From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Keep peace in contradictions   
      
   Granting the principle laid down in this chapter, that true peace   
   consists much more in humbly submitting to what is contrary to our   
   inclinations, than in meeting with nothing to thwart them, we must   
   resolve to keep peace in contradictions, and to be calm in the midst   
   of storms, patiently and meekly enduring persecution and all the evil   
   that others may do or say against us. A soul that is truly humble   
   complains only of itself; it endeavors to excuse others, while it   
   blames itself, and is angry with no one but itself. I am resolved   
   therefore, to live in peace with God, by obeying Him in all things; in   
   peace with my neighbor, by not censuring his conduct or interfering   
   with his affairs; and in peace with myself, by combating and subduing,   
   on all occasions the emotions and repugnances of my heart.   
   --Thomas à Kempis, From the Imitation of Christ   
      
      
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   November 12th - St. Livin, Bishop and Martyr   
    Also known as Apostle of Flanders, Lebwin   
      
   THIS saint was a learned and zealous Irish bishop, who went over into   
   Flanders to preach the faith to the idolaters. To enter upon that work   
   by dedicating himself a holocaust to God, he spent 30 days in prayer   
   at the tomb of St. Bavo, at Ghent, and offered there every day the   
   holy sacrifice. After this solemn consecration of himself to his   
   Redeemer, he began to announce the word of life, and converted many   
   about the country of Alost and Hautem. Having cultivated the study of   
   poetry in his youth, he composed an elegy on St. Bavo, who died only   
   six years before him. [1]   
      
    St. Livin was massacred by the pagans, at Esche, in the year 633,   
   according to Colgan, who mentions him to have been bishop of Dublin   
   before he went to the mission of Flanders. His death is placed by   
   others in 656. He was buried at Hautem, three miles from Ghent; and   
   his relics were translated to the great monastery of St. Peter’s at   
   Ghent, in 1006. In a shrine by that of St. Livin are preserved the   
   relics of St. Craphaildes, a lady in whose house St. Livin was   
   martyred. She was murdered by the same barbarians, for lamenting his   
   death, and her infant son Brictius, whom St. Livin had lately   
   baptized.   
      
   The infant martyr’s bones are kept in the same shrine with those of   
   St. Livin. St. Brictius is commemorated in a collect with other saints   
   of this monastery. Usher [2] and Mabillon have also published a letter   
   of St. Livin, whose name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on this day.   
      
   See his life written by one Boniface in the same age, in Mabillon,   
   Sæc. 2, Ben. p. 251; Cointe, Annal. Fr. ad an. 651; Fleury, l. 38, n.   
   58; Miræus, in Fastis Belg. Sanders, Rerum Gandav. l. 4, p. 342; and   
   Colgan, Trias Thaum. p. 112, n. 69.   
      
   Note 1. This elegy it published by Usher, and Mabill. Sæc. 2 Ben. p.   
   461, and read in the old office of St. Bavo, at Ghent, published by   
   Gerard Salenson.   
   Note 2. Hybern. Epist. Sylloge, p. 19.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Consider God's charity. Where else have we ever seen someone who has   
   been offended voluntarily paying out his life for those who have   
   offended him?   
   -- Saint Catherine of Siena   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "What am I to do with you, Ephraim [Northern Kingdom]? What am I to do   
   with you, Judah [Southern Kingdom]? For your love is like morning   
   mist, like the dew that quickly disappears. This is why I have hacked   
   them to pieces by means of the prophets, why I have killed them with   
   words from my mouth, why my sentence will blaze forth like the   
   dawn--for faithful love [hesed*]pleases me, not sacrifices; knowledge   
   of God, not burnt offerings." Hosea 6:4-6   
      
      
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   Prayer:   
    Thou hast said, O Lord, by the mouth of Thy Prophet, seek after peace   
   and pursue it (Psalms 33:15), that is, cease not to seek it until thou   
   hast found it. Only Thou, my Jesus, canst bestow it upon me, for Thou   
   alone didst accomplish my peace and reconciliation with Thy Father   
   upon the Cross. I have long sought to live in peace with Thee, with my   
   neighbor, and with myself; but my infidelities, my selfish feelings,   
   and the sallies of passion are causes of perpetual trouble to my soul,   
   and hinder me from tasting its sweets. O my Saviour, Thou Who didst   
   calm the tempest Thou Whom the winds and the sea obeyed, calm the   
   agitation of my troubled soul, which can nowhere find true repose but   
   in Thee. Grant that, resigning myself in all things to Thy blessed   
   will, I may find peace and happiness in being, doing, quitting, and   
   suffering whatever Thou shalt appoint. Amen.   
   --Thomas à Kempis, From the Imitation of Christ   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)