From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 1st - St. Peter of Atroa, Visionary   
      
   Born near Ephesus, Asia Minor, 773; died at Atroa on January 1, 837. Saint   
   Peter, the eldest of three children, was christened Theophylact. Not   
   unexpectedly, he became a monk when he was 18. He said that the Blessed   
   Virgin   
   directed him to join Saint Paul the Hesychast, who named him Peter at   
   Crypta,   
   Phrygia. On the day he was ordained several years later at Zygos and at the   
   door   
   of the very church, he cured a man possessed of an unclean spirit. Almost   
   immediately thereafter, Peter set out with Paul on a pilgrimage to   
   Jerusalem,   
   but instead God directed them in a vision to go to Mount Olympus in   
   Bithynia,   
   where Paul was to found a monastery at the chapel of Saint Zachary near   
   Atroa.   
   This they did.   
      
   When Paul died in 805, he named the 32-year-old Peter to succeed him as   
   abbot.   
   The monastery flourished but after ten years Peter decided to close the   
   monastery because of the iconoclastic persecution under Emperor Leo the   
   Armenian. Peter went back to Ephesus and on to Crete (or Cyprus), and when   
   he   
   returned found he was a wanted man. He escaped the imperial troops seeking   
   him   
   by miraculous means (by making himself invisible), and wandered with a   
   companion   
   named Brother John from place to place. He visited his own home where his   
   brother Christopher and widowed mother received monastic habits from his   
   hands.   
      
   Eventually, Peter settled for several years at Kalonaros near the   
   Hellespont.   
   Unfortunately, his fame as a wonder-worker and reader of souls was so great   
   that   
   he was never left in peace for long. He made several journeys to various   
   points   
   in western Asia Minor and each was punctuated with a miracle. At one point,   
   he   
   was accused of practicing magic and using the devil because of the miracles   
   he   
   performed, but he was completely cleared by Saint Theodore Studites.   
      
   Peter again resumed his eremitical life near Atroa, restored Saint Zachary   
   Monastery, and reorganized several other monasteries, but there was another   
   outbreak of iconoclasm. Because his own bishop was an iconoclast, he again   
   dispersed the monks and sent them into hiding, but stayed nearby for a time.   
   When the persecution became more violent, Peter retired to Saint Porphyry   
   Monastery on the Hellespont. But soon Peter decided to return to Olympus to   
   visit his friend Saint Joannicus at Balea, from where he returned to St.   
   Zachary's.   
      
   A few weeks later, Joannicus had a vision. In it he was talking with Peter   
   of   
   Atroa at the foot of a mountain whose crest reached to the heavenly courts.   
   As   
   they talked, two shining figures appeared and each grabbed one of Peter's   
   arms   
   in order to lift him upwards in a halo of glory. At that same moment, while   
   his   
   monks were singing the night office, Peter died at Atroa after lovingly   
   addressing his brethren one last time (Delaney, Walsh).   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   In the traditional cycle today is the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord.   
   In   
   the Old Law, by rite of Circumcision, every male Jew became a member and   
   shared   
   in all the blessings and privileges of the chosen people of God.  A Jew who   
   failed to be initiated by the ceremony was excluded. Our Lord is the Son of   
   God   
   by nature, and absolutely sinless, and therefore did not need adoption into   
   the   
   membership of God's children.  Yet, he submitted to the Law.  Today the   
   Church   
   also celebrates the Holy Name of Jesus, given at the rite of Circumcision.   
      
   In the new cycle, today is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  Always   
   held in   
   faith amongst the laity and clergy, Mary was declared Mother of God, by   
   penalty   
   of anathema, for all Christendom at the Council of Ephesus in AD 431.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "For, since ye are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, ye appear to me   
   to   
   live not after the manner of men, but according to Jesus Christ, who died   
   for   
   us, in order, by believing in His death, ye may escape from death. It is   
   therefore necessary that, as ye indeed do, so without the bishop ye should   
   do   
   nothing, but should also be subject to the presbytery, as to the apostle of   
   Jesus Christ, who is our hope, in whom, if we live, we shall be found. It is   
   fitting also that the deacons, as being the ministers of the mysteries of   
   Jesus   
   Christ, should in every respect be pleasing to all. For they are not   
   ministers   
   of meat and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They are bound,   
   therefore,   
   to avoid all grounds of accusation, as they would do fire."   
   -Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Trallians,2(A.D. 110)   
      
   Bible Quote   
   9 I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me: for he will speak peace   
   unto   
   his people: And unto his saints: and unto them that are converted to the   
   heart.   
   (Psalms 84:9)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Reflection   
      
   Nothing so much scandalizes the very infidels, or shows the decay of piety   
   and   
   loss of all sense of religion among Christians, as their disrespectful   
   behavior   
   in the house of God and at the time of prayer. An awe filled, strict   
   silence,   
   the most profound exterior respect, and penetrating inward devotion of   
   heart,   
   must essentially accompany our homages when we present them before the   
   throne of   
   God, in whose presence the highest Seraphim annihilate themselves.   
      
   This silence we must observe not only with our tongues, but also with our   
   bodies   
   and all our limbs, both out of respect to the presence of God and his altar,   
   and   
   also not to give the least occasion of distraction to others. Prayer is an   
   action so sublime and supernatural that the church in her canonical hours   
   teaches us to begin it by a fervent petition of grace to perform it well.   
   What   
   an insolence and mockery is it to join with this petition an open disrespect   
   and   
   a neglect of all necessary precautions against distractions! We ought never   
   to   
   appear before God, to tender him our homages or supplications, without   
   trembling, and without delay to all creatures, and shutting all our senses   
   to   
   every object that can distract our minds from God.   
      
   Though St. Francis of Sales on the like occasions chose rather to forego or   
   defer his own private devotions, than not to be ready immediately to wait on   
   others, in order to give them all the spiritual advice they desired; at   
   prayer   
   at least he and all truly religious persons seemed in some degree to rival   
   the   
   heavenly spirits in their awe and reverence.   
      
   Silence at that holy time, or place, has always been esteemed a thing so   
   sacred,   
   that when the temple of Solomon was building, God commanded that there   
   should   
   not be heard so much as the sound of a hammer, or any other instrument. Even   
   when we come from conversing with God, we ought to appear all penetrated   
   with   
   the Divine presence, and rather as angels than men.  Sanctity, modesty, and   
   the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)