From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   June 9th - Saints Primus & Felicianus, Martyrs   
      
   (d. 286)   
      
   These two martyrs were brothers who lived in Rome, heirs of a family of   
   great   
   wealth, toward the latter part of the third century. It was through the   
   assiduous love of Pope Felix I that they had the happiness, in their mature   
   years, of being converted to the Christian faith; afterwards they encouraged   
   each other for many years in the practice of all good works. They seemed to   
   possess nothing but for the poor, and often, during the persecutions, they   
   spent   
   both nights and days with the confessors in their dungeons, or at the places   
   of   
   their torments and execution. Some they exhorted to persevere; others who   
   had   
   fallen, they raised again. They made themselves the servants of all in   
   Christ,   
   that all might attain to salvation through Him.   
      
   Though their zeal was very remarkable, they had escaped the dangers of many   
   bloody persecutions; they had grown old in the heroic exercises of their   
   virtue,   
   when it pleased God to crown their labors with a glorious martyrdom. Primus   
   was   
   about 90 years old, when the pagans raised so great an outcry against the   
   brothers that they were apprehended and put in chains. They were inhumanly   
   scourged and tortured, and then sent to a town twelve miles from Rome to be   
   chastised again, as avowed enemies to the gods, by a prefect who detested   
   the   
   Christians. There they were cruelly tortured to make them renounce their   
   faith,   
   both together and then separately, but the grace of God strengthened each of   
   them. Felicianus was nailed by his hands and feet to a post and left without   
   food or water for three days; Primus was beaten with clubs and burnt with   
   torches. God spared them amidst these tortures, and wild beasts in an arena   
   imitated their God's mercy. Finally, they were beheaded on June 9, 286.   
      
   Reflection. A soul which truly loves God regards all things of this world as   
   nothing. The loss of goods, the disgrace of the world, torments, sickness,   
   and   
   other afflictions are bitter to the senses, but appear light to the one who   
   loves God. If we cannot bear our trials with patience and silence, it is   
   because   
   we love Him only in words. "One who is slothful and lukewarm complains of   
   everything, and calls the lightest precepts hard," says Thomas a Kempis.   
      
   Source: 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:   
   All the martyrs are to be honored by us, but especially those whose relics   
   we   
   possess. They assist us by their prayers; they preserve us as to our bodies   
   in   
   this life, and receive us when we depart hence.   
   -Saint Maximus of Turin   
      
   Bible Quote   
   39 And he spoke also to them a similitude: Can the blind lead the blind? do   
   they   
   not both fall into the ditch? 40 The disciple is not above his master: but   
   every   
   one shall be perfect, if he be as his master.  (Luke 6:39-40)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Act of Entrustment to St. Joseph   
      
   O dearest St. Joseph, I entrust myself to you that you may always be my   
   father,   
   my protector and my guide in the way of salvation. Obtain for me a greater   
   purity of heart and fervent love of the interior life. After your example   
   may I   
   do all my actions for the greater glory of God, in union with the Sacred   
   Heart   
   of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. O Blessed St. Joseph, pray for   
   me,   
   that I may share in the peace and joy of your holy death. Amen.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   To Prevent One Mortal Sin   
      
   If every day we begged Mary for grace to hinder one mortal sin,   
   What a year's service to god and souls!   
      
   O MARY, Immaculate Mother of Jesus, we beseech thee, offer to the   
   Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, to prevent at least   
   one mortal sin from being committed somewhere in the world today.   
    Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)