From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Life within us   
      
     I am the living bread which has come down from heaven, and which   
   gives life to the world, says the Savior. Anyone who eats this bread   
   will live for ever. We then who eat the flesh of our Savior Jesus   
   Christ and drink his blood have life within us. This moreover was the   
   only way for the human race, once enslaved by death, to be restored to   
   immortality. And yet this way would have been closed to us if the   
   only-begotten Son, the Word of God, had not made our body his own   
   through a human birth from a woman, and grafted himself onto our   
   nature so as to become one substance with us in an inseparable union.   
   For having united to himself a mortal body, the Word who is God and   
   life raised it from the dead, making it victorious over death and   
   corruption, and by expelling corruption from it, he rendered it   
   immortal and life-giving.   
   --Peter of Laodicea:   
      
      
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   February 17th - St. Silvin, Bishop   
   d. 720   
      
    Held in great honour, not only on account of his charity and   
   holiness, but also for the gift of healing with which he was credited.   
      
   NOTHING is definitely known of the parentage of St. Silvin. His early   
   manhood was spent at the court of Kings Childeric II and Thierry III.   
   He was betrothed and was about to be married when he felt the call to   
   abandon the world and to follow Christ in the path of poverty and   
   celibacy, and he accordingly retired from the court. He received holy   
   orders in Rome and afterwards became a bishop. Some accounts say that   
   his diocese was Toulouse, others give it as Thérouanne, but as his   
   name is not found in any register of either of these churches it seems   
   more likely that he was ordained a regionary bishop to preach the   
   gospel to the heathen.   
      
   Silvin worked zealously in the north of France, spending most of his   
   time in the region of Thérouanne, which was then full of pagans or of   
   nominal Christians who were not much better than heathens. He was   
   indefatigable in preaching to them and he gained a considerable   
   harvest of souls by his teaching and example.   
      
   Much of his private fortune was expended in ransoming slaves from the   
   barbarians, and he devoted the rest to charity and to the building of   
   churches. Although he was endowed with good looks and a courtly   
   address he wore the meanest clothes and practised great austerities;   
   it was remarked that in his humble house he received every stranger as   
   though he were Christ Himself. St. Silvin’s biographer says that for   
   forty years he ate no bread, but lived on potherbs and fruit, and the   
   only possession he retained for himself was a horse which he rode when   
   he became too weak to walk. His great wish was to live the life of a   
   hermit, but his bodily infirmities would have precluded it even had he   
   obtained release from his episcopal duties. He appears to have died at   
   Auchy-les-Moines near Arms, and was certainly buried in that   
   monastery. Even in his lifetime he was held in great honour, not only   
   on account of his charity and holiness, but also for the gift of   
   healing with which he was credited.   
      
   There is a Latin life of St. Silvin by Bishop Antenor, who must have   
   been a contemporary, but it has undergone revision and amplification   
   at a later date. The text will be found in the Acta Sanctorum,   
   February, vol. iii, and in Mabillon. Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol.   
   iii, p. 534, thinks that Silvin was probably a “Scot”, and points out   
   that Folcuin makes it clear that he was still living at the time of   
   the battle of Vincy (717).   
      
   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:   
    One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, 'Here is a   
   small boy with five barley loaves [bread] and two fish; but what is   
   that among so many?' Jesus said to them, 'Make the people sit down.'   
   There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat   
   down. [John 6: 8-10]   
      
      
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   PRAYER FOR OUR FAMILY    
      
   Blessed are you, loving Father,   
   Ruler of the universe:   
      
   You have given us Your Son as Your Leader,   
   And have made us temples of Your Holy Spirit.   
      
   Fill our family with Your light and peace.   
   Have mercy on all who suffer,   
   And bring us to everlasting joy with You.   
      
   Father,   
   We bless Your Name for ever and ever.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)