From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The fruit of the cross   
      
   How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In   
   the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of   
   paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The   
   fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This   
   tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our   
   return.   
   --Theodore of Studios   
      
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   May 24th – St. Simeon Stylite the Younger   
      
   Memorial 24 May formerly 3 September   
      
   (Died 592)   
      
   Some decades ago, when “marathoning” of various types was a summer   
   fad, many Americans tried to see who could outlast each other perched   
   on the top of a pole.   
      
   “Pole-sitting” was a secular contest, for fun, for “fame”, and   
   sometimes for prizes. But history tells us that there was in the   
   ancient Church a spiritual “pole-sitting” undertaken by some hermits   
   as a lifelong penance. Although it did not appeal to monks in the more   
   “practical” West, in the more mystical East it was fairly widespread.   
   They called it “Stylitism” (“columnsitting”). As long as the stylites   
   were humble men, they were venerated for all their forms of   
   asceticism, offbeat as well as traditional.   
      
   Most famous of the aerial saints was St. Simeon the Stylite, a hermit   
   of Asia Minor who died in 549. Second only to him was another St.   
   Simeon, of the next generation. No kinsman of his namesake, he is   
   referred to as St. Simeon the Younger.   
      
   Simeon II was a native of Antioch. His father died when he was a small   
   child. He learned piety, no doubt, from his mother Martha, who is   
   venerated as a saint. A precociously spiritual child, Simeon wandered   
   off one day into the Syrian mountains. There he encountered a stylite   
   now known as St. John. John quickly discerned that this boy showed   
   spiritual promise. He therefore began to instruct him in the ways of   
   the spirit, and won him over to the stylite mode of religious life. He   
   first took him upon his own pillar. Later he gave him a pillar for   
   himself. Simeon, therefore, began his lifelong career of column-sitter   
   before “he lost his baby teeth”, as the church historian Evagrius   
   would write.   
      
   Well known as a monk by age 30, Simeon felt called by God to set up in   
   the vicinity of his pillar a monastery for the many who asked to   
   become his disciples. On the new site he had the builders erect a new   
   column; and when it was ready, two bishops solemnly installed him on   
   its summit. Three years later he was ordained a priest. Even then he   
   did not descend for the rite; the bishop climbed up to him for the   
   laying-on of hands.   
      
   By now a widely-respected figure, Simeon welcomed the crowds of people   
   from many lands who kept coming to seek his counsel. Apparently, the   
   platform atop his column was fairly large. This enabled him to   
   celebrate Mass “in excelsis” (“close to heaven”.) Those who attended   
   his Masses would mount his ladder to receive Communion from his hands.   
   In the course of this unusual apostolate he exercised the gifts of   
   both physical and spiritual healing. Among his spiritual gifts were   
   those of foretelling future events and reading the secrets of people’s   
   souls. Meanwhile, he gave them constant good example by praying much,   
   sleeping little, and dining frugally, on vegetables only.   
      
   St. Simeon’s influence was not restricted to his own horizon. He urged   
   Emperor Justin II to protect the Christians of the Holy Land against   
   persecution by the Samaritans. Likewise, during the controversy over   
   iconoclasm, he wrote to St. John Damascene in defense of the use of   
   sacred images. Many of the records of his actions and his miraculous   
   powers can be verified from sources other than his major biography.   
      
   Simeon Stylite the Younger died peacefully on this dear column 1400   
   years ago. His long sojourn on pillars was no mere gimmick.   
   Pillar-sitting was for him and others a symbolic reminder that we   
   should all be, as Jesus told us, “in the world but not of the world.”   
   –Father Robert   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should   
   approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you   
   with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish   
   what you desire.   
   -- Saint Vincent Ferrer   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    And he that sent me is with me: and he hath not left me alone. For I   
   do always the things that please him. (John 8:29) DRB   
      
      
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   Psalm 147:12-20   
      
   12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!   
   13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your sons within you.   
   14 He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.   
   15 He sends forth his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.   
   16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.   
   17 He casts forth his ice like morsels; who can stand before his cold?   
   18 He sends forth his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow,   
   and the waters flow.   
   19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.   
   20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his   
   ordinances. Praise the LORD!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)