From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   June 25th - Saint Prosper of Aquitaine   
    (Died 5th century)   
      
   Saint Prosper was born in the Roman province of Aquitaine in the year 403.   
   He is   
   known chiefly through his writings, which reveal that in his youth he had   
   applied himself to all branches both of sacred and secular learning. Because   
   of   
   the purity and sanctity of his manners, the writers of his time testify that   
   he   
   was a holy and venerable man. By his labors in France against the   
   semi-Pelagian   
   heretics, he was a strong collaborator of Saint Augustine in Africa. He was   
   in   
   correspondence with the African doctor, who wrote two of his works to refute   
   and   
   give light to the semi-Pelagians: On the Predestination of the Saints and On   
   the   
   Gift of Perseverance. The enemies of Saint Augustine turned against Saint   
   Prosper also, publishing "fifteen errors" which they attributed to the   
   latter,   
   then sixteen propositions supposedly clarifying Augustine's true sentiments,   
   and   
   spread them widely. The Saint with gentleness answered all these writings   
   without acrid reprisals.   
      
   Saint Prosper, insofar as is known, was not an ecclesiastic; but being of   
   great   
   virtue and possessing extraordinary talents and learning, he dealt with   
   delicate   
   questions with remarkable insight. Saint Leo the Great, when chosen Pope in   
   440,   
   invited him to Rome, made him his secretary, and employed him in the most   
   important affairs of the Church. It was primarily Saint Prosper who finally   
   crushed the Pelagian heresy definitively, when it was raising its head in   
   the   
   see of Peter. Its complete overthrow is said to be due to his zeal,   
   learning,   
   and unwearied endeavors. The date of his death remains uncertain, but he was   
   still living in 455, the date at which his Chronicle concludes.   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud   
   et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 7; 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:   
   Do not let any occasion of gaining merit pass without taking care to draw   
   some   
   spiritual profit from it; for example, from a sharp word which someone may   
   say   
   to you; from an act of obedience imposed against your will; from an   
   opportunity   
   which may occur to humble yourself, or to practice charity, sweetness, and   
   patience.  All these occasions are gain for you, and you should seek to   
   procure   
   them; and at the close of that day when the greatest number of them has come   
   to   
   you, you should go to rest most cheerful and pleased, as the merchant does   
   on   
   the day when he has had most chance for making money; for on that day   
   business   
   has prospered with him.   
   -St. Ignatius Loyola   
      
   Bible Quote   
   I have no greater grace than this, to hear that my children walk in truth.   
   (3   
   John 1:4)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Serenity Prayer   
      
   The Full Original Copy of the Serenity Prayer   
      
   God grant me the serenity   
   to accept the things I cannot change;   
   courage to change the things I can;   
   and wisdom to know the difference.   
      
   Although known most widely in its abbreviated form above,   
   the entire prayer reads as follows:   
      
   Full Original Serenity Prayer   
   by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)   
      
   God, give us grace to accept with serenity   
   the things that cannot be changed,   
   Courage to change the things   
   which should be changed,   
   and the Wisdom to distinguish   
   the one from the other.   
      
   Living one day at a time,   
   Enjoying one moment at a time,   
   Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,   
   Taking, as Jesus did,   
   This sinful world as it is,   
   Not as I would have it,   
   Trusting that You will make all things right,   
   If I surrender to Your will,   
   So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,   
   And supremely happy with You forever in the next.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)