From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Salutation to the Holy Angel from the Raccolta   
      
   I salute thee, holy Angel who didst comfort my Jesus in His agony, and   
   with thee I praise the Most Holy Trinity for having chosen thee from   
   among all the holy Angels to comfort and strengthen Him Who is the   
   comfort and strength of all that are in affliction. By the honor thou   
   didst enjoy and by the obedience, humility and love wherewith thou   
   didst assist the sacred Humanity of Jesus, my Saviour, when He was   
   fainting for very sorrow at seeing the sins of the world and   
   especially my sins, I beseech thee to obtain for me perfect sorrow for   
   my sins; deign to strengthen me in the afflictions that now overwhelm   
   me, and in all the other trials, to which I shall be exposed   
   henceforth and, in particular, when I find myself in my final agony.   
   Amen.   
      
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   January 1st - St. Peter of Atroa, Visionary   
      
   Born near Ephesus, Asia Minor, 773; died at Atroa on January 1, 837.   
   Saint Peter, the eldest of three children, was christened Theophylact.   
   Not unexpectedly, he became a monk when he was 18. He said that the   
   Blessed Virgin directed him to join Saint Paul the Hesychast, who   
   named him Peter at Crypta, Phrygia. On the day he was ordained several   
   years later at Zygos and at the door of the very church, he cured a   
   man possessed of an unclean spirit. Almost immediately thereafter,   
   Peter set out with Paul on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but instead God   
   directed them in a vision to go to Mount Olympus in Bithynia, where   
   Paul was to found a monastery at the chapel of Saint Zachary near   
   Atroa. This they did.   
      
   When Paul died in 805, he named the 32-year-old Peter to succeed him   
   as abbot. The monastery flourished but after ten years Peter decided   
   to close the monastery because of the iconoclastic persecution under   
   Emperor Leo the Armenian. Peter went back to Ephesus and on to Crete   
   (or Cyprus), and when he returned found he was a wanted man. He   
   escaped the imperial troops seeking him by miraculous means (by making   
   himself invisible), and wandered with a companion named Brother John   
   from place to place. He visited his own home where his brother   
   Christopher and widowed mother received monastic habits from his   
   hands.   
      
   Eventually, Peter settled for several years at Kalonaros near the   
   Hellespont. Unfortunately, his fame as a wonder-worker and reader of   
   souls was so great that he was never left in peace for long. He made   
   several journeys to various points in western Asia Minor and each was   
   punctuated with a miracle. At one point, he was accused of practicing   
   magic and using the devil because of the miracles he performed, but he   
   was completely cleared by Saint Theodore Studites.   
      
   Peter again resumed his eremitical life near Atroa, restored Saint   
   Zachary Monastery, and reorganized several other monasteries, but   
   there was another outbreak of iconoclasm. Because his own bishop was   
   an iconoclast, he again dispersed the monks and sent them into hiding,   
   but stayed nearby for a time. When the persecution became more   
   violent, Peter retired to Saint Porphyry Monastery on the Hellespont.   
   But soon Peter decided to return to Olympus to visit his friend Saint   
   Joannicus at Balea, from where he returned to St. Zachary's.   
      
   A few weeks later, Joannicus had a vision. In it he was talking with   
   Peter of Atroa at the foot of a mountain whose crest reached to the   
   heavenly courts. As they talked, two shining figures appeared and each   
   grabbed one of Peter's arms in order to lift him upwards in a halo of   
   glory. At that same moment, while his monks were singing the night   
   office, Peter died at Atroa after lovingly addressing his brethren one   
   last time (Delaney, Walsh).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "For, since ye are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, ye appear   
   to me to live not after the manner of men, but according to Jesus   
   Christ, who died for us, in order, by believing in His death, ye may   
   escape from death. It is therefore necessary that, as ye indeed do, so   
   without the bishop ye should do nothing, but should also be subject to   
   the presbytery, as to the apostle of Jesus Christ, who is our hope, in   
   whom, if we live, we shall be found. It is fitting also that the   
   deacons, as being the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ,   
   should in every respect be pleasing to all. For they are not ministers   
   of meat and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They are bound,   
   therefore, to avoid all grounds of accusation, as they would do fire."   
   --Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Trallians,2(A.D. 110)   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Behold our shield, O God;   
       look upon the face of thine anointed!   
   10 For a day in thy courts is better   
       than a thousand elsewhere.   
   I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God   
       than dwell in the tents of wickedness. [Psalms 84:9-10]   RSVCE   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)