From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
    -- 1 John 1:5-7 --   
      
   5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that   
   God is light and in him is no darkness[a] at all. 6 If we say we have   
   fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live   
   according to the truth; 7 but if we walk in the light, as he is in the   
   light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his   
   Son cleanses us from all sin.  RSVCE   
   ================   
   Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, sin cannot   
   exist in the presence of a Holy God. If we want to have a relationship   
   with God, we must put aside our sinful ways of living. To claim that   
   we belong to him but then go out and live for ourselves is hypocrisy.   
   Christ will expose and judge such deceit.   
      
      
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   April 21st - St Anselm of Canterbury   
      
   Doctor magnificus (Magnificent Doctor); Doctor Marianus (Marian   
   Doctor), “Father of Scholasticism”   
    – Monk, Prior, Abbott, Archbishop, Theologian, Philosopher   
      
   Anselm was born in or around Aosta in Upper Burgundy sometime between   
   April 1033 and April 1034. At the age of 15, Anselm desired to enter a   
   monastery but, failing to obtain his father’s consent, he was refused   
   by the abbot. The illness he then suffered has been considered a   
   psychosomatic effect of his disappointment but upon his recovery he   
   gave up his studies and for a time lived a carefree life.   
      
   Following the death of his mother, probably at the birth of his sister   
   Richera, Anselm’s father repented his earlier lifestyle but professed   
   his new faith with a severity that the boy found likewise unbearable.   
   Anselm, at age 23, left home with a single attendant crossed the Alps   
   and wandered through Burgundy and France for 3 years. His countryman   
   Lanfranc of Pavia was then prior of the Benedictine abbey of Bec;   
   attracted by the fame of his fellow countryman, Anselm reached   
   Normandy in 1059 ] After spending some time in Avranches, he returned   
   the next year. His father having died, he consulted with Lanfranc as   
   to whether to return to his estates and employ their income in   
   providing alms or to renounce them, becoming a hermit or a monk at Bec   
   or Cluny. Professing to fear his own bias, Lanfranc sent him to   
   Maurilius, the archbishop of Rouen, who convinced him to enter the   
   abbey as a novice at the age of 27. Probably in his first year, he   
   wrote his first work on philosophy, a treatment of Latin paradoxes   
   called the Grammarian. Over the next decade, the Rule of Saint   
   Benedict reshaped his thought.   
      
   Because of the physical closeness and political connections, there was   
   frequent travel and communication between Normandy and England and   
   Anselm was in repeated contact with Church officials in England.  He   
   was chosen as reluctant Archbishop of Canterbury, England in 1092;   
   officials had to wait until he too sick to argue in order to get him   
   to agree.   
      
   As bishop he fought King William Rufus’s encroachment on   
   ecclesiastical rights and the independence of the Church, refused to   
   pay bribes to take over as bishop and was exiled for his efforts.  He   
   traveled to Rome, Italy and spent part of his exile as an adviser to   
   Pope Blessed Urban II, obtaining the pope’s support for returning to   
   England and conducting Church business without the king’s   
   interference.  He resolved theological doubts of the Italo-Greek   
   bishops at Council of Bari in 1098.   
      
   In 1100 King Henry II invited Anselm to return to England but they   
   disputed over lay investiture and Anselm was exiled again only to   
   return in 1106 when Henry agreed not to interfere with the selection   
   of Church officials.  Anselm opposed slavery and obtained English   
   legislation prohibiting the sale of men. He strongly supported   
   celibate clergy and approved the addition of several saints to the   
   liturgical calendar of England.   
      
   He died on Holy Wednesday, 21 April 1109. His remains were translated   
   to Canterbury Cathedral and laid at the head of Lanfranc at his   
   initial resting place to the south of the Altar of the Holy Trinity   
   (now St Thomas’s Chapel). During the church’s reconstruction after the   
   disastrous fire of the 1170s, his remains were relocated, although it   
   is now uncertain where.   
      
   Anselm was one of the great philosophers and theologians of the middle   
   ages, and a noted theological writer. He was far more at home in the   
   monastery than in political circles, but still managed to improve the   
   position of the Church in England.  Counsellor to Pope Gregory VII.   
   Chosen a Doctor of the Church in 1720 by Pope Clement XI.   
      
   Attributes--His mitre, pallium, and crozier, his books, Benedictine   
   monk admonishing an evil-doer, archbishop, performing an exorcism on a   
   monk, with Our Lady appearing before him, a ship, representing the   
   spiritual independence of the Church.   
      
      
   Reflection: Endeavor so to act as you would wish to have acted when   
   you stand before the Judge of your eternity. This is the rule of the   
   Saints, and the only safe rule for all.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Lord, Grant us Your Grace   
      
   O Father, most merciful, Who,   
   in the beginning, created us;   
   Who, by the Passion of Your only begotten Son,   
   created us anew.   
   Work in us now, we beseech You, both to will   
   and to do your good pleasure!   
   And because we are weak   
   and can do no good thing on our own,   
   grant us Your grace.   
   Grant us your heavenly benediction,   
   that in whatever work we undertake   
   we may do all to Your honour and Your glory;   
   that being kept from sin,   
   daily increasing in good works,   
   so long as we live in the body,   
   we may always give service to You –   
   and after our departure,   
   we may receive pardon for all our sins,   
   attaining life eternal: through Him who,   
   with You and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns,   
   God, forevermore. Amen.   
   --St Anselm of Canterbury   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)