From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   October 18th - Saint Luke, Evangelist   
   (d.  First Century)   
      
   Saint Luke, a physician at Antioch and a painter, was also an excellent   
   rhetorician in Greek, his native language. He became a disciple of Saint   
   Paul,   
   the Apostle's fellow-worker and his faithful friend during his two   
   imprisonments, and is best known to us as the historian of the New Testament   
   acts of both Christ and the Apostles. Though not an eye-witness of Our   
   Lord's   
   life, the meticulous Evangelist diligently gathered information from those   
   who   
   had followed or listened to Jesus of Nazareth, and wrote, as he tells us,   
   all   
   things in order. His command of Greek is much admired. Saint Clement of   
   Alexandria, Saint Jerome and Saint Thomas Aquinas state that it is he who   
   translated Saint Paul's famous Epistle to the Hebrews, written in the   
   language   
   of the Jerusalem Christians, into the admirable Greek which we presently   
   possess   
   as the only ancient version.   
      
   The Acts of the Apostles were written by the Evangelist as a sequel to his   
   Gospel, bringing the history of the Church down to the first imprisonment of   
   Saint Paul in Rome, in the year 64. The humble historian never names   
   himself,   
   but by his occasional use of "we" instead of "he" or "they", we are able to   
   detect his presence in the scenes of Saint Paul's life which he describes.   
   We   
   thus find that he sailed with Paul and Silas from Troas to Macedonia, where   
   he   
   remained behind, apparently, for seven years at Philippi. Finally, after   
   remaining near Saint Paul during the time he was imprisoned in Palestine, he   
   accompanied him, still a prisoner, when he was transported to Rome. Thus he   
   shared the shipwreck and perils of that memorable voyage, narrated in   
   Chapter 27   
   of Acts - which book no Christian should fail to read, along with the four   
   Gospels. He then narrates the two years of Saint Paul's first imprisonment,   
   ending in his liberation.   
      
   There his narrative ends, but from Saint Paul's Epistles we learn that Saint   
   Luke was his faithful companion to the last. His paintings of Our Lady are   
   still   
   conserved with care in a number of places in Europe. Saint Luke certainly   
   learned from the Mother of Christ Herself, the story of the Annunciation,   
   the   
   Visitation, and the Angelic mission to the shepherds of Bethlehem. After the   
   martyrdom of the Apostle to the Gentiles, Saint Epiphanus says that Saint   
   Luke   
   preached in Italy, Gaul, Dalmatia and Macedonia. Others say he went to Egypt   
   and   
   preached in the Thebaid, the region of the Fathers of the desert. Saint   
   Hippolyte says he was crucified in Greece. His mortal remains were   
   transferred   
   to the Church of the Apostles, built by Constantine the Great at   
   Constantinople,   
   with those of Saint Andrew and Saint Timothy. Some of his relics remain in   
   the   
   Greek monastery of Mount Athos.   
      
   Sources: The Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments; 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).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   To prefer man to God: A strange and unhappy slavery is that of a man who   
   seeks   
   to please other men. I vow never to do anything nor to leave anything undone   
   because of what people think. This will set up in me a great interior peace.   
   -- St. Claude de la Colombiere   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    Let us not grow tired in doing good; for in due time we shall reap if we do   
   not   
   lose heart. Gal. 6:9   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O quam glorifica; a hymn honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary:   
      
   How glorious the light with which thou shineth, royal   
   descendent of the root of David! O Virgin Mary, thou art   
   seated on high, above all who dwelleth in heaven.   
      
   O Mother who hast kept thy virginal honour: chastely in thy   
   holy womb made ready for the Lord of the angels the palace   
   of thy Heart, From here wast borne the Christ, God Incarnate.   
      
   He Whom the whole world doth venerate and adore, before   
   Whom every knee rightly does bend: With thy help we   
   implore Him to cast out the darkness, and grant us the joy of   
   light.   
      
   Grant this, Father of all light, through Thine own Son, by the   
   Holy Ghost, Who liveth with Thee in the brightness of   
   heaven, ruling and governing all ages.   
      
   Amen.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The eleventh prayer of St. Bridget:   
      
   O Jesus, most profound abyss of mercy, I beseech Thee by the depth of Thy   
   wounds, which pierced the marrow of Thy bones and vitals, raise me from the   
   depth of sins in which I am plunged, and hide me in the hollow of Thy   
   wounds, from the face of Thy wrath, till Thy anger pass away, O Lord. Amen.   
      
   Pater noster... Ave Maria...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)