From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Awakening the Christ asleep within you   
      
   "When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are being buffeted   
   by the wind. When your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the   
   waves. So when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in   
   danger, your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On   
   hearing yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of   
   revenge brings with it another kind of misfortune--shipwreck. Why is   
   this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do I mean? I mean you have   
   forgotten his presence. Rouse him, then; remember him, let him keep   
   watch within you, pay heed to him... A temptation arises: it is the   
   wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging of the sea. This is the   
   moment to awaken Christ and let him remind you of those words: 'Who   
   can this be? Even the winds and the sea obey him."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermons 63:1-3)   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   January 17th - Bl. Roseline, Virgin   
   d. 1329   
      
   Holy Carthusian nun frequent visions and ecstasies, and possessed an   
   extraordinary gift of reading the hearts of all who came to her. Her   
   body was indescribably beautiful after death, and no sign of rigidity   
   or corruption appeared in it.   
      
   THIS holy Carthusian nun, Roseline de Villeneuve, was of very   
   distinguished ancestry. Her father was Baron des Arcs, and her mother   
   was a de Sabran. She had to overcome strong family opposition before   
   she could finally execute her purpose of consecrating herself to God.   
   She had been educated by the nuns of St. Clare, but found her own   
   vocation in following the austere Carthusian rule. She seems to have   
   been received in the convent of Bertrand at the age of 25, and 12   
   years later was made prioress of Celle Roubaud, in Provence, where she   
   died, January 17, 1329.   
      
   She occasionally passed a whole week together without taking food; she   
   punished herself with terrible disciplines, and never gave more than   
   three or four hours to sleep. She used to teach her nuns to have a   
   great dread of those words, “I know you not”, in order that they might   
   make sure of hearing the greeting, “Come, ye blessed of my Father.”   
   When Roseline was asked what was the best means of getting to Heaven,   
   she often replied, “To know oneself”. She had frequent visions and   
   ecstasies, and possessed an extraordinary gift of reading the hearts   
   of all who came to her.   
      
    Her body was indescribably beautiful after death, and no sign of   
   rigidity or corruption appeared in it. Five years afterwards it was   
   still perfectly preserved, and the ecclesiastic who presided at the   
   them enucleated and kept in a reliquary apart. The body was still   
   quite entire a 100 years later, and the eyes had neither shriveled nor   
   decayed as late as 1644.  Her cultus was confirmed in 1851.   
      
   See the Acta Sanctorum for June xi; Le Couteulx, Annales Ordinis   
   Cartusiensis, vol. v, pp. 262-268 Villeneuve-Flayose, Histoire de Ste   
   Roseline de Villeneuve (1866).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   A man who has been assiduous in acquiring the fruits of love will not   
   cease loving even if he suffers a thousand calamities. Let Stephen,   
   the disciple of Christ, and others like him persuade you of the truth   
   of this (cf. Acts 7:60). Our Lord Himself prayed for His murderers and   
   asked the Father to forgive them because they did not know what they   
   were doing (cf. Luke 23:34).   
   --St. Maximos the Confessor   
      
   Bible Quote   
   And hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth   
   in our hearts,   
    by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.  (Romans 5:5)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Come, Thou Redeemer Of The Earth   
   (By Saint Ambrose of Milan)   
      
       Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth,   
       and manifest Thy virgin birth:   
       let every age adoring fall;   
       such birth befits the God of all.   
      
       Begotten of no human will,   
       but of the Spirit, Thou art still   
       the Word of God in flesh arrayed,   
       the promised fruit to man displayed.   
      
       The virgin womb that burden gained   
       with virgin honor all unstained;   
       the banners there of virtue glow;   
       God in his temple dwells below.   
      
       Forth from his chamber goeth He,   
       that royal home of purity,   
       a giant in twofold substance one,   
       rejoicing now his course to run.   
      
       From God the Father He proceeds,   
       to God the Father back He speeds;   
       His course he runs to death and hell,   
       returning on God's throne to dwell.   
      
       O equal to Thy Father, Thou!   
       Gird on thy fleshly mantle now;   
       the weakness of our mortal state   
       with deathless might invigorate.   
      
       Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,   
       and darkness breathe a newer light,   
       where endless faith shall shine serene,   
       and twilight never intervene.   
      
       All laud to God the Father be,   
       all praise, eternal Son, to Thee;   
       all glory, as is ever meet,   
       to God the Holy Paraclete.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)