From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of the knowledge of truth [4]   
      
   4. All perfection hath some imperfection joined to it in this life,   
   and all our power of sight is not without some darkness.  A lowly   
   knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than the deep searching of   
   man's learning.  Not that learning is to be blamed, nor the taking   
   account of anything that is good; but a good conscience and a holy   
   life is better than all.  And because many seek knowledge rather than   
   good living, therefore they go astray, and bear little or no fruit.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 3   
      
   ==============   
   September 28th - Saint Wenceslas, Martyr   
   (d. 938)   
      
   Wenceslas, born towards the end of the ninth century, was the son of a   
   Christian Duke of Bohemia, but his mother was a harsh and cruel pagan.   
   His holy grandmother, Ludmilla, seeing the danger to the future king,   
   asked to bring him up. Wenceslas was educated by her good offices in   
   the true faith, and under her tutelage acquired an exceptional   
   devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. At the death of his father,   
   however, he was still a minor, and his mother assumed the government   
   and passed a series of persecuting laws. In the interests of the   
   Faith, Wenceslas, encouraged by his grandmother, claimed and obtained   
   through the support of the people, a large portion of the country as   
   his own kingdom. Soon afterwards his grandmother was martyred, out of   
   hatred of her faith and services to her country, while making her   
   thanksgiving after Holy Communion.   
      
   His mother secured the apostasy and alliance of her second son,   
   Boleslas, who became henceforth her ally against the Christians.   
   Wenceslas in the meantime ruled as the brave and pious king of   
   Bohemia. When his kingdom was attacked, the prince of the invading   
   army, which had been called in by certain seditious individuals, was   
   approaching with a lance to slay him. This prince, named Radislas, saw   
   two celestial spirits beside him; he had already seen him make the   
   sign of the cross and then heard a voice saying not to strike him.   
   These marvels so astonished him that he descended from his horse,   
   knelt at the feet of Wenceslas and asked his pardon. Peace was then   
   reestablished in the land.   
      
   In the service of God Saint Wenceslas was constant, planting with his   
   own hands the wheat and pressing the grapes for Holy Mass, at which he   
   never failed to assist each day. He provided for the poor and himself   
   took what they needed to them at night, to spare them the shame they   
   might incur if their poverty became public knowledge. He desired to   
   introduce the Benedictine Order into his kingdom, but was struck down   
   by a violent death before he could do so and himself enter a   
   monastery, as he wished to do.   
      
   His piety provided the occasion for his death. After a banquet at his   
   brother’s palace, to which he had been treacherously invited and where   
   he manifested great gentleness towards his brother and mother, he went   
   to pray at night before the tabernacle, as he was accustomed to do.   
   There, at midnight on the feast of the Angels in the year 938, he   
   received the crown of martyrdom by the sword, at the hand of his own   
   brother.   
      
   Reflection: Saint Wenceslas teaches us that the safest retreat amid   
   the trials of life, or to prepare for the stroke of death, is the   
   sanctuary of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.   
      
   Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources, by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des   
   Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   By the other virtues, we offer God what we possess; but by obedience,   
   we offer ourselves to Him. They who obey are conquerors, because by   
   submitting themselves to obedience they triumph over the Angels, who   
   fell through disobedience.   
   --St. Gregory   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   What have you that you have not received? And if you have received it,   
   why do you boast as if you had not received it?  (I Cor. 4:7)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O Mary, Mother of Mercy, pray to thy Divine Son for me, a poor sinner;   
   beg Him to make me humble. Oh, how humble art thou, the purest of   
   Virgins; thou, my powerful mediatrix; thou, O most holy among the   
   children of Adam, who art the exalted Mother of God! Thou didst   
   declare thyself the handmaid of Him Whose Mother thou art.   
      
   Behold, my dear heavenly Mother, how gladly I would dedicate myself to   
   thy Divine Son, that His Will may also be mine. But my pride, my   
   self-esteem, my vanity, are always against me. I struggle against   
   them, and yet I allow them to surprise and deceive me so often. Oh,   
   how this afflicts me! Mary, Refuge of Sinners, if I were only sincere   
   when I beg of thee to obtain humiliation for me. But alas, whilst   
   praying for such helps to humility, I fear the granting of my prayer.   
   I clearly see better things; I even desire their possession and yet I   
   shrink from what alone can give me true humility.   
      
   Behold my trials, my combats in this valley of tears! O my dearest   
   Mother, if to be freed from this body would give glory to God, how   
   gladly would I not lay down my life.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)