From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth: [2]   
      
   HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord (John 8:12).   
   By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and   
   habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness   
   of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of   
   Jesus Christ. The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the   
   advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a   
   hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care   
   little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever   
   wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his   
   whole life on that of Christ.   
   --The Imitation of Christ-- Thomas À Kempis  Book 1 Ch. 1   
      
   =============   
   April 2nd – St. Mary of Egypt   
   5th v.   
      
   THE story of St. Mary of Egypt seems to be based upon a short and not   
   incredible account contained in the Life of St. Cyriacus, written by   
   his disciple Cyril of Scythopolis. The holy man had retired with his   
   followers into the wild and apparently uninhabited desert beyond   
   Jordan. One day two of his disciples suddenly saw a human figure which   
   escaped into some bushes, but which they afterwards tracked into a   
   cave. The figure told them not to approach because she was a woman and   
   naked, but upon being interrogated she informed them that her name was   
   Mary, that she was a great sinner who had been a public singer and   
   actress, and that she had come there to expiate her former life. The   
   two returned to tell St. Cyriacus what they had seen and heard. Upon   
   the occasion of a second visit which they paid to the cave they found   
   her lying dead and they buried her on the spot.   
      
   Round about this narrative there grew up an elaborate legend which   
   attained enormous popularity in the middle ages and which is   
   illustrated on the old glass windows of the cathedrals of Bourges,   
   Auxerre and elsewhere. It may be summarized as follows:   
      
   In the reign of Theodosius the Younger, there lived in Palestine a   
   holy monk and priest named Zosimus who, having served God with great   
   fervour in the same house for 53 years, was divinely directed to leave   
   his monastery for one near the Jordan, where he might learn how to   
   advance still further on the path of holiness. He found that the   
   members of this community on the first Sunday in Lent after Mass used   
   to disperse in the desert to pass in solitude and penance the time   
   until Palm Sunday. It was at that season, about the year 430, that   
   Zosimus found himself a 20 days’ distance from his monastery, and sat   
   down one day at noon to say his psalms and to rest. Perceiving   
   suddenly what appeared to be a human form he made the sign of the   
   cross and finished his psalms. Then, looking up, he saw a   
   white-haired, sun-tanned figure which he took to be a hermit, but   
   which ran away as he went towards it. He had nearly overtaken it and   
   was near enough to crave its blessing, when it exclaimed, “Father   
   Zosimus, I am a woman: throw your mantle to cover me that you may come   
   near me”. Surprised that she should know his name, he complied, and   
   they entered into conversation. In reply to his inquiries the woman   
   told him her strange story with many expressions of shame and   
   penitence: “My country”, she said, “is Egypt. At the age of 12, while   
   my father and mother were still living, I went without their consent   
   to Alexandria. I cannot think without trembling of the first steps by   
   which I fell into sin or of the excesses which followed.” She then   
   described how she had lived as a public prostitute for 17 years, not   
   for money, but to gratify her lust. At the age of about 28, curiosity   
   led her to join a band of people who were going to celebrate at   
   Jerusalem the feast of the Holy Cross--and even on the journey she   
   continued her evil courses, corrupting some of the pilgrims. Upon   
   their arrival in Jerusalem she tried to enter the church with the rest   
   of the congregation, but an invisible force held her back. After 2 or   
   3 ineffectual attempts, she withdrew into a corner of the outer court,   
   and for the first time a full realization of her sinfulness swept over   
   her. Raising her eyes to an icon of the Virgin Mary she besought with   
   tears the help of the Mother of God, vowing herself to a life of   
   penance. With a lightened heart she was now able without any   
   difficulty to enter the church to venerate the cross, and as she   
   returned to the icon to give thanks to our Lady she heard a voice   
   which said, “Go over Jordan and thou shalt find rest”.   
      
   At a baker’s where she bought loaves she inquired the way to the   
   Jordan, and started off forthwith, arriving that same night at the   
   church of St. John the Baptist on the bank of the river. Here she made   
   her communion and crossed the Jordan into the wilderness, where she   
   had remained ever since--about 47 years, as far as she could judge.   
   She had seen no human being and had lived on edible plants and on   
   dates. The winter cold and the summer heat had sorely afflicted her   
   unprotected body, and she had often been tortured by thirst. At such   
   times she had been tempted to regret the luxuries and the wines of   
   Egypt in which she had formerly indulged. These and other assaults   
   beset her night and day almost unremittingly for 17 years, but she had   
   implored the intercession of the Bl. Virgin and the divine assistance   
   had never failed her. She could not read, and had never had any human   
   instruction in holy things, but God Himself had taught her the   
   mysteries of faith. At her request, Zosimus undertook not to divulge   
   what she had said until after her death, and promised to meet her   
   again beside the Jordan on the Maundy Thursday of the following year   
   to give her holy communion.   
      
   The next Lent, Zosimus made his way to the selected meeting-place,   
   bearing the Blessed Sacrament, and that same Maundy Thursday evening   
   beheld Mary standing on the opposite bank of Jordan. After she had   
   made the sign of the cross, she proceeded to walk upon the water until   
   she reached dry ground beside the astonished priest. She received   
   communion with deep devotion, following it by the recitation of the   
   opening words of the Nunc dimittis. From a basket of dates, figs and   
   lentils which Zosimus offered, she would accept only 3 lentils; and   
   she thanked him for all he had done and commended herself to his   
   prayers. Then, with a final entreaty that he would return a year later   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)