From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   -- John 8:34-36 --   
      
   34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who   
   commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not continue in the   
   house for ever; the son continues for ever. 36 So if the Son makes you   
   free, you will be free indeed.  RSVCE   
   ===================   
   Sin has a way of enslaving us, controlling us, dominating us, and   
   dictating  our actions. Jesus can free you from this slavery that   
   keeps you from becoming the person God created you to be. If sin is   
   restraining, mastering or enslaving you, Jesus can break its power   
   over your life.   
      
      
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   February 10th - St. Scholastica of Nursia   
   (Died  543)   
      
   One of the beneficial contributions of contemporary feminism is that   
   it has made historians conscious of the scarcity of biographical   
   studies of eminent women. Much has been written, for instance, about   
   the great monastic pioneer, St. Benedict of Nursia. History records   
   very little, however, about his sister St. Scholastica. But she, too,   
   was a pioneer in the development of women’s monasticism.   
      
   Here is her story, as far as the data allow us to recount it.   
      
   Scholastica, not only Benedict’s sister, but traditionally his twin,   
   was naturally also a native of Nursia (now Norcia) in central Italy.   
   They were the children of distinguished parents. Influenced, it seems,   
   by her brother’s example of becoming a monk, she apparently dedicated   
   herself early to the monastic service of God.   
      
   The first evidence we have of this is her ruling a convent at Subiaco,   
   not far from her brother’s first cliff-hanging monastery. When he   
   moved his monastic center to Monte Cassino near Naples, she also moved   
   hers.   
      
   In both cases, Benedict was the director of his monks and her nuns.   
   Brother Benedict was very strict in his dealings with women religious.   
   He allowed even his sister to visit with him only once a year, and   
   then not in the monastery but at a midway house. She nevertheless   
   looked forward with joy to these annual meetings, during which they   
   would spend the time praising God and speaking on matters of the soul.   
      
   The earliest biographer of Benedict, St. Gregory the Great, tells us   
   practically nothing about the monk’s sister except to recount the   
   remarkable last meeting they had. The story tells us about the traits   
   of these kindred spirits.   
      
   At their meeting in 543, after the two had passed the day in devout   
   conversation and had finished supper, Scholastica asked her brother if   
   they could not continue their colloquy on the joys of heaven   
   throughout the night. Perhaps she had a premonition that this would be   
   their final get-together on earth. St. Benedict, shocked by a request   
   that went counter to the monastic rule, said he could not in   
   conscience consent. Thereupon, with a show of holy stubbornness, his   
   sister bent down over the table in prayer. She had scarcely lifted her   
   head when a heavy cloudburst broke out, so intense as to prevent St.   
   Benedict and his companions from even stepping out-of-doors.   
      
   “God forgive you, sister,” Benedict said in reproach “what have you   
   done?” “I asked a favor of you and you refused it,” she answered,   
   perhaps with a cute toss of the head. “I asked it of God, and He has   
   granted it.”   
      
   Foiled, St. Benedict did agree to resume their conversation on the   
   glories of heaven. Both found it a discussion worth remembering. Dawn   
   brought the tempest to an end, and brother and sister parted. Three   
   days later, as Benedict prayed in his monastery cell, he saw his   
   sister’s soul, in the form of a dove, ascending to heaven. Rejoicing   
   rather than sorrowing, for the knowledge of her being in heaven   
   canceled the grief of his loss, he had her body buried in the same   
   tomb at his monastery on Monte Cassino that he had constructed for   
   himself. “So it happened to these two,” wrote St. Gregory, “that even   
   in the grave their bodies were not separated.”   
      
   Do the relics of the two remain in their original tomb? There is a   
   credible story that in the seventh century Benedict’s original   
   monastery fell empty, hence the bones of both were transposed for   
   greater safety to the Benedictine monastery at Fleury in France. Yet   
   in the 11th century, Abbot Desiderius of Monte Cassino happened upon   
   what he considered the real relics in an undisturbed sepulcher at   
   Monte Cassino.   
      
   Which set of relics is the authentic one remains an unsettled   
   question. But whether you pray to these two notable saints at Fleury   
   or in their chapel at Monte Cassino, you may be sure that they will   
   hear you equally well.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from   
   those [the Apostles] through whom the Gospel has come down to us,   
   which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period,   
   by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the   
   ground and pillar of our Faith.   
   -- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons   
      
   Bible Quote   
   12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can   
   you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into   
   heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man.[a] 14 And as   
   Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man   
   be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal   
   life.”[b]  John 3:12-15  RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Everything Has Its Time   
      
   For everything there is a season,   
   and a time for every matter under heaven:   
      
   a time to be born,   
   and a time to die;   
   a time to plant,   
   and a time to pluck up what is planted;   
   a time to kill,   
   and a time to heal;   
   a time to break down,   
   and a time to build up;   
   a time to weep,   
   and a time to laugh;   
   a time to mourn,   
   and a time to dance;   
   a time to throw away stones,   
   and a time to gather stones together;   
   a time to embrace,   
   and a time to refrain from embracing;   
   a time to seek,   
   and a time to lose;   
   a time to keep,   
   and a time to throw away;   
   a time to tear,   
   and a time to sew;   
   a time to keep silence,   
   and a time to speak;   
   a time to love,   
   and a time to hate;   
   a time for war,   
   and a time for peace.   
      
   [Ecclesiastes 3:1-18; NRSV]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)