From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of seeking peace of mind and of spiritual progress  VI   
      
       It is a hard thing to break through a habit, and a yet harder   
   thing to go contrary to our own will.  Yet if thou overcome not slight   
   and easy obstacles, how shalt thou overcome greater ones? Withstand   
   thy will at the beginning, and unlearn an evil habit, lest it lead   
   thee little by little into worse difficulties.  Oh, if thou knewest   
   what peace to thyself thy holy life should bring to thyself, and what   
   joy to others, methinketh thou wouldst be more zealous for spiritual   
   profit.   
   --Thomas à Kempis ---Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 11   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   October 21st - St. Malchus of Syria   
   (4th Century)   
      
   St. Jerome, the great, if tempestuous, hermit and biblical scholar,   
   was a lifelong promoter of celibacy as a spiritual sacrifice. Around   
   375 A.D., young Jerome met an aged hermit in Syria who told him the   
   dramatic story of his own battles for chastity. Jerome wrote all this   
   down so that it might encourage others to offer to God their purity of   
   body and soul.   
      
   The hermit he interviewed was St. Malchus. Malchus was living at a   
   monastic center in Maronia, a few miles out of Antioch. But he had   
   traveled a good deal, willy-nilly, before he reached this final home.   
      
   Malchus (or Malechi) was a native of Nisibis in Mesopotamia. He was   
   the only son of well-to-do parents. They were good people, but when   
   they began to press him to get married, he disagreed. Already he had   
   determined to devote his life totally to God’s service, including a   
   vow not to marry. Rather than quarrel over this, he fled his home and   
   joined a monastery in the desert of Chalcis.   
      
   Malchus spent several years there and was happy with his chosen life.   
   Then he learned that his father had died and left him an inheritance.   
   So he asked his abbot’s permission to return home. It would give him a   
   chance, he said, to comfort his widowed mother and also to bring back   
   his inheritance and use it to enlarge the monastery.   
      
   These arguments seemed plausible enough, but the abbot viewed the plan   
   otherwise. He told Malchus that it was a subtle temptation to return   
   to “the world”, which he had struggled to abandon. So he refused   
   permission. Malchus thereupon went home anyhow.   
      
   The misadventures that befell him after his departure amply proved   
   that the abbot had been right. Before he even reached his boyhood   
   home, pagan Bedouins attacked his caravan. One of the Arab chieftains   
   seized Malchus and a young married woman in the party and carried them   
   off as slaves to his desert camp beyond the Euphrates River. Here he   
   assigned the enslaved hermit to tending his sheep and goats.   
      
   Malchus was already monk enough to be able to adapt himself to this   
   new situation. As a shepherd he had plenty of time for private prayer   
   and acts of self-denial. To improve his virtue of obedience he   
   performed his duties as conscientiously as possible.   
      
   The chieftain was impressed with such a dutiful slave and wanted to   
   reward him. So he told him he could have the woman captured with him   
   as his wife.   
      
   How was Malchus to react to this well-meaning command? He had vowed   
   never to marry. Furthermore, he knew that this woman was already   
   married and that her husband was still alive. She would not have   
   minded taking Malchus as a second husband, but the hermit said he   
   would rather kill himself than accept her. Finally they agreed to live   
   together as apparent spouses but actually as brother and sister. This   
   arrangement was not without its difficulties, but they managed to   
   carry it off.   
      
   One day St. Malchus observed a colony of ants engaged in their usual   
   teamwork. It reminded him of the monks of his old monastery working   
   together as a community. Now he became lonesome for his old life and   
   told his “spouse” that he was going to run away and return to the   
   monastic life. She insisted on going with him in order to find her   
   husband.   
      
   They got away on foot that night and crossed the Euphrates River. But   
   their master quickly detected their departure and set out with another   
   Beduoin to recapture them. On the third day of their trek the   
   fugitives saw their pursuers coming at a distance on their camels. The   
   runaways hid near the mouth of a large cave. When the master reached   
   the cave he asked his man to go inside and fetch the pair. The Bedouin   
   entered the cave but did not come out. Puzzled, the chief himself went   
   into the cave. He didn’t come out either. But Malchus and his   
   companion, watching from their hiding-place outside, eventually saw a   
   lioness emerge with her cub in her mouth and run to safety across the   
   desert rocks. Malchus and his companion then entered the cave to see   
   what had happened. The lioness, fearing for her kitten, had killed   
   both Bedouins. So the two fugitives mounted their camels and rode off   
   to safety.   
      
   Eventually Malchus reached the monastery at Maronia and spent the rest   
   of his life there in penance and prayer. His “spouse” failed to find   
   her husband. Consequently, she, too, came to the monastery at Maronia.   
   Settling nearby, she devoted her remaining years to good works.   
      
   Thus St. Malchus won his battle to “renounce self for the sake of   
   God’s reign.” (Mt. 19:12). This is a gift given only to a few. (Not,   
   by the way, just to monks and nuns and priests, but also to some lay   
   persons by virtue of a temporary or permanent personal vow.) The fact   
   that some maintain chastity “for the kingdom” will always be a   
   reminder to the majority that marriage is short but God’s grace is   
   long.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   To those who wish to stand in God's grace, neither the guardianship of   
   saints nor the defenses of angels are wanting.   
   --Saint Hilary of Poitiers   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and   
   the stars you set firm--what are human beings that you spare a thought   
   for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him? Yet you have   
   made him a little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and   
   beauty, and made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things   
   under his feet..."  Psalm 8:3-6   
      
   <><><><>   
   LAUDA SION   
      
   Praise, O Sion, your Redeemer.   
   Praise your Prince and Shepherd   
   With canticle and hymn.   
      
   Dare to praise Him as you can,   
   For He is greater than all praise.   
   Our brightest praises are but dim.   
      
   This truth to Christians is proclaimed:   
   That to flesh, bread is transformed,   
   And transformed to blood is wine.   
      
   Good Shepherd, Bread of Truth,   
   Lord Jesus, show Your clemency.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)