From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   A daily remedy for our sins   
      
   "Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. Let us say this   
   sentence with sincerity, because it is an alms in itself. Sins that   
   oppress and bury us cannot be termed trifles! What is more minute than   
   drops of rain? Yet they fill the rivers. What is more minute than   
   grains of wheat? Yet they fill the barns. You note the fact that these   
   sins are rather small, but you do not take note that there are many of   
   them. In any case, God has given us a daily remedy for them."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermon 205,1)   
      
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   February 22nd - Chair of Peter the Apostle   
      
    This feast commemorates Christ's choosing Peter to sit in his place   
   as the servant-authority of the whole Church.   
      
   After the "lost weekend" of pain, doubt and self-torment following   
   Christ's crucifixion and burial, Peter hears the Good News. Angels at   
   the tomb say to Mary Magdalene, "The Lord has risen! Go, tell his   
   disciples and Peter." John relates that when he and Peter ran to the   
   tomb, the younger outraced the older, then waited for him. Peter   
   entered, saw the wrappings on the ground, the headpiece rolled up in a   
   place by itself. John saw and believed. But he adds a reminder:   
   "...They did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from   
   the dead" (John 20:9). They went home. There the slowly exploding,   
   impossible idea became reality. Jesus appeared to them as they waited   
   fearfully behind locked doors. "Peace be with you," he said (John   
   20:21b), and they rejoiced.   
      
   The Pentecostal event completed Peter's experience of the risen   
   Christ. "...They were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4a) and   
   began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold   
   proclamation as the Spirit prompted them.   
      
   Only then can Peter fulfill the task Jesus had given him: "...Once you   
   have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:32). He   
   at once becomes the spokesman for the Twelve about their experience of   
   the Holy Spirit-before the civil authorities who wished to quash their   
   preaching, before the council of Jerusalem, for the community in the   
   problem of Ananias and Sapphira. He is the first to preach the Good   
   News to the Gentiles. The healing power of Jesus in him is well   
   attested: the raising of Tabitha from the dead, the cure of the   
   crippled beggar. People carry the sick into the streets so that when   
   Peter passed his shadow might fall on them.   
      
   Even a saint experiences difficulty in Christian living. When Peter   
   stopped eating with Gentile converts because he did not want to wound   
   the sensibilities of Jewish Christians, Paul says, "...I opposed him   
   to his face because he clearly was wrong.... They were not on the   
   right road in line with the truth of the gospel..." (Galatians 2:11b,   
   14a).   
      
   At the end of John's Gospel, Jesus says to Peter, "Amen, amen, I say   
   to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where   
   you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,   
   and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to   
   go" (John 21:18). What Jesus said indicated the sort of death by which   
   Peter was to glorify God. On Vatican Hill, in Rome, during the reign   
   of Nero, Peter did glorify his Lord with a martyr's death, probably in   
   the company of many Christians.   
      
      
   Quote: Peter described our Christian calling in the opening of his   
   First Letter: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,   
   who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through   
   the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." (1 Peter 1:3a).   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    "There is another example of the same kind: Rahab the prostitute, was   
   she not justified by her deeds because she welcomed the messengers and   
   showed them a different way to leave? As a body without a spirit is   
   dead, so is faith without deeds."  James 2:25-26   
      
      
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   God wants me to wait   
      
     There is almost no work in life so hard as waiting. And yet God   
   wants me to wait. All motion is easier than calm waiting, and yet I   
   must wait until God shows me His will. So many people have marred   
   their work and hindered the growth of their spiritual lives by too   
   much activity. If I wait patiently, preparing myself always, I will be   
   some day at the place where I would be. And much toil and activity   
   could not have accomplished the journey so soon.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)