From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   All Things should be Referred to God as their Last End: (2)   
      
   The Voice of Christ   
   From Me the small and the great, the poor and the rich draw the water of life   
   as from a living fountain, and they who serve Me willingly and freely shall   
   receive grace upon grace. He who wishes to glory in things apart from Me,   
   however, or to delight in some good as his own, shall not be grounded in true   
   joy or gladdened in his heart, but shall be burdened and distressed in many   
   ways. Hence you ought not to attribute any good to yourself or ascribe virtue   
   to   
   any man, but give all to God without Whom man has nothing.   
   I have given all things. I will that all be returned to Me again, and I exact   
   most strictly a return of thanks. This is the truth by which vainglory is put   
   to   
   flight.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3, Chapter 9   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   October 13th - St. Edward the Confessor   
   (1033-1066 A.D.)   
      
   In his Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote of the “divinity that hedges a king.”   
   England’s awe for kings as almost divine persons may well have been   
   inspired by her mild miracle-working monarch, St. Edward the   
   Confessor.   
      
   His own personal trials must have done much to make Edward a meek,   
   forgiving man. During the years when Danish kings ruled Britain, the   
   ten-year-old Edward had to be spirited out of his native land because   
   as an heir to the British Crown his life was endangered. Growing up in   
   French Normandy, the little prince learned how little worldly ambition   
   counts, and how important to human life is simplicity and religious   
   devotion.   
      
   In 1042, England’s Danish ruler Hardicanute died suddenly. Edward, by   
   then 40, and already known in England for his worthy character, was   
   called home by acclamation to assume the kingship. Thus he became the   
   last of England’s Anglo-Saxon rulers. A man of peace, he took peace as   
   his motto, and was actually able to keep the land free from war for   
   the next 25 years. The welfare of his people was his principal aim: He   
   abolished an unpopular tax; he gave generous alms to the poor and to   
   various religious causes. He enacted legislation acclaimed for its   
   justice. (“Good St. Edward’s Laws” became a popular axiom in England   
   for years to come.) He was immortalized by being depicted in his   
   famous “medieval “Bayeux Tapestry”, which shows him as a dignified,   
   fair-complexioned, fair-haired, fair-bearded monarch.   
      
   The English Chronicler William of Malmesbury records of Edward’s   
   character: “He was so gentle that he would not say a word of reproach   
   to the meanest person.” As a ruler he could scarcely avoid worldly   
   pursuits, both governmental and recreational, but he did not permit   
   these to distract from his religious devotion. Thus, hunting was his   
   chief diversion, and he really enjoyed it. But he would never set out   
   on the chase until he had first attended daily Mass. The tradition   
   that he and his wife Queen Edith lived as brother and sister may be   
   incapable of proof but is was widely believed. Edward was also the   
   first king of England reputed to be able to cure skin disease (“the   
   king’s evil”) by laying hands on those afflicted by it. “The king’s   
   touch,” it was named, and several other English kings up to modern   
   times have been called upon to lay hands upon people who had   
   contracted scrofula.   
      
   While still in his French exile, Edward had vowed to make a pilgrimage   
   to the Holy Land if his family affairs got straightened out.   
   Unfortunately, when he became king, he was unable to find time to   
   visit Palestine. At his request, therefore, Pope Leo IX commuted his   
   vow into something he could do without leaving his country. He was to   
   restore with his own funds an old monastery located on the then   
   outskirts of London. Because it lay west of the monastery at St.   
   Paul’s Cathedral, it was called “West Monastery” or “West Minster.”   
   Westminster Abbey still stands.   
      
   Edward undertook the task assigned, but died in 1066 only a week after   
   the new abbey church was finished. He was canonized a saint in 1161,   
   and given the name “the Confessor” (i.e., the non-martyr) to   
   distinguish him from his uncle, King St. Edward the Martyr (died 979).   
   When the present “Westminster Abbey” Church was built 3 centuries   
   later to replace Edward’s structure, his tomb was moved there. In this   
   church (now Anglican), where England’s monarchs have been crowned up   
   to the present, St. Edward’s shrine and relics are still held in   
   honor. In earlier centuries, at least, many pilgrims reported cures   
   through his intercession. Today his presence still reminds one of this   
   kindly ruler who in a fiercer age led “the life of an angel in the   
   administration of his kingdom.”   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   My Jesus, how good it is to love you! Let me be like your disciples on   
   Mount Tabor, seeing nothing else but you, my Savior. Let us be as two   
   friends, neither of whom can bear to offend the other. Amen.   
   -- Saint John Vianney   
      
   Bible Quote   
   "God appointed him as a sacrifice for reconciliation, through the   
   shedding of his blood, and so showed his justness; first for the past,   
   when sins when unpunished because he held his hand; and now again for   
   the present age, to show how he is just and justifies everyone who has   
   faith in Jesus."   [Romans 3:25-26]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   This day is also very important to us in the present day. It is the   
   anniversary of the last appearance of Our Lady at Fatima in 1917. Our   
   Lady of Fatima, pray for us! May thine Immaculate Heart triumph over   
   the evils of our day!   
      
   BLESSED FEAST OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA!   
      
   Today we remember that humble day of rain   
   when there was the Miracle of the Sun in Portugal   
   as Our Lady promised.  Imagine if you had been   
   there.   
      
   Everyone seems to remember that there was a last   
   secret and that the Pope and Bishops needed   
   to consecrate Russia, but let us remember the most   
   important thing Our Lady asked: to make prayers   
   and sacrifices for poor sinners who otherwise   
   would go to hell.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)