From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Inward Conversation of Christ with the Faithful Soul  (1)   
      
      I WILL hear what the Lord God will speak in me.” Ps. 84:9.   
      Blessed is the soul who hears the Lord speaking within her, who   
   receives the word of consolation from His lips. Blessed are the ears   
   that catch the accents of divine whispering, and pay no heed to the   
   murmurings of this world. Blessed indeed are the ears that listen, not   
   to the voice which sounds without, but to the truth which teaches   
   within. Blessed are the eyes which are closed to exterior things and   
   are fixed upon those which are interior. Blessed are they who   
   penetrate inwardly, who try daily to prepare themselves more and more   
   84 to understand mysteries. Blessed are they who long to give their   
   time to God, and who cut themselves off from the hindrances of the   
   world.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3, Chapter 1   
      
      
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   October 17th - Saint Ignatius the Bishop   
    by Saint Jerome   
      
   Ignatius, third bishop of the church of Antioch after Peter the   
   apostle, condemned to the wild beasts during the persecution of   
   Trajan, was sent bound to Rome, and when he had come on his voyage as   
   far as Smyrna, where Polycarp the pupil of John was bishop, he wrote   
   one epistle To the Ephesians, another To the Magnesians, a third To   
   the Trallians, a fourth To the Romans, and going thence, he wrote To   
   the Philadelphians and To the Smyrneans, and especially To Polycarp,   
   commending to him the church at Antioch. In this last he bore witness   
   to the Gospel which I have recently translated, in respect of the   
   person of Christ saying, “I indeed saw him in the flesh after the   
   resurrection and I believe that he is,” and when he came to Peter and   
   those who were with Peter, he said to them, “Behold! touch me and see   
   me bow that I am not an incorporeal spirit” and straightway they   
   touched him and believed. Moreover it seems worth while inasmuch as we   
   have made mention of such a man and of the Epistle which he wrote to   
   the Romans, to give a few “quotations”:   
      
   “From Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and by   
   sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, that is to   
   say soldiers who guard me and who only become worse when they are well   
   treated. Their wrong doing, however is my schoolmaster, but I am not   
   thereby justified. May I have joy of the beasts that are prepared for   
   me; and I pray that I may find them ready; I will even coax them to   
   devour me quickly that they may not treat me as they have some whom   
   they have refused to touch through fear. And if they are unwilling, I   
   will compel them to devour me. Forgive me my children, I know what is   
   expedient for me. Now do I begin to be a disciple, and desire none of   
   the things visible that I may attain unto Jesus Christ. Let fire and   
   cross and attacks of wild beasts, let wrenching of bones, cutting   
   apart of limbs, crushing of the whole body, tortures of the devil, let   
   all these come upon me if only I may attain unto the joy which is in   
   Christ.”   
      
   When he had been condemned to the wild beasts and with zeal for   
   martyrdom heard the lions roaring, he said “I am the grain of Christ.   
   I am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts that I may be found the   
   bread of the world.” He was put to death the eleventh year of Trajan   
   and the remains of his body lie in Antioch outside the Daphnitic gate   
   in the cemetery.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven, the only one goal of   
   our labors.   
   --St. Therese of Lisieux   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And that the kingdom, and power, and the greatness of the kingdom,   
   under the whole heaven, may be given to the people of the saints of   
   the most High: whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings   
   shall serve him, and shall obey him.  [Dan 7:27]   
      
      
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   O Lord Our God   
      
   O Lord our God, what sins I have this day committed in word, deed,  or   
   thought, forgive me, for You are gracious, and You love all men. Grant   
   me peaceful and undisturbed sleep, send me Your guardian angel to   
   protect and guard me from every evil, for You are the guardian  of our   
   souls and bodies,and to You we ascribe glory, to the Father and the   
   Son and the Holy Ghost,now and forever and unto the ages of ages.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)