From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Counsels on the Inner Life  (III)   
      
   Never place your whole trust and reliance in weak and mortal man,   
   however helpful and dear to you he may be; nor should you grieve   
   overmuch if sometimes he opposes and contradicts you. Those who take   
   your part today may tomorrow oppose you; for men are as changeable as   
   the weather. Put your whole trust in God;(Prov 3:5; I Pet.5:7) direct   
   your worship and love to Him alone. He will defend you, and will   
   dispose all things for the best. Here you have no abiding city,(Heb   
   13:14) and wherever you may be, you are a stranger and pilgrim;(Heb   
   11:13) you will never enjoy peace until you become inwardly united to   
   Christ.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2 Ch 1   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 17th - St. Drithelm, viewed the afterlife   
   (c. 700 )   
      
   St. Bede the Venerable, eight-century author of A History of the   
   English Church, tells us the story of St. Drithelm of Northumbria, who   
   died, viewed the afterlife, and then was permitted to return to life   
   and tell others of his vivid experience.   
      
   Drithelm was a mature adult, the devout head of a devout family.   
   Around 693 AD a severe illness resulted in his apparent death. But the   
   next day, when mourners surrounded his bier, he suddenly sat up. The   
   mourners, except his wife, fled out of fright. But Drithelm told his   
   wife: “Be not afraid, for I am now truly risen from death . . . But   
   hereafter I am not to live as I have been wont, but rather in a very   
   different manner.” Then he went to church, where he spent many hours   
   in prayer. Returning home, he divided his property into three parts:   
   for his wife, for his children, and for the poor. He next called on   
   King Alfred and told him the full story. At the King’s request, the   
   abbot of Melrose Abbey admitted Drithelm as a monk.   
      
   Drithelm did indeed live the rest of his life in a “very different   
   manner.” He spent his remaining years in a hermitage on the banks of   
   the Tweed River engaged in constant prayer and mortification. Often he   
   would combine the two by standing in the freezing waters of the Tweed   
   and reciting the psalms. Visitors would comment, “It is wonderful,   
   Brother Drithelm, that you can stand such cold.” He would reply, “I   
   have seen greater cold.” Especially did he warn those who came, about   
   the need of wholesome fear for their lot in eternity. His words and   
   example influenced many for good. Drithelm was never officially   
   canonized, but Alcuin, the great Northumbrian scholar (735?-804),   
   lists him as one of the saints of the church of York.   
      
   What had changed Drithelm’s whole way of life was an astounding vision   
   of eternity that he had when “dead.” He recounted this vision only to   
   those who would heed it. Among them was the monk Haemgils from whom   
   Bede had learned about it.   
      
   On dying, St. Drithelm said he had found himself in the presence of a   
   “handsome man in a shining robe.” This guide showed him three vistas.   
   The first was a long valley with a road running down the middle. On   
   one side was a great fire, on the other a blizzard of freezing snow   
   and hail. On both sides were countless souls who would flee the flames   
   to cool off in the blizzard, and then flee the blizzard to warm up in   
   the fire. Drithelm thought this must be hell, but the guide said it   
   was not.   
      
   They next came to a place of intense darkness. Here the guide left him   
   for awhile. Soon Drithelm saw a deep pit. Out of this pit, tongues of   
   flame would throw up souls like sparks and then swallow them again.   
   Among those souls he saw a clergyman, a layman, and a woman. The   
   stench of the pit was unbearable. As he stood looking, a crowd of   
   devils surrounded him threateningly, but when the guide returned, they   
   fled.   
      
   The third vision was of a pleasant meadow full of sweet-smelling   
   flowers and happy people. The guide said, “This is not the Kingdom of   
   Heaven.” When they did come towards that kingdom and sense from afar   
   its light and sweetness, the guide would not let him go any farther.   
   He then explained to Drithelm that the first valley was filled with   
   people who had been saved only at the moment of death. They had much   
   purification to endure, but the prayers and Masses offered for them on   
   earth could shorten their suffering. The pleasant meadow was for those   
   whose need for purification was slighter. Those who died without   
   imperfection, he said, would enter heaven at once. But those who   
   entered the dark hole of hell could never escape. The guide then told   
   Drithelm that he must return to life, but should live better   
   thereafter. Actually, Drithelm was sad to leave this afterworld.   
      
   Today scientists are making a special study of these “out of body”   
   occurrences of people apparently dead. One of their recollections on   
   returning to life is that of having moved towards a lovely light,   
   which made them reluctant to come back to this humdrum world.   
      
   Is not God reminding us through experiences like Drithelm’s that the   
   “Kingdom of Heaven” is far lovelier than the beautiful but treacherous   
   world in which we now live?   
   –   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   In detachment, the spirit finds quiet and repose for coveting nothing.   
   Nothing wearies it by elation, and nothing oppresses it by dejection,   
   because it stands in the center of its own humility.   
   --St. John of the Cross   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Not for the world do I pray, but for those whom Thou, Father, hast   
   given Me, because they are Thine.  (John 17:9)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A Mother's Plea   
      
   Oh, Mother of Perpetual Help,   
   To you I send my plea,   
   Look down upon my beloved son.   
   Take care of him for me.   
   And when he's blue and sick at heart,   
   Discouraged and oppressed,   
   Give him the will to carry on,   
   In heaven's grace to rest.   
   Show unto him a Mother's love,   
   As you have shown to me.   
   Bringing comfort to his lonely heart   
   Is mine, his mother's plea.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)