, true man!   
      
   Hail! true salvation, strength, life, redemption of the world,   
   May Thy right Hand free us from all evil.   
      
   Blood of Christ, Hail, Heaven's most holy libation,   
   River of salvation washing away our crimes.   
   Hail, Blood! floweth from the Wound of Christ's Side,   
   River of salvation, hung on the Cross, Hail!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)