From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The desire of the heart   
      
      The desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire   
   is constant, so is your prayer. Not for nothing did the apostle tell   
   us to pray without ceasing. But did he mean that we were to be   
   perpetually on our knees, lying prostrate, or raising our hands?   
      Is this what is meant by praying without ceasing? Even if we admit   
   that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all   
   the time.   
      Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing,   
   namely the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you   
   but fix your desire on God's sabbath rest, your prayer will be   
   ceaseless. Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not   
   cease to desire. The constancy of your desire will itself be the   
   ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be   
   silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent if not those of   
   whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow   
   cold?   
      The chilling of love means that the heart is silent. If your love   
   is without ceasing, you are always crying out; if you are always   
   crying out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are   
   calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.   
   --St. Augustine of Hippo   
      
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   September 8th - Saints Eusebius, Nestablus, Zeno, and Nestor, Martyrs   
      
   In the reign of Julian the Apostate, Eusebius, Nestablus, and Zeno, 3   
   zealous Christian brothers at Gaza, were seized by the pagans in their   
   houses, where they had concealed themselves: they were carried to   
   prison, and inhumanly scourged. Afterwards the idolaters, who were   
   assembled in the amphitheatre at the public shows, began loudly to   
   demand the punishment of the sacrilegious criminals, as they called   
   the confessors. By these cries the assembly soon became a tumult; and   
   the people worked themselves into such a ferment that they ran in a   
   fury to the prison, which they forced, and hauling out the 3 brothers,   
   began to drag them, sometimes on their bellies, sometimes on their   
   backs, bruising them against the pavement, and striking them with   
   clubs, stones, or any thing that came in their way.   
      
   The very women, quitting their work, ran the points of their spindles   
   into them, and the cooks took the kettles from off the fire, poured   
   the scalding water upon them, and pierced them with their spits. After   
   the martyrs were thus mangled, and their skulls so broken that the   
   ground was smeared with their brains, they were dragged out of the   
   city to the place where the beasts were thrown that died of   
   themselves. Here the people lighted a fire, burned the bodies, and   
   mingled the bones that remained with those of camels and asses, that   
   it might not be easy for the Christians to distinguish them.   
      
   This cruelty only enhanced the triumph of the martyrs before God, who   
   watches over the precious remains of his elect, to raise them again to   
   glory. With these three brothers there was taken a young man, named   
   Nestor, who suffered imprisonment and scourging as they had done; but   
   as the furious rioters were dragging him through the street, some   
   persons took compassion on him on account of his great beauty and   
   comeliness, and drew him out of the gate.   
      
   He died of his wounds, within three days, in the house of Zeno, a   
   cousin of the three martyrs, who himself was obliged to fly, and,   
   being taken, was publicly whipped.   
      
   See Theodoret, Hist. l. 3, c. 7, and Sozomen, l. 5, c. 9.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Humility is the only thing that no devil can imitate. If pride made   
   demons out of angels, there is no doubt that humility could make   
   angels out of demons.   
   --St John Climacus   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be   
   compared with the glory to come. (Rom. 8:18)   
      
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   Prayer Before Starting on a Journey   
      
   My holy Angel Guardian, ask the Lord to bless the journey   
   which I undertake, that it may profit the health of my soul and   
   body; that I may reach its end, and that, returning safe and   
   sound, I may find my family in good health. Do thou guard,   
   guide and preserve us. Amen.   
      
   <><><><>   
   O God of Love,   
   Give Me Thy Love and Thy Grace   
   By St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)   
   Most Zealous Doctor   
      
   O God of Love,   
   Thou art   
   and shall be forever,   
   the only delight of my heart   
   and the sole object of my affections.   
   Sinee Jesus said:   
   ‘Ask and you shall receive,’   
   I do not hesitate to say:   
   ‘Give me Thy Love and Thy Grace.’   
   Grant that I may love Thee   
   and be loved by Thee.   
   I want for nothing else.   
   Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)