From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Counsels on the Inner Life  (X)   
      
      What will the flames feed upon, but your sins? The more you spare   
   yourself now, and indulge the desires of the body, the more severe   
   will be your punishment hereafter, and the more fuel you gather for   
   the flames. In whatever things a man sins, in those will he be the   
   more severely punished (Wisd.11:17). Then will the slothful be spurred   
   by fiery goads, and the gluttonous tormented by dire hunger and   
   thirst. Then will the luxurious and pleasure-loving be plunged into   
   burning pitch and stinking sulphur, while the envious will howl their   
   grief like wild dogs.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2 Ch 1   
      
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       • November 19th - St. Ermenburga of Thanet, Widow   
      
   I think it is worth mentioning today a saint not commemorated in the   
   Russian calendar, but whose feast falls today (Nov 19, that is) in the   
   Roman and old English calendars – Ermenburga, foundress of the   
   monastery at Thanet. In fact, she has been mentioned here before in   
   connection with several other saints in her immediate family.   
   [celt-saints] comes through again:   
      
   ‘St. Ermenburga of Thanet, Widow (Ebba, Eormenburh, Domneva) Died c.   
   650-700. Saint Ermenburga was a Kentish princess of distinguished   
   lineage. Her father was Ermenred, the brother of King Erconbert of   
   Kent. She married Merewald, said to be the son of King Penda of   
   Mercia, by whom she bore four children, including Saints Mildred (f.d.   
   July 13), Milburga (f.d. February 23); eldest of the three girls), and   
   Mildgith (f.d. January 17; youngest daughter), and Merefin, who died   
   in his youth. Ermenburga’s own siblings included Saints Ethelred and   
   Ethelbert (f.d. October 17).   
      
   When they were cruelly murdered at Eastry near Sandwich by Egbert’s   
   counsellor Thunor, their sister received the “wergild” in the form of   
   land at Kent. In her old age Ermenburga used this land to found the   
   convent of Minster on Thanet, where the place name Ebbsfleet still   
   perpetuates her memory. She became its abbess about 670 and was   
   succeeded by her daughter Mildred, who had been trained at Chelles in   
   France. Domneva is a contraction of Domna Ebba (Lady Ebba).’   
      
   One of the two Anglican ‘flying bishops’ (bishops without a   
   geographical see, who minister to those parishes who have signed up to   
   the ABC resolutions against having women priests) is the Bishop of   
   Ebbsfleet. How can a church call itself one, in which some of the   
   people refuse to acknowledge some of the priests? Holy women of   
   Thanet, pray for the Church of England.   
      
      
   Bible Quote   
   That he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it   
   is not granted to man to utter.  For such an one I will glory; but for   
   myself I will glory nothing, but in my infirmities.  (2 Corinthians   
   12:4-5) DRB   
      
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   7. It should be observed that perfect love of God consists not in   
   those delights, tears, and sentiments of devotion that we generally   
   seek, but in a strong determination and keen desire to please God in   
   all things, and to take care, as far as possible, not to offend Him,   
   and to promote His glory.   
   --St. Teresa   
      
   St. Jane Frances de Chantal showed how well she understood this great   
   truth, by a letter she sent to the Superior of a Religious who was   
   looked upon as a soul filled with the love of God, because she enjoyed   
   extraordinary consolations. "This good girl:' she wrote, "greatly   
   needs to be undeceived. She believes herself highly elevated in the   
   love of God, yet she is not much advanced in virtue. I believe that   
   these fervors and exaltations which she feels are the work of nature   
   and self-love. Therefore, she should be shown that the real strength   
   of love consists not in enjoying the Divine sweetness, but rather in   
   exact observance of the Rules, and the faithful practice of solid   
   virtue--that is, in humility, the love of contempt, patient endurance   
   of insults and adversities, self-forgetfulness, and a love that seeks   
   not to be known except by God. This alone is true love, and these are   
   its unerring tokens. May God preserve us from that sensible love which   
   allows us to live in ourselves, while the true leads us to die to   
   ourselves."   
      
   Such was the love of St. Thomas Aquinas, of whom it is recorded that   
   he kept his soul always as pure and true as that of a child five years   
   old.   
      
   Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".   November: Charity)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)