From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Corruption of Nature and the Efficacy of Divine Grace [V]   
      
   O most blessed grace, that makes the poor in spirit rich in virtues,   
   and the richly blessed humble in heart! Come, descend on me! Fill me   
   with your comfort, (Ps 40:14) lest my soul faint from weariness and   
   dryness of mind I pray, Lord, that I may find favour in Thy sight, for   
   Thy grace is sufficient for me,(2 Cor.12:9) even if I obtain none of   
   those things that nature desires. However often I am tempted and   
   troubled, I will fear no evil (Ps.23:4) so long as Thy grace remains   
   with me.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 55   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   September 6th - Saint Eleutherius, Abbot   
   (d. ca. 585)   
      
   A wonderful simplicity and spirit of compunction were the   
   distinguishing virtues of this holy sixth century abbot. He was   
   elected to preside at Saint Mark’s monastery near Spoleto, and favored   
   by God with the gift of miracles.   
      
   A child who was confided to the monastery, to be educated there after   
   having been delivered by the Abbot from a diabolical possession,   
   appeared to everyone to be entirely exempt from further molestations.   
   And Saint Eleutherius chanced to say one day: “Since the child is   
   among the servants of God, the devil dares not approach him.” These   
   words seemed to savor of vanity, and thereupon the devil again entered   
   into and tormented the child. The Abbot humbly confessed his fault and   
   undertook a fast, in which the entire community joined, until the   
   child was again freed from the tyranny of the fiend.   
      
   Saint Gregory the Great, finding himself unable to fast on Holy   
   Saturday on account of extreme weakness, called for this Saint, who   
   was in Rome at the time, to offer up prayers to God for him that he   
   might join the faithful in the solemn practice of that day’s penances.   
   Saint Eleutherius prayed with many tears, and the Pope, when they came   
   out of the church, felt suddenly strengthened and able to accomplish   
   the fast as he desired. The same Pope, remarking that the Abbot was   
   said to have raised a dead man to life, added: “He was so simple a   
   man, one of such great penance, that we must not doubt that Almighty   
   God granted much to his tears and his humility!” After resigning his   
   abbacy, Saint Eleutherius died in Rome in Saint Andrew’s monastery,   
   about the year 585.   
      
   Reflection: “Be not seen by men as fasting, but by thy Father who is   
   in heaven; and thy Father, who sees in secret, will reward thee.” (Cf.   
   Matt. 6:16-18)   
      
   Sources: Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année, by Abbé L.   
   Jaud (Mame: Tours, 1950); Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a   
   compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by   
   John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   As long as any one has the means of doing good to his neighbours, and   
   does not do so, he shall be reckoned a stranger to the love of the   
   Lord.   
   -- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let the people shew forth their wisdom, and the church declare their   
   praise.  (Ecclesiasticus 44:15)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Dear Jesus, in the Sacrament of the Altar, be forever thanked and   
   praised. Love, worthy of all celestial and terrestrial love! Who, out   
   of infinite love for me, ungrateful sinner, didst assume our human   
   nature, didst shed Thy most Precious Blood in the cruel scourging, and   
   didst expire on a shameful Cross for our eternal welfare! Now   
   illumined with lively faith, with the outpouring of my whole soul and   
   the fervor of my heart, I humbly beseech Thee, through the infinite   
   merits of Thy painful sufferings, give me strength and courage to   
   destroy every evil passion which sways my heart, to bless Thee by the   
   exact fulfillment of my duties, supremely to hate all sin, and thus to   
   become a Saint.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)