From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Our Brother In Heaven   
      
   "Wonderful is the fact that, even though Christ ascended above the   
   heavens, he remains close to those who are still living on earth. Who   
   is this One Who is so far away and yet so near?   
      
   He is the One Who out of merciful goodness became our Brother!"   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 171, 1   
      
   Prayer: That I might gave upon the delight of the Lord": see what I   
   love, see why I want to live in the house of the Lord all the days of   
   my life. In it lies something wonderful to see, the delight of the   
   Lord Himself awaiting our contemplation.   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 26 (2), 8   
      
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   April 21st - SS. Simeon Barsabae and Comp., Martyrs   
      
   d. 341   
   PERHAPS the longest individual notice which occurs in the Roman   
   Martyrology is that devoted to a group of Persian martyrs on this day.   
   It runs as follows:   
      
    “In Persia the birthday of St. Simeon, Bishop of Seleucia and   
   Ctesiphon, who was taken by command of Sapor, King of the Persians,   
   loaded with chains, and brought before iniquitous tribunals. As he   
   refused to worship the sun, and bore testimony to Jesus Christ with   
   clear and constant voice, he was first of all kept for a long time in   
   prison with a hundred others, whereof some were bishops, others   
   priests, others clerics of divers ranks; then when Usthazanes, the   
   king’s tutor, who some time before had lapsed from the faith, but whom   
   the bishop had recalled to repentance, had suffered martyrdom with   
   constancy, on the next day, which was the anniversary of the Lord’s   
   passion, the others were all beheaded before the eyes of Simeon, who   
   meanwhile zealously exhorted each of them; and lastly he himself was   
   beheaded. With him there suffered moreover the men of renown   
   Abdechalas and Ananias, his priests; Pusicius also, the overseer of   
   the king’s workmen, fell by a cruel death, because he had strengthened   
   Ananias when he was wavering, wherefore his neck was severed and his   
   tongue removed; and after him his daughter also was slain who was a   
   holy virgin.”   
      
   A hardly less lengthy eulogy is accorded on the next day to another   
   group of Persian martyrs. St. Simeon, called Barsabae, i.e. son of the   
   fuller, is mentioned in the first place among the martyrs in the   
   little supplement annexed to the Syriac “Breviarium” of 412 under the   
   heading “The Names of our Masters the Confessors, Bishops of Persia”.   
   There can be no question as to the reality and the cruelty of the   
   persecution which was renewed by Sapor II in 340 or 341, for we hear   
   much about it in Sozomen and other authorities.   
      
   The best text of the Passion of St. Simeon Barsabae is probably that   
   edited by M. Kmosko in vol. ii o. Patrologia Syriaca, pp. 661-690. The   
   document had been published long ago by E. Assemani in his Acta   
   martyrum orientalium, and there is also an Armenian translation. As   
   has been pointed out by Fr Peeters in the Analecta Bollandiana (vol.   
   xxix, pp. 151-156, and vol. xliii, pp. 264-268) as well as in the Acta   
   Sanctorum, November, vol. iv, pp. 419-421, several interesting   
   problems arise out of these acts. In particular the name which appears   
   in the Roman Martyrology as Usthazanes and in the Syriac as Guhistazad   
   is probably identical with the name Azadas which figures in the list   
   of Persian martyrs on the next day. A French translation of the acts   
   is printed in Dom Leclercq’s Les Martyrs, vol. iii, pp. 145-162.   
      
      
   “A single Mass offered for oneself during life   
   may be worth more than a thousand celebrated   
   for the same intention after death.”   
   “No one will have any other desire in heaven   
   than what God wills;   
   and the desire of one will be the desire of all;   
   and the desire of all and of each one   
   will also be the desire of God.”   
   --St Anselm   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   They who voluntarily commit sin show a contempt for life eternal,   
   since they willingly risk the loss of their soul.   
   --St. Gregory the Great   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his   
   angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.   
   (Matthew 16:27) DRB   
      
      
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   Saint Anselm of Canterbury Shows How Sin Enslaves Man   
      
   On another occasion, he saw a boy playing with a little bird by the   
   roadside. The bird had its foot tied to a string, and now and then,   
   when it was allowed a little freedom, it tried to fly away, hoping to   
   succour itself by flight. But the boy holding the string pulled it   
   back and brought it down beside him. This gave him enormous pleasure,   
   and he did it again and again. When the Father saw this, he was sorry   
   for the wretched bird, and hoped that it would break the string and   
   regain its freedom. And suddenly the string did break; the bird flew   
   off: the boy wept; and the Father rejoiced. Then he called to us and   
   said “Did you notice the game the boy was playing? When we admitted   
   that we had done so, he said “Consider likewise how the devil plays   
   with many men, whom he catches in his toils and drags into various   
   vices at his pleasure. For instance some men are consumed by the   
   flames of avarice or lust or such-like things, and are chained to them   
   by evil habit. Sometimes it happens to them that, when they consider   
   what they are doing, they weep over it and promise themselves that   
   they will leave off such things in the future. So, like the bird, they   
   think they can fly away free. But, being enmeshed by evil habits, they   
   are held by the enemy, who pulls them back into the same vices, as   
   they fly away. This happens time and again, and they are never   
   entirely set free unless, by a great effort and by the operation of   
   God’s grace, the cord of evil custom is broken.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)