From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Turn out all thoughts of doubt and fear and resentment   
      
      Turn out all thoughts of doubt and fear and resentment. Never   
   tolerate them if you can help it. Bar the windows and doors of your   
   mind against them, as you would bar your home against a thief who   
   would steal in to take away your treasures. What greater treasures can   
   you have than faith and courage and love? All these are stolen from   
   you by doubt and fear and resentment. Face each day with peace and   
   hope. They are results of true faith in God. Faith gives you a feeling   
   of protection and safety that you can get in no other way.   
   -- From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 5th - Sts. Addai and Mari   
      
   1st century (?). There was a Christian colony in Edessa, Syria, by the   
   2nd century, and from there it appears the faith spread to Mesopotamia   
   and Persia. However, a local ecclesiastical tradition in these latter   
   areas attributes their evangelization to Saint Thomas, who is said to   
   have been the Apostle of India, and who sent Saint Addai who converted   
   Saint Mari. This story (recorded in Walsh) is a combination of the   
   narratives of Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history and the Syriac   
   The doctrine of Addai (written about 400):   
      
   "At the time when our Lord was still incarnate upon earth there   
   reigned in Osroene a king called Abgar the Black, who lived at Edessa.   
   He suffered from some incurable disease and, having heard of the   
   miracles of healing of our Lord, he sent to Him a letter by the hand   
   of his secretary, Hannan. In it he addresses Christ as 'the good   
   Physician' and asks Him to come to Edessa and heal him. Hannan found   
   our Lord in the house of Gamaliel, and He replied to Abgar that, 'I am   
   about to return to my Father, all for which I was sent into the world   
   being finished. But when I shall have ascended to Him I will send one   
   of my disciples, who shall heal you of your sickness and bring you and   
   yours to eternal life.'"   
      
   According to Eusebius our Lord wrote out this message Himself and it   
   was accordingly greatly reverenced throughout Christendom during the   
   middle ages. The Syriac document states that Hannan also brought back   
   to Abgar a portrait of our Lord which he had painted (later,   
   'not-made-by-human-hands'). This is the beginning of the legend of the   
   Mandylion (possibly the Holy Shroud), which is said to have been kept   
   at Edessa until it was taken to Constantinople in the 8th century.   
      
   After the Ascension, Thomas sent Addai (Thaddeus), one of the 72   
   commissioned by Jesus, to the Abgar's court. He lodged with a Jew,   
   named Tobias, and when he was presented to the king, he healed him and   
   taught him the faith. Addai converted Abgar and multitudes of his   
   people, among others the royal jeweler, Aggai, whom he made bishop and   
   his successor, and Palut, whom Addai ordained priest on his deathbed.   
      
   Eventually, Aggai was martyred and Palut went to Antioch to be   
   consecrated by Saint Serapion, who had been consecrated by Pope Saint   
   Zephyrinus at Rome. This seems improbable because Serapion died in 199   
   and Zephyrinus became bishop that same year. Confusion also seems to   
   surround Abgar. There was another Abgar who was a Christian king,   
   probably the first, of Edessa from about 179 to 213. Therefore, it is   
   most unlikely that Serapion consecrated a convert of one of the 72. So   
   it seems that Addai was a missionary to Edessa, who like many other   
   saintly men was attached to the apostles to emphasize the connection   
   to Jesus--and isn't that what we are here for, to grow as close as   
   possible to our Savior?   
      
   Saint Mari's existence is even questioned. His acta claim that he was   
   a disciple of Saint Addai, who sent him to Nisibis, where he preached   
   before renewing the work of Jonas the prophet at Nineveh. He then   
   traveled down the Tigris River until he began "to smell the smell of   
   the Apostle Thomas," and died near Seleucia- Ctesiphon after   
   consecrating its bishop Papa bar Aggai, who was indeed the first   
   katholikos of the East Syrian churches--at the beginning of the 4th   
   century. We are told that wherever Mari went, he made numerous   
   converts, destroyed temples, built churches, and founded   
   monasteries--on a scale rarely found in sober history.   
      
   Nevertheless, even with all these historical problems, Addai and Mari   
   have been venerated since the earliest times as the evangelists of the   
   Tigris-Euphrates region, and still are by their successors, the   
   Catholic Chaldeans and the Nestorians of Iraq and Kurdistan   
   (Benedictines, Delaney, Walsh).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing   
   that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds   
   back nothing for self.   
   -- Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."  (1 John 4:8)   
      
   <><><><>   
   Teach Us, Good Lord   
   By St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)   
      
   Teach us, good Lord,   
   to serve You as You deserve;   
   to give   
   and not to count the cost,   
   to fight   
   and not to heed the wounds,   
   to toil   
   and not to seek for rest,   
   to labour   
   and not to ask for reward,   
   except that of knowing   
   that we are doing Your will.   
   Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)