From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Meditation for troubled times:   
      
      I will try to make the world better and happier by my presence in   
   it. I will try to help other people find the way God wants them to   
   live. I will try to be on the side of good, in the stream of   
   righteousness, where all things work for good. I will do my duty   
   persistently and faithfully, not sparing myself. I will be gentle with   
   all people. I will try to see other people's difficulty and help them   
   to correct it. I will always pray to God to act as interpreter between   
   me and the other person. I pray that I may live in the spirit of   
   prayer. I pray that I may depend on God for the strength I need to   
   help me to do my part in making the world a better place.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   February 20th - St. Sadoth, Bishop, and Ctesiphon, with 128 other Martyrs   
      
   (Also known as Sadosh, Sadot, Sadota Sahdost, Schadost, Schiadustes,   
   Shahdost, Zadok)   
      
   Memorial   
   18 February   
   20 February on some calendars   
      
   D. 342.   
      
   SADOTH, as he is called by the Greeks and Latins, is named in the   
   original Persian language, Schiadustes, which signifies “friend of the   
   king,” from schiah, king, and dust, friend. His unspotted purity of   
   heart, his ardent zeal, and the practice of all Christian virtues,   
   prepared him, from his youth, for the episcopal dignity, and the crown   
   of martyrdom. St. Simeon, bishop of Selec, or Seleucia, and Ctesiphon,   
   then the two capital cities of Persia, situate on the river Tigris,   
   being translated to glory by martyrdom, in the beginning of the   
   persecution raised by Sapor II in 341. St. Sadoth was chosen 3 months   
   after to fill his see, the most important in that empire, but the most   
   exposed to the storm. This grew more violent on the publication of a   
   new edict against the Christians, which made it a capital offence to   
   confess Christ.   
      
   To wait with patience the manifestation of the divine will, St.   
   Sadoth, with part of his clergy, lay hid for some time; which did not   
   however hinder him from affording his distressed flock all proper   
   assistance and encouragement, but rather enabled him to do it with the   
   greater fruit. During this retreat he had a vision which seemed to   
   indicate that the time was come for the holy bishop to seal his faith   
   with his blood. This he related to his priests and deacons, whom he   
   assembled for that purpose. “I saw,” said he, “in my sleep, a ladder   
   environed with light and reaching from earth to the heavens. St.   
   Simeon was at the top of it, and in great glory. He beheld me at the   
   bottom, and said to me, with a smiling countenance: ‘Mount up, Sadoth,   
   fear not. I mounted yesterday, and it is your turn to-day:’ which   
   means, that as he was slain last year, so I am to follow him thus.” He   
   was not wanting on this occasion to exhort his clergy, with great zeal   
   and fervour, to make a provision of good works, and employ well their   
   time, till they should be called on in like manner, that they might be   
   in readiness to take possession of their inheritance. “A man that is   
   guided by the Spirit,” says St. Maruthas, author of these acts, “fears   
   not death: he loves God, and goes to him with an incredible ardour;   
   but he, who lives according to the desires of the flesh, trembles, and   
   is in despair at its approach: he loves the world, and it is with   
   grief that he leaves it.”   
      
     The 2nd year of the persecution, King Sapor coming to Seleucia,   
   Sadoth was apprehended, with several of his clergy, some ecclesiastics   
   of the neighbourhood, and certain monks and nuns belonging to his   
   church, to the amount of 128 persons. They were thrown into dungeons,   
   where, during 5 months’ confinement, they suffered incredible misery   
   and torments. They were thrice called out, and put to the rack or   
   question; their legs were straight bound with cords, which were drawn   
   with so much violence, that their bones breaking, were heard to crack   
   like sticks in a faggot. Amidst these tortures the officers cried out   
   to them: “Adore the sun, and obey the king, if you would save your   
   lives.” Sadoth answered in the name of all, that the sun was but a   
   creature, the work of God, made for the use of mankind, that they   
   would pay supreme adoration to none but the Creator of heaven and   
   earth, and never be unfaithful to him; that it was indeed in their   
   power to take away their lives, but that this would be the greatest   
   favour they could do them; wherefore he conjured them not to spare   
   them, or delay their execution. The officers said: “Obey! or know that   
   your death is certain and immediate.” The martyrs all cried out with   
   one voice: “We shall not die, but live and reign eternally with God   
   and his son Jesus Christ. Wherefore inflict death as soon as you   
   please; for we repeat it to you that we will not adore the sun, nor   
   obey the unjust edicts.”   
      
   Then sentence of death was pronounced upon them all by the king; for   
   which they thanked God, and mutually encouraged each other. They were   
   chained two and two together, and led out of the city to execution,   
   singing psalms and canticles of joy as they went. Being arrived at the   
   place of their martyrdom, they raised their voices still higher,   
   blessing and thanking God for his mercy in bringing them thither, and   
   begging the grace of perseverance, and that by this baptism of their   
   blood they might enter into his glory. These prayers and praises of   
   God did not cease but with the life of the last of this blessed   
   company.   
      
   St. Sadoth, by the king’s orders, was separated from them, and sent   
   into the province of the Huzites, where he was beheaded. He thus   
   rejoined his happy flock in the kingdom of glory. Ancient Chaldaic   
   writers quoted by Assemani say, St. Schiadustes, or Sadoth, was nephew   
   to Simeon Barsaboe, being son to his sister. He governed his church   
   only 8 months, and finished his martyrdom after 5 months imprisonment,   
   in the year 342, and of King Sapor II. the 33rd. These martyrs are   
   honoured in the Roman Martyrology on this day.   
      
      From his genuine acts in Metaphrastes, Bollandus, and Ruinart; but   
   more correctly in the original Chaldaic given us by Assemani, t. 1. p.   
   83. Orsi, Hist. t. 5. l. 13. See Le Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 2. p.   
   1108.   
      
      
   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:   
   And you shall say in that day: Praise ye the Lord, and call upon his   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)