From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 14th - St. Mungo   
      
   St. Mungo, also known by the less familiar name Kentigern, was a bishop and   
   evangelist of Strathclyde. His early teacher, Serf, may have been   
   responsible   
   for giving Kentigern his popular moniker of Mungo, which means 'dear one'.   
      
   Legends abound about his life. Some believe he was the illegitimate son of   
   royalty, perhaps the grandson of Urien. Ruins of a chapel near Culross mark   
   the   
   spot where his mother, Thenaw, may have been cast ashore and where she gave   
   birth to Mungo. Alternatively, some think Mungo and his mother had been set   
   adrift in the Forth and landed safely in the Christian community at Fife.   
      
   Tradition suggests that Serf at Culross educated Mungo; Irish religious   
   thought   
   and practice grounded his religious training. Indeed, Mungo apparently had   
   contact with the bishop Columba of Iona near the end of that saint's life.   
   An   
   early story about Mungo is that he restored life to Serf's pet robin, who   
   had   
   been maliciously killed by some young hooligans.   
      
   He arrived in Glasgow around 540 and was consecrated Bishop of Strathclyde   
   by an   
   Irish bishop. Glasgow's Cathedral along the Molendinar Burn is the fourth to   
   be   
   built on the site of Mungo's seventh century wooden church.   
      
   St. Mungo did not, according to tradition, select the church's site himself.   
   Rather, he found St. Fergus dying by the roadside and placed him gently in   
   an   
   oxcart. Mungo instructed the oxen to take the cart wherever God wanted, and   
   the   
   oxen stopped at a place blessed by St. Ninian about 200 years before. Mungo   
   buried Fergus there and built the church at the site, as well.   
      
   Visitors may notice that Glasgow's coat of arms includes a fish and a ring,   
   as   
   well as the bird described above. The fish and ring refer to a story in   
   which   
   St. Mungo helps a queen, Languoureth, distressed by having lost her   
   husband's   
   ring. Perhaps the queen had given the ring to a lover; perhaps the angry   
   king   
   retrieved his jewelry while the errant knight slept. The King tossed it into   
   the   
   river Clyde and taunted his wife to find it in three days (or, variously, to   
   wear it at dinner that evening). Mungo comforted the distraught woman and   
   sent a   
   monk to fish the river. A salmon was caught and, somehow, the salmon had the   
   ring in its mouth. The banqueting room in Glasgow's City Chambers displays a   
   painting by Alexander Roche about the story.   
      
   The story's improbability leads some to doubt its historicity. At the very   
   least, its tenacious association with St. Mungo hints at his role as trusted   
   advisor and confidant for leaders of the day. Modern monarchs might wish for   
   someone as discreetly effective as Mungo.   
      
   Indisputably, a sermon by St. Mungo provided Glasgow's motto: Let Glasgow   
   flourish by the preaching of the word. When a lawyer designed the city's   
   coat of   
   arms in 1868, the motto was truncated to its first three words, as perhaps   
   befits the secular aspirations of trade and industry.   
      
   Mungo, the 'dear one', carried out his work of preaching the word for a   
   relatively long time; some information suggests that he died in the first   
   decade   
   of the seventh century in his 80s.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "O inexpressible mystery and unheard-of paradox;   
   the Invisible is seen;   
   the Intangible is touched;   
   the Eternal Word becomes accessible to our speech;   
   the Timeless steps into time;   
   the Son of God becomes the Son of Man."   
   -Saint Gregory of Nyssa   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Save us, O Lord, our God: and gather us from among nations: That we may give   
   thanks to thy holy name, and may glory in thy praise.  (Psalms 105:47)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Consecrating the Last Two Hours of our   
   Life to the Most Holy Virgin   
      
   Prostrated at thy feet, and humiliated by my sins, but full   
   of confidence in thee, O Mary! I beg thee to accept the   
   petition my heart is going to make. It is for my last   
   moments, Dear Mother I wish to request thy protection   
   and maternal love so that in the decisive instant thou wilt   
   do all thy love can suggest in my behalf.   
      
   To thee, O Mother of my soul, I consecrate THE LAST   
   TWO HOURS of my life. Come to my side to receive my   
   last breath and when death has cut the thread of my   
   days, tell Jesus, presenting to Him my soul, "I LOVE IT".   
   That word alone will be enough to procure for me the   
   benediction of my God and the happiness of seeing thee   
   for all eternity.   
      
   I put my trust in thee, my Mother and hope it will not be   
   in vain.   
      
   O Mary Pray for thy child and lead him to Jesus!   
      
   "Abandoning the Mother is but one step   
    from abandoning the Son"   
      
   Rev. Fr. Ildefonso M. Izaguirre, O.P.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)