From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Asking God's Help and the Certainty of his Grace [V]   
      
   CHRIST.   
   If you are wise and have right judgement, you will never despair or be   
   discouraged. On the contrary, if I scourge you with trouble and do not   
   spare you,(Job 6:10) be glad and grateful, and regard it as cause for   
   joy. For, `as My Father has loved Me, so do I love you,(John 15:9)   
   were My words to my well loved disciples, whom I did not send out to   
   enjoy the pleasures of the world, but to fight hard battles; not to   
   win honours, but contempt; not to be idle, but industrious; not to   
   rest, but to bring forth much fruit with patience.(Luke 8:15)   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ, Bk 3, Ch 30   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   June 25th - Saint Prosper of Reggio   
    Also known as   
   Prosper of Aquitaine   
   Prospero of…   
   Tiro of…   
      
   Memorial   
   25 June   
   formerly 7 July   
      
   (Died 5th century)   
   Saint Prosper was born in the Roman province of Aquitaine in the year   
   403. He is known chiefly through his writings, which reveal that in   
   his youth he had applied himself to all branches of both sacred and   
   secular learning. Because of the purity and sanctity of his manners,   
   the writers of his time testify that he was a holy and venerable man.   
   By his labors in France against the semi-Pelagian heretics, he was a   
   strong collaborator of Saint Augustine in Africa. He was in   
   correspondence with the African doctor, who wrote two of his works to   
   refute and give light to the semi-Pelagians: On the Predestination of   
   the Saints and On the Gift of Perseverance. The enemies of Saint   
   Augustine turned against Saint Prosper also, publishing “fifteen   
   errors” which they attributed to the latter, then sixteen propositions   
   supposedly clarifying Augustine’s true sentiments, and spread them   
   widely. The Saint with gentleness answered all these writings without   
   acrid reprisals.   
      
   Saint Prosper, insofar as is known, was not an ecclesiastic; but being   
   of great virtue and possessing extraordinary talents and learning, he   
   dealt with delicate questions with remarkable insight. Saint Leo the   
   Great, when chosen Pope in 440, invited him to Rome, made him his   
   secretary, and employed him in the most important affairs of the   
   Church. It was primarily Saint Prosper who finally crushed the   
   Pelagian heresy definitively, when it was raising its head in the see   
   of Peter. Its complete overthrow is said to be due to his zeal,   
   learning, and unwearied endeavors. The date of his death remains   
   uncertain, but he was still living in 455, the date at which his   
   Chronicle concludes.   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul   
   Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 7   
      
      
   Bible quote:   
   "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which   
   endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto   
   you: for him hath God the Father sealed."  (John 6:27) DRB   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is difficult to live a saintly life in this world even with the   
   best of intentions. There always exists the dangerous menace of one's   
   being left entirely to oneself and also the probability of one's being   
   absorbed by work, by the necessities of life, and by the occupations   
   of every sort which conditions or our own will impose. Then too, one   
   is most always ignorant of the right road to pursue!   
   -- St. Peter Eymard   
      
      
   <<>><<>>   
   A prayer hymn for virtue:   
      
   A tone of pride or petulance repressed,   
   A selfish inclination firmly fought,   
   A shadow of annoyance set at naught,   
   A murmur of disquietude suppressed.   
      
   A peace in pressure possessed,   
   A reconcilement generously sought,   
   A purpose put aside--a banished thought,   
   A word of self-explaining unexpressed.   
      
   Trifles they seem, these petty soul restraints,   
   Yet they who prove them such must need possess,   
   A constancy and courage grand and bold.   
      
   They are the trifles that have made the Saints;   
   Give me to practice them in humbleness,   
   And nobler power than mine doth no one hold.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)