From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Wanting No Share in Comfort  (8)   
     I have never met a man so religious and devout that he has not experienced   
   at some time a withdrawal of grace and felt a lessening of fervor. No saint   
   was so sublimely rapt and enlightened as not to be tempted before and after.   
   He, indeed, is not worthy of the sublime contemplation of God who has not   
   been tried by some tribulation for the sake of God. For temptation is   
   usually the sign preceding the consolation that is to follow, and heavenly   
   consolation is promised to all those proved by temptation. "To him that   
   overcometh," says Christ, "I will give to eat of the Tree of Life."  Apoc.   
   2:7. Divine consolation, then, is given in order to make a man braver in   
   enduring adversity, and temptation follows in order that he may not pride   
   himself on the good he has done.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 9   
      
   Meditation for troubled times:   
   A truly spiritual man or woman would like to have a serene mind. The only   
   way to keep calm in this troubled world is to have a serene mind. The calm   
   and sane mind sees spiritual things as the true realities and material   
   things as only temporary and fleeting. That sort of mind you can never   
   obtain by reasoning, because your reasoning powers are limited by space and   
   time. That kind of a mind you can never obtain by reading, because other   
   minds are also limited in the same way. You can only have that mind by an   
   act of faith, by making the venture of belief.   
   -- From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
      
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   June 27th - St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor   
   c. 376-444   
      
   There was no room for compromise or indifference in the issues involved.   
   The disagreement, violent on both sides, concerned one of the basic dogmas   
   of Catholicism: the divinity of Christ.  The adversaries were Cyril of   
   Alexandria and Nestorius of Constantinople.  Both were bishops.   
      
   A short time after he was made bishop of Constantinople in 428, Nestorius   
   began preaching that there were two distinct persons in Christ: God and man.   
   He denied the Incarnation, that is, that God was made man.  Although he   
   accepted the Blessed Virgin as the mother of the man Christ, he denied that   
   she was the mother of God.  He stated flatly that Christ was not divine.   
      
   When Cyril read these denials, he wrote several letters to Nestorius   
   pointing out his errors, but he received only contemptuous answers.  He   
   consequently appealed to Pope Celestine to intervene.  After inspecting the   
   false doctrine at a council in Rome, the pope condemned it and pronounced   
   the sentence of excommunication against Nestorius unless he retracted his   
   statements within ten days.  Cyril was appointed papal delegate to preside   
   at the Council of Ephesus (431), at which two hundred bishops were present.   
   Again all the Nestorian documents underwent scrupulous examination and again   
   all were condemned.  Nestorius refused to retract his statements and was   
   banished to the desert, where he died after drawing many persons after him   
   into his erroneous sect.   
      
   Saint Cyril had succeeded in halting the heresy.  Although some sects still   
   adhere, to this day, to the dictates of Nestorius, the heresy was no longer   
   a real threat to the Catholic Church after the Council of Ephesus.  Pope   
   Celestine described Cyril as a "generous defender of the Church and faith,   
   the Catholic doctor and apostolic man."   
      
   While his chief fame rests on his suppression of Nestorianism, Cyril was   
   also responsible for encouraging devotion to the Holy Eucharist through his   
   emphasis on the effects this sacrament produces in the souls of those who   
   receive it worthily.  His life work seems to be summed up in one of his   
   famous writings: "Christ is not a man into whom the Word has descended, but   
   the very Word taking birth in flesh that is its own.  It is in this sense   
   that it is said in all truth that God is born, that He died, and that Mary   
   is the mother of God."   
      
   Saint Cyril, called Doctor of the Incarnation, died in 444 during his   
   thirty-second year as bishop of Alexandria.   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   "Hail, Mother and Virgin, imperishable temple of the Godhead, venerable   
   treasure of the whole world, crown of virginity, support of the true faith   
   on which the Church is founded throughout the whole world.   
   "Mother of God, who contained the infinite God under your heart, whom no   
   space can contain: Through you the Most Holy Trinity is adored and   
   glorified, demons are vanquished, satan cast down from heaven and into hell,   
   and our fallen nature again assumed into heaven.   
      
   "Through you the human race, held captive in the bonds of idolatry, arrives   
   at the knowledge of the truth. What more shall I say of you? Hail, through   
   whom kings rule, through whom the only-begotten Son of God has become a star   
   of light to those who were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.   
   Amen.   
      
   "All of us are united with Christ inasmuch as we have received Him who is   
   one and indivisible in our bodies. Therefore we owe the service of our   
   members to Him rather than to ourselves."   
   --Saint Cyril of Alexandria.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and shall   
   hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many.   
   And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.   
   But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.  (Matt 24:10-13)   
      
      
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   The Serenity Prayer   
      
   The Full Original Copy of the Serenity Prayer   
      
   God grant me the serenity   
   to accept the things I cannot change;   
   courage to change the things I can;   
   and wisdom to know the difference.   
      
   Although known most widely in its abbreviated form above,   
   the entire prayer reads as follows:   
      
   Full Original Serenity Prayer   
   by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)   
      
   God, give us grace to accept with serenity   
   the things that cannot be changed,   
   Courage to change the things   
   which should be changed,   
   and the Wisdom to distinguish   
   the one from the other.   
      
   Living one day at a time,   
   Enjoying one moment at a time,   
   Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,   
   Taking, as Jesus did,   
   This sinful world as it is,   
   Not as I would have it,   
   Trusting that You will make all things right,   
   If I surrender to Your will,   
   So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,   
   And supremely happy with You forever in the next.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)