From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Question Your Heart   
      
   "My brothers and sisters, question your heart, and if you cannot find   
   love of neighbor there set your mind at ease. Such love cannot exist   
   without the Spirit of God.   
      
   Paul the Apostle bears witness to this: "The love of God has been   
   poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to   
   us."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon on 1 John 6, 10   
      
   Prayer: Lord, whatever you give me is too little for me. Be yourself   
   my inheritance! I love you without reserve: with all my heart, soul,   
   and mind. Of what value is anything you give me that is not yourself!   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 334, 3a   
      
      
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   September 18th - St. Methodius, Bishop and Martyr   
      
   THIS illustrious father of the church was bishop, first of Olympus, a   
   town on the sea coast, in Lycia, as St. Jerome and others testify; or,   
   according to Leontius, of Byzantium or Patara, which see was then   
   probably united to that of Olympus. He was translated to the bishopric   
   of Tyre, probably after the glorious martyrdom of St. Tyrannio who   
   suffered under Diocletian. Such translations of bishops were not then   
   allowed except in extraordinary cases of necessity. St. Methodius was   
   crowned with martyrdom at Chalcis in Greece toward the end of the last   
   general persecution, says St. Jerome; consequently about the year 311   
   or 312. St. Jerome usually styles him, the most eloquent Methodius.   
      
     His works were famous among the ancients; and in large quotations   
   and extracts in Photius, St. Hippolytus, St. Jerome, and Theodoret, we   
   have considerable fragments of many valuable writings of this father,   
   especially of his book, On Free-Will, against the Valentinians, and   
   that, “On the Resurrection of the Bodies”, against Origen. “His   
   Banquet of Virgins”, often mentioned by ancient writers, was published   
   entire by Leo Allatius at Rome in 1656; by F. Poussines, the Jesuit,   
   at Paris, in 1657; and by F. Combefis, the Dominican, with notes in   
   1672.   
      
   See also the notes on it collected by Fabricius, in the end of the 2nd   
   volume of the works of St. Hippolitus printed at Hamburgh, 1718. This   
   book was composed in imitation of a work of Plato entitled, The   
   banquet of Socrates, and is an eulogium of the state and virtue of   
   virginity. In it a matron named Gregorium is introduced telling her   
   friend Eubulus (that is Methodius himself) all the conversation of ten   
   virgins in an assembly at which she was present. A discourse is put   
   into the mouth of each of these virgins in commendation of holy   
   virginity.   
      
   Marcella, the first, teaches that Christ, the prince of virgins,   
   coming from heaven to teach men the perfection of virtue, planted   
   among them the state of virginity, to which a particular degree of   
   glory is due in heaven. [1] Theophila, the second virgin, proves that   
   marriage is good, instituted by God, and necessary for the propagation   
   of the world; but not so necessary since the world was peopled, as   
   before. The precept, however, still subsists, that some persons marry,   
   but this is far from obliging all men; so that virginity embraced for   
   the sake of virtue is a more perfect state than marriage. [2] She   
   observes that eating on Good-Friday or on fast-days was forbidden, yet   
   allowed to those who were sick and not able to fast. [3] In the   
   following discourses the excellency of holy virginity is displayed,   
   which the author calls, “The greatest gift of God to man, and the most   
   noble and most beautiful offering that can be made by man to God, [4]   
   the most excellent among all vows,[5] but a virtue the more difficult,   
   and surrounded with the greater dangers as it is of higher   
   excellence.” [6] He inculcates, that to be truly a virgin, it is   
   necessary not only to keep continent, but also to purify the mind from   
   all sensual desires, pride, and vanity, and to watch and labour   
   incessantly lest idleness and negligence give an entrance to other   
   sins. [7]   
      
   St. Methodius was surnamed Eubulus or Eubulius: and so he calls   
   himself in this and his other works. His style is diffusive, swelling,   
   and full of epithets: and he is fond of comparisons and allegories.   
      
   See St. Jerome in Catal. c. 83. Photius, Cod. 237, p. 963. Ceillier,   
   t. 4, p. 26. Stilting, p. 768.   
      
   Note 1. Apoc. xiv. 4.   
   Note 2. P. 71, 72.   
   Note 3. P. 73.   
   Note 4. P. 94.   
   Note 5. P. 93.   
   Note 6. P. 66.   
   Note 7. P. 135, 139.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The nature of water is soft, and the nature of stone is hard; but if a   
   bottle is hung above the stone, allowing the water to fall down drop   
   by drop, it wears away the stone. So it is with the Word of God: it is   
   soft and our heart is hard, but the man who hears the Word of God   
   often opens his heart to the fear of God.   
   --Saint Poemen   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it   
   some have unknowingly entertained angels.  (Hebrews 13:1-2)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   When I say,"Hail Mary"   
     the heavens bow down,   
     the angels rejoice,   
     the earth jubilates,   
     hell trembles,   
     and the devils take flight!   
      
     St. Francis of Assisi   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)