From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 7th - Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church   
   (340-397)   
      
   When in the year 369 Saint Ambrose, the young son of a Roman Senator, was   
   sent by Probus, the Prefect of Italy, to the large province of Liguria   
   Emilia in Italy, the officer said to him, "Go and act not as a judge, but as   
   a bishop." Ambrose, though not Christian, had already resisted by his   
   probity the corrupting influence of the Roman youth of his day. In Liguria   
   he showed himself to be clement as directed, and his great erudition also   
   became well known to the inhabitants of the region. In the year 374 he was   
   already governor of the province, at the moment when at Milan, in this same   
   region, a bishop was needed for that great see. Since the heretics in Milan   
   were many and fierce, he went to preserve order during the election of the   
   new prelate. Though he was still only a catechumen, it was the Will of God   
   that the provincial governor be chosen by acclamation. Despite his   
   protestations and his subsequent flight from Milan when they were not   
   accepted, he was found, baptized and consecrated for the archiepiscopal see.   
      
   Unwearied then in every pastoral duty, full of sympathy and charity, gentle   
   and condescending in matters of indifference, he was inflexible in questions   
   of principle. He manifested his fearless zeal when it was necessary to brave   
   the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious   
   attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians. He distributed   
   all that he had of gold and silver to the poor, and confided all financial   
   administration of his archdiocese to his brother, Saint Satyrus, who came to   
   reside with him in Milan. To master theology, he studied the Sacred   
   Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, and conferred with learned   
   Christians concerning the rules of ecclesiastical discipline. He was very   
   active, and took such great care of the catechumens' instruction that no one   
   could surpass him in that duty.   
      
   His zeal in rebuking and bringing to penance the great Emperor Theodosius,   
   who in a moment of irritation had cruelly punished a sedition by the   
   inhabitants of Thessalonica, is a well known fact of history. The Saint met   
   him at the door of the cathedral to prevent his entering, and said to him   
   that if he had imitated David in his crime, he must now imitate him in his   
   penance. Later the chastened and humble Emperor said that in his life he had   
   known but one true bishop - Ambrose.   
      
   Saint Ambrose was the friend and consoler of Saint Monica in all her   
   sorrows, and in 387 had the joy of admitting to the Church Saint Augustine,   
   her son. He died in 397, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the   
   Church of God as one of her greatest Doctors.   
      
   Reflection: Whence came to Saint Ambrose his grandeur of mind, his clearness   
   of insight, his intrepidity in maintaining the faith and discipline of the   
   Church? Whence, if not from his contempt of the world and his fear of God   
   alone?   
      
   Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources, by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des   
   Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 14.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Love is sufficient of itself; it gives pleasure by itself and because of   
   itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside   
   itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in the practice. Of all the   
   movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in   
   which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar   
   return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is   
   to be loved in return. The sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the   
   knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him.   
   -- from a sermon by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux   
      
   Bible Quote:: Christ has suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you   
   may follow in His steps. I Pet. 2:21   
      
   <><><><>   
   A Prayer of Saint Ambrose   
      
   O loving Lord Jesus Christ, I a sinner, presuming not on my own   
   merits, but trusting in Your mercy and goodness, with fear and   
   trembling approach the table of Your most sacred banquet. For I   
   have defiled both my heart and body with many sins, and have   
   not kept a strict guard over my mind and my tongue. Therefore,   
   O gracious God, O awful Majesty, I, a wretched creature,   
   entangled in difficulties, have recourse to Thee the fount of   
   mercy; to You do I fly that I may be healed, and take refuge   
   under Your protection, and I ardently desire to have Him as my   
   Savior, Whom I am unable to withstand as my Judge.   
      
   To You, O Lord, I show my wounds, to You I lay bare my shame.   
   I know that my sins are many and great, on account of which I   
   am filled with fear. But I trust in Your mercy, of which there is no   
   end. Look down upon me, therefore, with the eyes of Your mercy   
   on me, who am full of misery and sin, You Who will never cease   
   to let flow the fountain of mercy.   
      
   O Victim of salvation, offered for me and for all mankind on the   
   tree of the cross. Hail, noble and precious Blood, flowing from   
   the wounds of my crucified Lord Jesus Christ and washing away   
   the sins of the whole world. Remember, O Lord, Your creature,   
   whom You have redeemed with Your Blood. I am grieved   
   because I have sinned, I desire to make amends for what I have   
   done.   
      
   Take away from me therefore, O most merciful Father, all my   
   iniquities and sins, that, being purified both in soul, and body, I   
   may worthily partake of the Holy of Holies; and grant that this   
   holy oblation of Your Body and Blood, of which though unworthy   
   I purpose to partake, may be to me the remission of my sins, the   
   perfect cleansing of my offenses, the means of driving away all   
   evil thoughts and of renewing all holy desires, the   
   accomplishment of works pleasing to You, as well as the   
   strongest defense for soul and body against the snares of my   
   enemies. - Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)