From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Follow the example of Christ:   
      
       God our Savior made a plan for raising the human race from its   
   fall and restoring us to his friendship after the long alienation from   
   him caused by our disobedience. This was the reason for Christ's   
   coming in the flesh, for his giving us in the Gospel a pattern of how   
   we ought to live, for his suffering, his dying on the cross, his   
   burial and resurrection. By imitating him we were to   
   be saved, and would regain the adoptive sonship that had been ours in   
   the beginning.   
       To attain holiness, therefore, we must follow the example that   
   Christ gave us, not only in his gentleness, humility, and patience   
   during life, but also in his death. Paul, who modeled his life on   
   Christ's, said that it was by dying as Christ died that he hoped to   
   attain to the resurrection of the dead.   
       Now we imitate the death of Christ by being buried with him in   
   baptism. What does this kind of burial mean, and what do we hope to   
   gain by it? First of all, it means making a complete break with our   
   former way of life, which is impossible, our Lord said, without being   
   born again. To be born again means beginning a new life, and this we   
   cannot do without bringing our previous life to an end.   
   --Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea,   
      
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   August 18th - Saint Agapetus, Martyr   
      
   (d. 274)   
      
   Saint Agapetus suffered in his youth a cruel martyrdom at Praeneste,   
   now called Palestrina, 24 miles from Rome. He had dared to reproach   
   for his cruelty towards the Christians, one of the Emperor Aurelian’s   
   favorites, who immediately gave the order to arrest him. He was   
   flogged with leaden-tipped straps and “scorpions”; his constancy and   
   his prayer under torture converted 500 pagans, who declared   
   themselves Christians and were executed at once. The young martyr was   
   thrown into a horrible prison where a celestial vision fortified him.   
   After a second questioning, he was again scourged, then laid upon the   
   rack that his body might be torn with iron nails.   
      
   He still lived and was again ordered to sacrifice to Apollo; his   
   refusals won for him still more torments: live coals on his head,   
   suspension by his feet, boiling water poured over him. His courage was   
   superhuman, his answers admirable. Wild beasts in the arena spared him   
   and lay down at his feet, and still more pagans were converted. He was   
   finally beheaded, and his body buried by the Christians, in a field   
   where they found a new tomb prepared as though for his sepulchre. Two   
   churches in Palestrina and others in various places are dedicated to   
   God under his name.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The soul of one who serves God always swims in joy, always keeps   
   holiday, is always in her palace of jubilation, ever singing with   
   fresh ardor and fresh pleasure a new song of joy and love.   
   --St. John of the Cross   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Jesus answered them: Amen, amen, I say unto you that whosoever   
   committeth sin is the servant of sin.  [John 8:34 ] DRB   
      
      
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   Prayer Against Envy   
      
   O my God, Thou so lovest the world that Thou gaveth Thy only begotten   
   Son so that all who believe in Thee might not perish, but may have   
   eternal life. Thou maketh the sun rise upon the good and the bad, and   
   Thou raineth upon the just and the unjust. Yet I am filled with   
   jealousy while others prosper. I want everything to come to me, and I   
   am saddened by my neighbor's least good fortune! O what inhuman   
   malice! O infernal poison! Forgive, o most loving Father what up to   
   this point has been my sin. Gentle is Thy mercy. From the depths of   
   that mercy, grant that henceforth I may be robed in kindness as a   
   chosen one of God. May I also, above all, strive to have charity,   
   which is the bond of perfection. (Col. 3:14)   
      
   Ant. Remember not, Lord, my offenses, nor the offenses of my fathers,   
   nor takest Thou vengeance upon them.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)