From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   A guest with no wedding garment    
      
   "But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast,   
   our holy church, as a result of God's generosity, be careful, my   
   friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of   
   your heart's clothing. We must consider what comes next with great   
   fear in our hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw   
   there a person not clothed in a wedding garment. What do we think is   
   meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is   
   baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast   
   without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to   
   believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love?   
   That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding   
   garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he   
   does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the   
   wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed   
   when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only   
   God's love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the   
   hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that 'God so loved the   
   world that he gave his only begotten Son for us' (John 3:16)."   
    by John Chrysostom  (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 38.9)   
      
   ===========   
   September 6th – SS. Donatian, Laetus and Others, Bishops,Martyrs   
      
   There were thousands of Christians exiled, tortured and martyred in   
   the late 5th century by the Arian King Hunneric. Six of them, all   
   bishops, are remembered today; however, we really know nothing about   
   them except their names and their deaths for the faith.   
      
   Donatian   
   Fusculus   
   Germanus   
   Laetus   
   Mansuetus   
   Praesidius   
      
   In the year 484 the Arian king of the Vandals, Huneric, ordered that   
   all the Catholic churches of Africa were to be closed and the goods of   
   the clergy to be taken from them and given to the Arian clergy; the   
   bishops, in particular, who had assembled at the royal command were   
   turned out of the city. Outside of the gates Huneric met a party of   
   them, who appealed against his injustice and cruelty. "Ride them   
   down!" he said to his mounted followers, and that was all the answer   
   he gave. St. Donatian with four others, all bishops in the province of   
   Byzacene, were cruelly beaten, and then driven into the desert, and   
   died of hunger, thirst and exposure.   
      
     St. Laetus, Bishop of Leptis Minor, whom the Roman Martyrology calls   
   "a zealous and very learned man", had made himself particularly   
   obnoxious to Huneric by his opposition to Arianism.  He was thrown   
   into a filthy dungeon, from which he only emerged to be burnt alive,   
   one of the first martyrs of the persecution.   
      
   The feast of these martyrs, with St. Laetus in chief, is kept by the   
   Canons Regular of the Lateran.   
      
   See the Acta Sanctorum September, vol. ii, where we are referred to   
   the Historia pesecutionis provinciae Africana by Victor of Vita, but   
   it is difficult to identify the particular names set down in the   
   martyrology.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Be assured that he who shall always walk faithfully in God's presence,   
   always ready to give Him an account of all his actions, shall never be   
   separated from Him by consenting to sin.   
   -- St. Thomas Aquinas   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for   
   ever. 25 Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw   
   near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession   
   for them. 26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high   
   priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted   
   above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to   
   offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of   
   the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself.   
   [Hebrews 7:24-27]  RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL FOR POWERFUL AID   
      
   Glorious Prince of the heavenly hosts   
   and victor over rebellious spirits,   
   be mindful of me who am so weak and sinful   
   and yet so prone to pride and ambition.   
   Lend me, I pray,   
   thy powerful aid in every temptation and difficulty,   
   and above all do not forsake me   
   in my last struggle with the powers of evil.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)