From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 3rd - St Cassian of Tangiers   
      
   d. 298   
      
   Martyr mentioned in a hymn by St. Prudentius, also called Cassian of   
   Tangiers.   
   He was a court recorder at the trial of St. Marcellus the Centurion.   
   Aurelius   
   Agricola, deputy prefect in the Roman province in North Africa, conducted   
   the   
   trial. When the death penalty was imposed on St. Marcellus, Cassian threw   
   down   
   his pen and declared that he was a Christian. He was arrested immediately   
   and   
   put to death. Cassian is patron of modern stenographers   
      
   ********   
   St Cassian had been in charge of a school for boys and sat as a teacher of   
   reading and writing with a great throng round him, and he was skilled in   
   putting   
   every word in short signs and following speech quickly with swift pricks on   
   the   
   wax. But at times the young mob, feeling his teaching harsh and stern, were   
   moved with anger and fear, for the teacher is ever distasteful to the young   
   learner and CHILDHOOD NEVER TAKES KINDLY TO TRAINING."   
      
   "Now there came a cruel tempest battering the faith and pressing hard on the   
   people devoted to the Christian glory. The governor of the flock of pupils   
   was   
   dragged from the midst of his class because he had scornfully refused to   
   worship   
   at the altars, and when the contriver of punishments asked of what   
   profession   
   this man of such high and unruly spirit was, he answered: 'He teaches a   
   company   
   of young children, giving them their first lessons in writing down words   
   with   
   signs invented for the purpose.'   
      
   'Take him away,' he cried, 'take him away a prisoner, and make the children   
   a   
   present of the man who used to flog them. Let them make sport of him as they   
   please, give them leave to mangle him at will, let them give their hands a   
   holiday and dip them in their master's blood. It is a pleasant thought that   
   the   
   strict teacher should himself furnish sport to the pupils he has too much   
   held   
   down.'   
      
   "So he is stripped of his garments and his hands are tied behind his back,   
   and   
   all the bands are there, armed with their sharp styles. All the hatred long   
   conceived in silent resentment they each vent now, burning with gall that   
   has   
   last found freedom.   
      
   Some throw their brittle tablets and break them against his face, the wood   
   flying in fragments when it strikes his brow, the wax-covered box-wood   
   splitting   
   with a long crack as it is dashed on his blood-stained cheeks, the broken   
   slab   
   wet and red from the blow. Others again launch at him the sharp iron pricks,   
   the   
   end with which by scratching strokes the wax is written upon, and the end   
   with   
   which the letters that have been cut are rubbed out and the roughened   
   surface   
   once more made into a smooth, glossy space. With the one the confessor of   
   Christ   
   is stabbed, with the other he is cut; the one end enters the soft flesh, the   
   other splits the skin. Two hundred hands together have pierced him all over   
   his   
   body, and from all these wounds at once the blood is dripping.   
      
   A greater torturer was the child who only pricked the surface than he who   
   bored   
   deep into the flesh; for the light hitter who will not wound to the death   
   has   
   the skill to be cruel with only the piercing pains, but the other, the   
   farther   
   he strikes into the hidden vitals, gives more relief by bringing death near.   
      
   'Be stout, I beg,' he cries, 'and outdo your years with your strength. What   
   you   
   lack in age let a savage spirit make up.' But the young boys from lack of   
   vigor   
   fail in their efforts and begin to be fatigued; the torments worsen while   
   the   
   tormentors grow faint.   
      
   'Why do you complain?' calls one; 'you yourself as our teacher gave us this   
   iron   
   and put the weapon in our hands. You see we are giving you back all the   
   thousands of characters which as we stood in tears we took down from your   
   teaching. You cannot be angry with us for writing; it was you who bade us   
   never   
   let our hand carry an idle style. We are no longer asking for what was so   
   often   
   refused when we were under your instruction, you stingy teacher,-a holiday   
   from   
   school. We like making pricks, twining scratch with scratch and linking   
   curved   
   strokes together. You may examine and correct our lines in long array, in   
   case   
   an erring hand has made any mistake. Use your authority; you have power to   
   punish a fault, if any of your pupils has written carelessly on you.'   
      
   And finally-he died.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Earthly ideals are fading away. I see the ideal of life in sacrifice, and   
   the   
   ideal of sacrifice in priesthood.   
   --Saint Joseph as a young man   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Cast all your anxiety upon God, for He takes care of you.  (I Pet 5:7)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   ON ETERNAL GOODS   
   1. Eternal goods should be treasured above all things.: "Lay not up to   
   yourselves treasures on earth, where the rust and the moth consume, and   
   where   
   thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in   
   heaven,   
   where neither the rust nor the moth consume, and where thieves do not break   
   through nor steal" (Matt 6:19-20).-Which treasures do you seek to acquire?   
      
   2. Eternal goods are not properly evaluated. Most people are bent on   
   acquiring   
   temporal goods, money, possessions, distinctions, honor, and pleasure. They   
   put   
   themselves to much trouble by day and by night to acquire them. How many   
   there   
   are who ignore the goods of eternity for the sake of some temporal benefit,   
   a   
   momentary pleasure! The words of our Lord are directed to them: "I have   
   sworn in   
   My wrath! They shall not enter into My rest" (Heb 3:11).-Which goods are you   
   trying to acquire?   
      
   3. Temporal goods are quite worthless. They are transient and cannot satisfy   
   the   
   heart of man. Solomon reveled in worldly luxury, and in the end he was   
   forced to   
   admit: "I was weary of my life when I saw that all things under the sun are   
   evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit" (Eccl 2:17).-Do you permit   
   yourself   
   to be dazzled by the things of this world?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)