From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Church is a garden extending over the whole world   
      
      Christ became all things in order to restore all of us in himself.   
   The man Christ received the mustard seed which represents the kingdom   
   of God; as man he received it, though as God he had always possessed   
   it. He sowed it in his garden, that is in his bride, the Church. The   
   Church is a garden extending over the whole world, tilled by the   
   plough of the gospel, fenced in by stakes of doctrine and discipline,   
   cleared of every harmful weed by the labor of the apostles, fragrant   
   and lovely with perennial flowers: virgins' lilies and martyrs' roses,   
   set amid the pleasant verdure of all who bear witness to Christ and   
   the tender plants of all who have faith in him.   
      Such then is the mustard seed which Christ sowed in his garden.   
   When he promised a kingdom to the patriarchs the seed took root in   
   them; with the prophets it sprang up, with the apostles it grew tall,   
   in the Church it became a great tree putting forth innumerable   
   branches laden with gifts. And now you too must take the wings of the   
   psalmist's dove, gleaming gold in the rays of divine sunlight, and fly   
   to reap for ever among those sturdy, fruitful branches. No snares are   
   set to trap you there; fly off, then, with confidence and dwell   
   securely in its shelter.   
   St. Peter Chrysologus   
      
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   September 17th - St. Columba, Virgin, Martyr   
   Also known as Columba of Cordoba, Columba of Spain   
      
   d. 853   
   This Columba was one of the victims of the persecution of Christians   
   in Spain begins by the Moors in the year 850. According to St.   
   Eulogius, who wrote an account of those who suffered, called The   
   Memorial of the Saints, and then himself gave his life for the faith,   
   Columba was a native of Cordova. Her brother Martin was an abbot and   
   her sister Elizabeth had, with her husband Jeremy, founded a double   
   monastery at Tabanos, whither they both retired with their children.   
   Inspired by these examples Columba determined to give herself to God   
   in the cloister, but was hindered by her widowed mother, who wished   
   her to marry. The mother tried to prevent her visiting her sister,   
   where she knew Columba got her encouragement to persevere, but her   
   efforts were fruitless and the girl became a nun at Tabanos.   
      
   In the year 852 the persecution drove the religious away from this   
   place, and the nuns took refuge in a house at Cordova, near the church   
   of St. Cyprian. In spite of the fact that in the same year a council   
   at Cordova had forbidden Christians to provoke persecution, Columba   
   secretly left this house, presented herself before the Moorish   
   magistrate, and openly and deliberately denied Mohammed and his law.   
   She was beheaded in 853 at Tabanos Spain for her temerity, and her   
   body thrown into the river Guadalquivir, whence it was recovered and   
   buried.   
      
   Her relics are venerated, part in the priory of St. Columba, part in   
   the royal abbey of our Lady at Niagara, but both in Old Castile.   
      
   The notice of St. Columba in the Acts Sanctorum, September, vol. v,   
   reproduces all that St. Eulogius has recorded concerning her history.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   O Great Father we are in great need;   
   Now therefore we implore, we implore you   
   Through your Word, by which you have   
   Filled us with [those things] we need;   
   Now it may please you Father for it befits you   
   To consider us with your help,   
   So that we might not fail and lest your name   
   Might be blackened in us   
   And through your name, deign to help us.   
   -St Hildegard von Bingen   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile   
   deed. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,   
   gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without   
   variance, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in   
   peace for them that make peace. (James 3:16-18) DRB   
      
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   Simplicity   
      
   God alone is simple by essence; those who become   
   as little children are most like to God.   
      
   'With two wings man ascends above earthly things,   
   to wit, by simplicity and purity.'--Imitation.   
      
   Our Lady is the reward of those who humble themselves as little   
   children in the kingdom of God. Once when asked what he cared for most   
   in the world, St. Joseph answered: 'I desire nothing but to reside at   
   the Grotella near the image of the Blessed Virgin, whom I venerate and   
   love.' When he entered the church of Assisi for the first time, and   
   saw in the roof a picture of the Mother of God, like that of the   
   Grotella, with a loud cry exclaiming, 'My Mother, thou hast followed   
   me,' he flew to a height of 44 feet to meet our Lady in the air. He   
   would accept no present but flowers, with which he adorned his picture   
   of the Madonna. Then he said playfully: 'My Mother is capricious: I   
   bring her flowers, and she does not care for them; cherries, and she   
   will not accept them. I ask her, then, what she desires, and she   
   answers: 'It is the heart which I care for; I feed upon the homage of   
   the heart.'   
      
   'Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little   
   child, he is greater in the kingdom of heaven.'--Matt, xviii. 4.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)