From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The mission of Jesus and the Spirit is one   
      
    The mission of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit are the same--to reveal   
    the glory of God and to share that glory with us by uniting us in a   
    community of love with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is why   
    Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit will reveal the glory of the   
    Father and the Son and will speak what is true. Before his Passover,   
    Jesus revealed the Holy Spirit as the 'Paraclete' and Helper who will   
    be with Jesus' disciples to teach and guide them "into all the truth"   
    (John 14:17,26; 16:13). The ultimate end, the purpose for which God   
    created us, is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of   
    the blessed Trinity. In baptism we are called to share in the life of   
    the Holy Trinity here on earth in faith and after death in eternal   
    light.   
      
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   August 17th - Saint Liberatus, Abbot and Companions, Martyrs   
    (d. 483)   
      
   The Arian Vandal king Huneric, in the 7th year of his reign in Africa,   
   published new edicts against the Catholics, and ordered that all their   
   monasteries be demolished. The abbot Liberatus and six monks,   
   Boniface, Servus, Rusticus, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus, who were   
   living in a monastery near Capsa, were at that time summoned to   
   Carthage. They were first tempted with great promises, but as they   
   remained constant in their confession of the Trinity and of one   
   Baptism, they were chained with irons and thrown into a dark dungeon.   
      
   The faithful by bribing the guards were able to visit the Saints, and   
   did so day and night to be instructed by them. All mutually encouraged   
   one another to suffer for the faith of Christ. The king, learning of   
   this, commanded them to be more closely confined, loaded with heavier   
   irons, and tortured with a cruelty never heard of before that time.   
   Soon after, he condemned them to be put into an old ship and burnt   
   with it at sea. The martyrs walked cheerfully to the shore,   
   indifferent to the insults of the Arians as they passed by. Particular   
   endeavors were used by the persecutors to gain the young monk Maximus;   
   but God, who makes the tongues of children eloquent in His praises,   
   gave him strength to withstand all their efforts. He boldly told them   
   that they would never be able to separate him from his holy Abbot and   
   his brethren, with whom he had borne the labors of a penitential life   
   for the sake of everlasting glory.   
      
   An old vessel was filled with dry branches, and the 7 martyrs were   
   placed on board and bound tightly to the wood. Fire was put to it   
   several times but went out immediately, and all endeavors to kindle it   
   were vain. The tyrant, in rage and confusion, gave orders that the   
   martyrs’ brains should be dashed out with oars, which was done, and   
   their bodies cast into the sea, whose waves carried them all to the   
   shore. The Catholics interred them honorably in a monastery at Bigua.   
   They suffered in the year 483.   
      
      
   Reflection: Saint Peter wrote: “Let it not be as a murderer or a   
   thief, a malefactor or a coveter of other men’s goods that any of you   
   suffer; but if it is for the name of Christian, let him be not   
   ashamed, but glorify God in that name.” (First Epistle 4:15-16)   
      
   Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   I am astonished that you should find excessive the measures taken to   
   confine the flood that threatens to swamp us, when the [Modernist]   
   error they are striving to spread is much more deadly than that of   
   Luther, because it aims directly at the destruction not only of the   
   Church but of Christianity.   
   --Pope St. Pius X   
      
   Bible Quote   
   Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God,   
   and who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou perhaps   
   wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.   
   (John 4:10)   
      
      
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   The line from the soul to God:   
      
      The lifeline, the line of rescue, is the line from the soul to God.   
   On one end of the lifeline is our faith and on the other end is God's   
   power. It can be a strong line and no soul can be overwhelmed who is   
   linked to God by it. I will trust in this lifeline and never be   
   afraid. God will save me from doing wrong and from the cares and   
   troubles of life. I will look to God for help and trust Him for aid   
   when I am emotionally upset.   
      I pray that no lack of trust or fearfulness will make me disloyal   
   to God. I pray that I may keep a strong hold on the lifeline of faith.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)