From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 21st - Saint Matthew, Apostle   
      
   One day, as Our Lord was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw, seated in   
   his   
   customs bureau, Levi the publican, whose business it was to collect the   
   taxes   
   from the people for their Roman masters. Jesus said to him: "Follow Me."   
   Leaving   
   all behind, Matthew arose and did so, thereby giving us all an example of   
   the   
   way in which we should respond to grace. The humble Matthew, as he was   
   thereafter called, tells us himself in his Gospel that he was Levi, one of   
   those   
   publicans abhorred by the Jews as enemies of their country, outcasts and   
   notorious sinners, who enriched themselves by extortion and fraud. No   
   Pharisee   
   would sit with one at table; Our Saviour alone had compassion for them.   
      
   Saint Matthew prepared a great feast, to which he invited Jesus and His   
   disciples, with a number of these publicans, who thereupon began to listen   
   to   
   Him with attention and joy. It was there, in answer to the murmurs of the   
   Pharisees saying that this "pretended prophet" ate with publicans and   
   sinners,   
   that Jesus said, "They that are in good health have no need of a physician.   
   I   
   have not come to call the just, but sinners to penance."   
      
   After the Ascension, Saint Matthew remained for over ten years in Judea,   
   writing   
   his Gospel there in about the year 44, to teach his countrymen that the   
   kingdom   
   of heaven had already been instigated, for Jesus was their true Lord and the   
   King foretold by the prophets. He departed then to preach the Faith in Egypt   
   and   
   especially in Ethiopia, where he remained for twenty-three years. When he   
   resurrected the son of the Ethiopian king who had received him, the miracle   
   brought about the conversion of the royal house and with them the entire   
   province.   
      
   The king's daughter consecrated herself to God with several other maidens.   
   When   
   a young man wished to marry the beautiful Iphigenia, Saint Matthew invited   
   him   
   to come and listen to a discourse he was to make to that community of   
   virgins,   
   to hear what he would say to them. When the Apostle extolled the state of   
   virginity, the suitor became enraged and arranged to have him slain as he   
   came   
   from the altar. Saint Hippolyte calls Saint Matthew the victim and martyr of   
   holy virginity.   
      
   It is said in the Constitutions of Pope Saint Clement that Saint Matthew   
   instituted holy water, for protection of soul and body; the prayer he used   
   for   
   the purpose is reported in that document. The relics of Saint Matthew were   
   for   
   many years in the city of Naddaver in Ethiopia, where he suffered his   
   martyrdom,   
   but were transferred to Salerno in the year 954, where they remained   
   concealed   
   in a cave, for protection, for over a hundred years.   
      
   Reflection: Obey all inspirations of Our Lord as promptly as Saint Matthew,   
   who,   
   at a single word, Saint Bridget says, "laid down the heavy burden of the   
   world,   
   to take the light and sweet yoke of Christ."   
      
   Sources: 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); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul   
   Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   For, what our Fathers have delivered, this is truly doctrine; and this is   
   truly   
   the token of doctors, to confess the same thing with each other, and to vary   
   neither from themselves nor from their fathers; whereas they who have not   
   this   
   character are to be called not true doctors but evil.   
   -St. Athanasius   
      
   Bible Quote   
   11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.   
   12   
   But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are   
   not,   
   seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and flieth: and the wolf   
   catcheth,   
   and scattereth the sheep:  (John 10:11-12)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Special Promise to earn "World Peace"   
      
   O Jesus Divine Saviour! be merciful, be merciful to us and to   
   the whole world. Amen. Powerful God! Holy God! Immortal   
   God! have compassion upon us and the upon the whole   
   world. Amen. Grace and mercy, my Jesus, during the present   
   danger! Shield us with Thy Precious Blood. Amen.  Eternal   
   Father, show us mercy in the name of the Precious Blood of   
   Thy only Son; show us mercy, we implore Thee. Amen.   
      
      [ According to information from a reliable source, the above   
   prayer was disclosed to a devout priest in Rome during the   
   Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when it was revealed to him that   
   those who say the prayer with devotion and faith would be   
   spared from the "Great Sufferings" that are soon to come into   
   the "Whole World." ]   
      
      [ A Berardine Sister was shown in spirit the vast desolation   
   caused by the devil throughout the world, and at the same   
   time she heard the Blessed Virgin Mary telling her it was true,   
   hell had been let loose upon the earth; and that the time had   
   come to pray to her as Queen of Angels and to ask of her the   
   assistance of the Heavenly Legions to fight against these   
   deadly foes of God and of men. "But my good Mother," she   
   replied, "you who are so kind, could you not send them   
   without our asking?" "No," Our Lady answered, "because   
   prayer is one of the conditions required by God Himself for   
   obtaining favors]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)