From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Providence of God:   
      
      God is the unchanging conductor as well as the unchanged creator of   
   all things that change. When he adds, abolishes, curtails, increases,   
   or diminishes the rites of any age, he is ordering all events   
   according to his providence.   
      This will hold good until the beauty of the completed course of   
   time-whose parts are the   
   dispensations suitable to each different period-shall have played   
   itself out, like the great   
   melody of some ineffable composer. - Letter 138, 1   
      
   Prayer   
   Instruct me, Lord, and command what you will. But first heal me and open my   
   ears   
   that I may hear your words.   
   —Soliloquies 1, 1: Augustine   
      
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   21 March – Saint Serapion the Scholastic   
      
   (Died c 354-370)   
   Bishop of Thmuis, near Diospolis in the Nile delta of Egypt, Monk and   
   Hermit, Confessor, brilliant Scholar of great learning, theologian,   
   writer, a companion to St Anthony, the Desert Father and a close   
   friend of St Athanasius and gave support to him against the heretic   
   Arians in Egypt, for which action he was exiled. Died in c 365-370 of   
   natural causes while in exile in Egypt. Also known as Serapion of   
   Thmuis, Serapion the Scholar.   
      
   The surname of the Scholastic, which was given him, is a proof of the   
   reputation which he acquired, by his penetrating genius and by his   
   extensive learning, both sacred and profane. He presided for some time   
   in the catechetical school of Alexandria but, to apply himself more   
   perfectly to the science of the saints, to which he had always   
   consecrated himself, his studies and his other actions, he retired   
   into the desert and became a bright light in the monastic state.   
      
   Saint Athanasius assures us, in his life of Saint Antony, that in the   
   visits which Serapion paid to that illustrious Father of Hermits,   
   Saint Antony often spoke of things which passed in Egypt at a   
   distance, of which he had gained supernatural knowledge. St Athanasius   
   tells too, that St Anthony bequeathed after his death, one of his   
   tunics of hair to Serpaion.   
      
   Serapion was drawn out of his retreat, to be placed in the Episcopal   
   See of Thmuis, a famous City of Lower Egypt, near Diospolis. The name   
   in the Egyptian tongue signified ‘a goat,’ which animal, as St Jerome   
   informs us, was anciently worshipped there.   
      
   Serapion was closely linked with St Athanasius in the defence of the   
   Catholic faith—for which he was banished by the Emperor Constantius;   
   whence Saint Jerome styles him as confessor. Certain persons, who   
   confessed God, the Son consubstantial with the Father, denied the   
   divinity of the Holy Ghost. This error was no sooner broached but our   
   saint strenuously opposed it and informed Saint Athanasius of this new   
   inconsistent blasphemy and that zealous defender of the adorable   
   mystery of the Trinity, the fundamental article of the Christian   
   faith, wrote against this rising monster.   
      
   The four letters which Athanasius wrote to Serapion, in 359, when in   
   exile, were the first express confutation of the Macedonian heresy   
   that were published. Serapion, though separated from Athanasius,   
   continued the fight, to great advantage, against both the Arians and   
   Macedonians.   
      
   He also compiled an excellent book against the Manichees, in which he   
   shows that our bodies may be made the instruments of good and that our   
   souls may be perverted by sin; that there is no creature of which a   
   good use may not be made and that both just and wicked men, are often   
   changed, the former by falling into sin, the latter by becoming   
   virtuous. It is, therefore, a self-contradiction to pretend with the   
   Manichees that our souls are the work of God but our bodies of the   
   devil, or the evil principle.   
      
   Saint Serapion wrote several learned letters and a treatise on the   
   Titles of the Psalms, quoted by Saint Jerome, which are now lost. He   
   was also the author of a series of writings on the Doctrine of the   
   Divinity of the Holy Spirit (addressed to the Emperor).   
   At his request, Saint Athanasius composed several of his works against   
   the Arians and so great was his opinion of our saint, that he desired   
   him to correct, or add to them what he thought wanting.   
      
   Socrates relates that Saint Serapion gave an precis of his own life   
   and an abridged rule of Christian perfection in very few words, which   
   he would often repeat, saying: “The mind is purified by spiritual   
   knowledge, (or by holy meditation and prayer,) the spiritual passions   
   of the soul by charity, and the irregular appetites by abstinence and   
   penance.”   
      
   Serapion died in his banishment and is commemorated on this day in the   
   Roman Martyrology, which states of him: “At Alexandria, the blessed   
   Serapion, anchorite and Bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who,   
   being forced into exile by the enraged Arians, went to heaven.”   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2021/03/21/   
      
      
   … “Now is the time for us to choose! …   
   Listen to me, you holy seed,   
   for I have no doubt, that it is here, in abundance…   
   Listen to me or, rather, listen to Him, in me,   
   Who was first called a good seed.   
   Do not love your life in this world!   
   If you truly love yourselves,   
   do not thus love your life   
   and then, you will save your life!”…   
   --St Augustine (354-430)   
      
      
   “We must note, therefore,   
   that he that does things pleasing to God,   
   serves Christ but he that follows his own wishes,   
   is a follower, rather of himself and not of God.”   
   --St Cyril of Alexandria (376-444)   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Prayer is a wine which makes glad the heart of man.   
   --St. Bernard of Clairvaux   
      
      
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   ACT OF LOVE TO THE SACRED HEART   
      
   How great, O my Jesus, is the extent of Thine excessive   
   charity! Thou hast prepared for me, of Thy most precious   
   Body and Blood, a divine banquet, where Thou givest me   
   Thyself without reserve. What hath urged Thee to this excess   
   of love?  Nothing but Thine own most loving Heart.   
      
   O adorable Heart of my Jesus, furnace of Divine Love,   
   receive my soul into the wound of Thy most Sacred Passion,   
   that in this school of charity I may learn to make a return of   
   love to that God Who hast given me such wonderful proofs of   
   His love.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)