From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Faith Working through Love   
      
      "You have before you Christ as your end. You have no need to go on   
   looking anymore. The moment you believed, you already recognized it.   
      But faith alone is not enough, unless works too are joined to it.   
   "Faith working through love," says the Apostle!"   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 16A, 11   
      
   Prayer: Lord, my God, listen to my prayer, and may your mercy hear my desire.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 11, 2   
      
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   October 31st - St. Quentin, Apostle of Amiens, Martyr   
      
    (d. 287)   
   St. Quentin was a Roman, descended from a senatorial family. Full of   
   zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he left his country and went   
   into Gaul, accompanied by eleven other apostles sent from Rome. They   
   separated to extend their campaign of evangelization to the various   
   regions of France. St. Quentin remained at Amiens and endeavored by   
   his prayers and labors to make that region part of Our Lord's   
   inheritance. By the force of his words and works he preluded the glory   
   of his martyrdom. He gave sight to the blind, vigor to paralytics,   
   hearing to the deaf, and agility to the infirm, in the name of Our   
   Lord, simply by the sign of the Cross. At all hours of the day he   
   invoked his God in fervent supplications.   
      
   But this apostolate could not escape the notice of Rictiovarus, the   
   Roman prosecutor who at that time represented Maximian Herculeus in   
   Gaul. St. Quentin was seized at Amiens, thrown into prison, and loaded   
   with chains. Rictiovarus asked him: "How does it happen that you, of   
   such high nobility and the son of so distinguished a father, have   
   given yourself up to so superstitious a religion, a folly, and that   
   you adore an unfortunate man crucified by other men?" St. Quentin   
   replied: "It is sovereign nobility to adore the Creator of heaven and   
   earth, and to obey willingly His divine commandments. What you call   
   folly is supreme wisdom. What is there that is wiser than to recognize   
   the unique true God, and to reject with disdain the counterfeits,   
   which are mute, false and deceiving?"   
      
   When the holy preacher was found to be invulnerable to either promises   
   or threats, the prosecutor condemned him to the most barbarous   
   torture. He was stretched on the rack and flogged. He prayed for   
   strength, for the honor and glory of the name of God, forever blessed.   
   He was returned to the prison when the executioners who were striking   
   him fell over backwards, and told Rictiovarus they were unable to   
   stand up, and could scarcely speak. An Angel released the prisoner   
   during the night, telling him to go and preach in the city, and that   
   the persecutor would soon fall before the justice of God. His sermon,   
   a commented paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed, has been conserved. To   
   his profession of faith in the Holy Trinity, he added that Our Lord   
   Jesus Christ, whom he adored, "gave sight to the blind, hearing to the   
   deaf, health to the sick and even life to the dead. At His voice, the   
   lame leaped up and ran, paralytics walked, and water was changed into   
   wine... He has promised to be forever with those who hope in Him, and   
   He never abandons those who place their hope in Him; by His   
   omnipotence He delivers them, whenever it pleases Him, from all their   
   tribulations." His guardians discovered that he had disappeared,   
   though all doors were barred, and found him in the city preaching.   
   They were converted by the prodigy. But Rictiovarus was furious and   
   said to them: "You, too, have become magicians?"   
      
   Brought back before the tribunal as a sorcerer, Saint Quentin said:   
   "If by persevering in my faith, I am put to death by you, I will not   
   cease to live in Jesus Christ; this is my hope, I maintain it with   
   confidence." He was again placed on the rack and beaten, and tortured   
   with other demoniacal means; his flesh pierced with two iron wires   
   from the shoulders to the thighs, and iron nails were thrust into his   
   fingers, his skull and body. Finally, this glorious martyr was   
   decapitated, after praying and saying: "O Lord Jesus, God of God,   
   Light of Light..., for love of whom I have given up my body to all the   
   torments... ah! I implore Thee, in Thy holy mercy, receive my spirit   
   and soul, which I offer Thee with all the ardor of my desires. Do not   
   abandon me, O most kind King, most clement King, who livest and   
   reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and   
   ever!" His death occurred on October 31, 287.   
      
   His body was twice buried secretly, and twice it was rediscovered   
   miraculously - in the years 338 and 641, first by Saint Eusebie of   
   Rome, on a marshy island, where it had remained intact; later near the   
   city of Augusta, by Saint Eloi. St. Quentin remains in great honor in   
   France above all, where more than fifty-two churches and as many   
   localities were, at the beginning of the 20th century, dedicated to   
   his memory; he is honored also in Belgium and in Italy. Charlemagne   
   and the kings of France have gone to venerate the relics of St.   
   Quentin.   
      
   Reflection: Let us never forget that "the sufferings of the present   
   life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, prepared by   
   God for those who love Him." (Romans 8:18; I Cor. 2:9)   
      
   Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.   
   --Saint John Vianney   
      
   Bible Quote   
   And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no   
   wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee?   
   My hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever   
   he shall say to you, do ye.  (John 2:3-5) DRB   
      
      
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   Pious Invocations   
      
   O God, Who, through the Immaculate Conception of the   
   Virgin, didst prepare a suitable dwelling place for Thy Son,   
   grant, we beseech Thee, that, as through the death of Thy   
   Son, foreseen by Thee, Thou didst preserve her from all stain   
   of sin, by her intercession we also may be purified and so   
   may come to Thee. Through the same Christ Our lord. Amen.   
      
   Bid me bear, O Mother blessed, On my heart the wounds   
   impressed, Suffered by the Crucified.   
      
   Mary sorrowing, Mother of Christians, pray for us.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)