From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   October 22nd - Sts. Alodia and Nunilo   
      
   Through the writings of St. Eulogius we learn that Alodia and Nunilo were   
   sisters living at Huesca, Spain in the 9th century. Their father was a   
   Moslem and their mother a Christian.   
      
   As young women both sisters took a vow of virginity and dedicated themselves   
   totally to the service of God. After their father's death their mother   
   remarried and their step-father, who was also a Moslem and a politically   
   important person, took a strong dislike to the sisters. They suffered much   
   from his brutality.   
      
   He tried to coerce them into marriage, but the women refused and were able   
   to find sanctuary in the house of a Christian aunt. They were well known by   
   the people for their piety and zeal for Christ. When Abdur Ramen II's laws   
   against Christians were published the sisters were soon arrested and   
   imprisoned   
      
   Flattery and promises of wealth as well as threats of torture did not make   
   the sisters reject God. They were placed in the company of wicked women   
   hoping to influence them to dissolute behavior but through prayer they   
   remained steadfast in their belief in Christ. They were then martyred and   
   their feast was celebrated on October 22nd.   
      
   Their courage to remain faithful to God in the face of temptations and death   
   is a strong encouragement to us. In time of temptations to words or actions   
   that could be harmful to others, or ourselves their example of steadfast   
   prayer can encourage us to turn to God for help.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   As soon as I believed there was a God, I understood I could do nothing else   
   but live for him, my religious vocation dates from the same moment as my   
   faith: God is so great. There is such a difference between God and   
   everything that is not.   
   --Blessed Charles de Foucauld   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom you were sealed for the day of   
   redemption. Eph. 4:30   
      
      
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   Canticle to the Holy Face   
      
       Dear Jesus! 'tis Thy Holy Face   
       Is here the start that guides my way;   
       They countenance, so full of grace,   
       Is heaven on earth, for me, today.   
       And love finds holy charms for me   
       In Thy sweet eyes with tear-drops wet;   
       Through mine own tears I smile at Thee,   
       And in Thy griefs my pains forget.   
       How gladly would I live unknown,   
       Thus to console Thy aching heart.   
       Thy veiled beauty, it is shown   
       To those who live from earth apart.   
       I long to fly to Thee alone!   
      
       Thy Face is now my fatherland,   
       The radiant sunshine of my days,   
       My realm of love, my sunlit land,   
       Where, all life long, I sing Thy praise;   
       It is the lily of the vale,   
       Whose mystic perfume, freely given,   
       Brings comfort, when I faint and fail,   
       And makes me taste the peace of heaven.   
       Thy face, in its unearthly grace,   
       Is like the divinest myrrh to me,   
       That on my heart I gladly place;   
       It is my lyre of melody;   
       My rest - my comfort - is Thy Face.   
      
       My only wealth, Lord! is thy Face;   
       I ask naught else than this from Thee;   
       Hid in the secret of that Face,   
       The more I shall resemble Thee!   
       Oh, leave on me some impress faint   
       Of Thy sweet, humble, patient Face,   
       And soon I shall become a saint,   
       And draw men to Thy saving grace.   
       So, in the secret of Thy Face,   
       Oh! hide me, hide me, Jesus blest!   
       There let me find its hidden grace,   
       Its holy fires, and, in heaven's rest,   
       Its rapturous kiss, in Thy embrace!   
      
       -Saint Teresa of Lisieux   
       12 August 1895   
       translated by S L Emery   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)