From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Making daily progress towards God   
      
   "As Christians, our task is to make daily progress toward God. Our   
   pilgrimage on earth is a school in which God is the only teacher, and   
   it demands good students, not ones who play truant. In this school we   
   learn something every day. We learn something from the commandments,   
   something from examples, and something from Sacraments. These things   
   are remedies for our wounds and materials for our studies."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermon 16A,1)   
      
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   April 8th – St. Dionysius of Corinth B (RM)   
      
   Died c. 180; feast day in the Greek Church is November 20 or 29.   
   Bishop Dionysius of Corinth was an outstanding leader of the Church in   
   the second century, as well as an eloquent preacher. He is now best   
   remembered as an ecclesiastical writer with which he attempted to   
   instruct, exhort, and comfort those at a distance. Several of his   
   letters to various churches are still extant. Especially noteworthy is   
   that in which he records the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul in Rome.   
   He says that after initiating the faith at Corinth, the Apostles both   
   went to Italy, and there sealed their testimony with their blood.   
      
   The Church historian Eusebius mentions several of his instructive   
   letters to other churches. One extends thanks to the Church of Rome,   
   under the pontificate of Saint Soter, for the traditional alms   
   received from them. He writes: "From the beginning, it is your custom   
   to bestow your alms in all places, and to furnish subsistence to many   
   churches. You send relief to the needy, especially to those who work   
   in the mines; in which you follow the example of your fathers. Your   
   blessed bishop Soter is so far from degenerating from your ancestors   
   in that respect, that he goes beyond them; not to mention the comfort   
   and advice he, with the bowels of a tender father towards his   
   children, affords all that come to him. On this day we celebrated   
   together the Lord's day, and read your letter, as we do that which was   
   heretofore written to us by Clement." He means that they read these   
   letters of instruction in the church after the reading of the holy   
   Scriptures, and the celebration of the divine mysteries.   
      
   In another place Dionysius complains about the rampant heresies that   
   sprang from the adoption of pagan philosophical principles, rather   
   than from any perverse interpretation of the scriptures. Dionysius   
   points out the source of the heretical errors and the philosophical   
   sect from which each heresy arose.   
      
   The Greeks honor Saint Dionysius as a martyr because he suffered much   
   for the faith, though he seems to have died in peace; while the Latin   
   Church styles him a confessor. Pope Innocent III translated his relics   
   to Saint Denys Abbey near Paris, where the monks believed him to be   
   Dionysius the Areopagite (Benedictines, Husenbeth).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God thunders forth from heaven to rouse people to fear the Lord, to   
   call them to remember the future judgment...when God will come in the   
   clouds in great power and majesty to judge the living and the dead.   
   And so we ought to respond to God's heavenly warning with due fear and   
   love so that as often as God disturbs the sky, yet spares us still, we   
   should implore God's mercy, examining the innermost recesses of our   
   hearts and purging out the dregs of our sins, and behave with such   
   caution that we may never deserve to be struck down.   
   --Saint Chad   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and the   
   Lord burdened him with the sins of all of us. Harshly dealt with, he   
   bore it humbly, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb that is led to   
   the slaughter-house, like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers   
   never opening its mouth.  (Isaiah 53:6-7 )   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Invocation   
      
   Eternal Father, we offer Thee the infinite merits of Our Lord   
   Jesus Christ, of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the   
   Saints, in expiation for the sins of the world and for the   
   salvation of souls.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   TO A MIRACULOUS MOTHER   
      
   Blessed Mother, be my guide!   
   Be here always at my side!   
   Take me through this world of sorrow,   
   Show me there’s a bright tomorrow!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)