From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Love -- The Distinguishing Sign   
      
       Love is the only sign that distinguishes the children of God from   
   the children of the devil. To prove this, let them all sign themselves   
   with the cross of Christ. Let them all respond: Amen. Let all sing:   
   Alleluia. Let all build the walls of churches.   
       There is still no way of discerning the children of God from the   
   children of the devil except by love!"   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon on 1 John 5, 7   
      
   Prayer: Come to my aid, O God, the one eternal, true reality! In you   
   there is no strife, no disorder, no change, no need, no death, but   
   supreme harmony, supreme clarity, supreme permanence, supreme life.   
   --St. Augustine--Soliloquies 1, 1   
      
      
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   March 6th - Saint Balther of Lindisfarne   
   Also known as Baldred, Baldredus, Bilfrid, Billfrith   
   8th v.   
      
   ST. BALRED or Balther was a priest who led the solitary life in the   
   kingdom of Northumbria, which comprised the south of Scotland. He   
   appears to have lived at one time at Tyningham, at another period   
   inhabiting a cell on the Bass Rock. A legend recounts that there was   
   then a dangerous shoal in the Firth of Forth, which was visible only   
   at low tide and was the cause of many shipwrecks; it stood between the   
   Bass Rock and the mainland. According to the lesson in the Aberdeen   
   Breviary, St. Balther, out of pity for sailors, decided to move it.   
   Going out to the rock, he stood upon it and it floated away under him   
   “like a little boat wafted by a fair wind”, and was steered by him to   
   the neighbouring shore, where it remained and became known as St.   
   Baldred’s Rock. After a life of great austerities and trials, the holy   
   hermit died at Aldham, and a dispute arose with the neighbouring   
   parishes of Tyningham and Preston for the possession of his body.   
   Tradition relates that in the morning it was found that there were   
   three precisely similar bodies and so each parish was able to have its   
   own.   
      
   The relics were lost during a Danish attack, but two centuries later a   
   priest called Elfrid discovered through a dream the body of St.   
   Balther, which was removed to Durham together with the remains of   
   another hermit, St. Bilfrid the goldsmith, who was honoured with him   
   on March 6. Bilfrid, as the inscription on it states, adorned with   
   gold, silver and gems St. Cuthbert’s famous Book of the Gospels,   
   which, after being miraculously rescued uninjured from the sea, was   
   long preserved in Durham, but now forms one of the treasures of the   
   Cottonian Library in the British Museum.   
      
   Here again, as pointed out in Stanton’s Menology (pp. 105 and 633),   
   some confusion seems to have arisen between two different holy men,   
   the Baldredus of the Aberdeen Breviary, who was a bishop, and the   
   Baltherus of Symeon of Durham, who was a priest. Moreover, if   
   Baldredus, as stated in the Breviary, was a bishop under St.   
   Kentigern, he cannot have died more than 150 years later, as Baltherus   
   is said to have done. See KSS., pp. 273-274.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Naturally we all have an inclination to command, and a great aversion   
   to obey; and yet it is certain that it is more for our good to obey   
   than to command; hence perfect souls have always had a great affection   
   for obedience, and have found all their joy and comfort in it.   
   --Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the   
   words of eternal life.  (John 6:69)   
      
      
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   A Father's Prayer For Loved Ones.   
      
   Kind Father, I thank You for my home where loved ones dwell   
   and to which my fondest memories now turn.   
   I praise You for the family love and peace and cheer   
   which follow me and comfort me in strange and distant places.   
   I am grateful for all things we share in common,   
   the worthy lessons we learn,   
   the hardships and griefs we sometimes bear,   
   the tasks and pleasures which bind us closer to each other,   
   and the abiding affection and heartfelt prayers   
   which still keep our spirits one in You.   
   Shelter my home. O God,   
   and all my dear ones there.   
   Make me strong, unselfish,   
   and brave to defend and protect them.   
   Send down Your peace to every family on earth   
   and grant an abundance of grace to them   
   so that in doing Your will   
   they may merit the joys of eternal salvation.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)