From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   April 2nd - St. Amphianus of Lycia, Martyr   
   (also known as Aphian, Amphian, Appian, Apian)   
      
   Died April 2, c. 305. Amphianus was a young Christian of Lycia, Asia Minor,   
   whose parents gave him the best education possible in rhetoric, law, and   
   philosophy in the famous schools of Berytus, Phoenicia. While he was away at   
   school, he became a Christian. Upon completing his studies, he returned home   
   but   
   was disturbed by the idolatry of his parents. Thus, at the age of 18, he   
   retired   
   to Caesarea, Palestine. There he became a disciple of Saint Pamphilius, who was   
   teaching Scripture.   
   In May 305, Galerius Maximianus, the chief proponent of the Diocletian   
   persecutions, was declared emperor of the East, which Maximinus Daia governed   
   under him, as Caesar. Letters came to Caesarea from Maximinus Daia ordering the   
   governor to compel everyone to attend public, solemn sacrifices to the civic   
   gods.   
      
   The Church historian Eusebius (De Martyr. Palaest., c. 4), with whom Amphianus   
   lived, tells us that, without saying anything to anyone, Amphianus entered the   
   governor's palace and stopped the latter on the point of offering sacrifices to   
   idols. Amphianus, with youthful boldness, reproached him for his crime of   
   idolatry. He was forthwith beaten, arrested and thrown into a dungeon, where he   
   was kept in stocks for two days. As he was flayed, his only answer to all   
   questions was: "I am a servant of Christ." Next the executioners were ordered   
   to   
   set his feet aflame. As his flesh melted like wax, he remained resolute, which   
   struck his persecutors with astonishment.   
      
   He was thrown back into prison for three days. During his trial, he persisted:   
   "I confess Christ the only God, and the same God with the Father." Although he   
   was already half-dead, the judge ordered that he be thrown into the sea.   
   Eusebius records that at his execution, the sea and the city were shaken by an   
   earthquake accompanied by a dreadful noise. He writes that it was as if the sea   
   were not able to endure the corpse of the martyr, and threw it up before the   
   gates of the city: all the inhabitants went out to see this prodigy, and gave   
   glory to the God of the Christians, confessing aloud the name of Jesus Christ   
   (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).   
      
      
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   Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself.  (Matthew 16:24)   
      
   "The life of our flesh is the delight of sensuality; its death is to take from   
   it all sensible delight. The life of our judgment and our will is to dispose of   
   ourselves and what is ours, according to our own views and wishes; their death,   
   then, is to submit ourselves in all things to the judgment and will of others.   
   The life of the desire for esteem and respect is to be well thought of by   
   everyone; its death, therefore, is to hide ourselves so as not to be known, by   
   means of continual acts of humility and self-abasement. Until one succeeds in   
   dying in this manner, he will never be a servant of God, nor will God ever   
   perfectly live in him"   
   -St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi   
      
   With great frankness this beautiful soul expressed to others so lofty a   
   sentiment, because she knew that it was precisely in this way that, to her   
   infinite profit, she had attained to the death of her own flesh, her own   
   judgment and will, and her own human respect; of her own flesh, which she never   
   ceased to treat with the greatest harshness and rigor; of her own judgment and   
   will, which she always strove to keep subject to, and dependent upon, others;   
   of   
   her human respect, by abhorring and avoiding constantly every occasion of being   
   honored and esteemed.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".  March - Mortification)   
      
      
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   The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, :   
      
    1.  The Prophecy of Simeon.   
    2.  The Flight into Egypt.   
    3.  The Loss of Jesus in the Temple.   
    4.  Mary meets Jesus Carrying the Cross.   
    5.  The Crucifixion.   
    6.  Mary Receives the Dead Body of Her Son.   
    7.  The Burial of Her Son and Closing of the Tomb.   
      
   Consecration to Our Lady of Sorrows:   
      
   Most holy Virgin and Queen of Martyrs, Mary, would that I could be in Heaven,   
   there to contemplate the honors rendered to thee by the Most Holy Trinity and   
   by   
   the whole Heavenly Court!  But since I am still a pilgrim in this vale of   
   tears,   
   receive from me, thy unworthy servant and a poor sinner, the most sincere   
   homage   
   and the most perfect act of vassalage a human creature can offer thee.  In thy   
   Immaculate Heart, pierced with so many swords of sorrow, I place today my poor   
   soul forever; receive me as a partaker in thy Dolors, and never suffer that I   
   should depart from that Cross on which thy only begotten Son expired for me.   
   With thee, O Mary, I will endure all the sufferings, contradictions,   
   infirmities, with which it will please thy Divine Son to visit me in this life.   
   All of them I offer to thee, in memory of the Dolors which thou didst suffer   
   during thy life, that every thought of my mind, every beating of my heart may   
   henceforward be an act of compassion to thy Sorrows, and of complacency for the   
   glory thou now enjoyest in Heaven.  Since then, O Dear Mother, I now   
   compassionate thy Dolors, and rejoice in seeing thee glorified, do thou also   
   have compassion on me, and reconcile me to thy Son Jesus, that I may become thy   
   true and loyal son (daughter); come on my last day and assist me in my last   
   agony, even as thou wert present at the Agony of thy Divine Son Jesus, that   
   from   
   this painful exile I may go to Heaven, there to be made partaker of thy glory.   
   AMEN.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)