From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Are you ready to meet the Lord?   
      
   The Lord Jesus calls us to be vigilant in watching for his return and   
   to be ready to meet him when he calls us to himself. The Lord gives us   
   his Holy Spirit so that we may have the wisdom, help, and strength we   
   need to turn away from sin to embrace God's way of love, justice, and   
   holiness. The Lord's warning of judgment causes dismay for those who   
   are unprepared, but it brings joyful hope to those who eagerly wait   
   for his return in glory. God's judgment is good news for those who are   
   ready to meet him. Their reward is God himself, the source of all   
   truth, beauty, goodness, love and everlasting life.   
      
   Prayer:   
   "Lord Jesus, you have captured my heart for you. Make me strong in   
   faith, steadfast in hope, and generous in love that I may seek to   
   please you in all things and bring you glory.  May I always be   
   watchful and ready to answer when you draw near."   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   October 23rd – Bl. Severinus Boëthius M (RM)   
      
   Born at Rome c. 480; died at Pavia, 524; Beatified by Pope Leo XIII in   
   1883 (cultus confirmed).   
      
        "In other living creatures the ignorance of themselves is nature,   
        but in men it is vice."   
        --Severinus Boëthius   
      
   Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boëthius was the scion of an   
   illustrious and Christian Roman family. His father Flavius Manlius   
   Boëthius, who was consul in 487, died and left Boëthius a young   
   orphan. He became the ward and then friend of the noble Aurelius   
   Symmachus, whose daughter Rusticiana he eventually married.   
      
   By the age of 30, the man who is best known as Boëthius was renowned   
   for his learning, and he is recognized as one of the makers of the   
   Christian West. This is partly through his translation from the Greek   
   of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras the musician, Euclid,   
   Ptolemy the astronomer, but also his own contributions to theology,   
   logic, music, mathematics, and even applied scientific engineering as   
   in his designs for improved timepieces.   
      
   Under the Ostrogoth Emperor Theodoric in the West, Severinus Boëthius   
   became a consul, and in due course his two sons were elevated into the   
   consulship. But so high and influential a position in public and   
   political life was not to be maintained. Suspicion, whether rightly or   
   wrongly, that some of the Roman senators were conspiring with Justin,   
   the Eastern emperor at Constantinople, the aged Theodoric charged an   
   ex-consul named Albinus. Boëthius publicly defended him in court, and   
   for this quite proper proceeding in Roman law, he was thrown into   
   prison at Ticinum (Pavia). (Delaney says that Boëthius himself was   
   charged with treason and sacrilege for allegedly using astronomy for   
   impious purposes. Bentley states that he was accused of being a   
   magician and of writing letters subversive of good order.)   
      
   During his 9-month imprisonment, he wrote his most famous work, “The   
   Consolation of Philosophy”. Only his father-in-law Symmachus was brave   
   enough to speak for him and, after torture, he was brutally beheaded.   
      
   Theodoric was an Arian, and this, combined with St. Severinus's stand   
   for justice in public life, led to his acclaim as a martyr. His relics   
   are enshrined in the church of St. Peter in Ciel d'Oro at Pavia. His   
   feast is also kept at the church of Santa Maria in Portico, Rome.   
      
   His extant writings include the notable “de sancta Trinitate”, a   
   treatise attacking the heresies of Eutyches and Nestorius, and three   
   other theological works. He also wrote on arithmetic and music. He   
   translated books by Aristotle and Porphyry, as well as writing   
   commentaries on Aristotle and Cicero.   
      
   But his loved and revered “Consolation of Philosophy” (which has had   
   many translators, including King Alfred the Great, Geoffrey Chaucer,   
   and Queen Elizabeth I), remains his masterpiece. Its five books are   
   filled with snatches of poetry.   
      
   He recounts how suffering has brought him to a premature old age. But   
   that he takes comfort that God rules the world. He begins to learn the   
   true nature of himself. Evil, philosophy tells him, can have no real   
   existence, since the all-powerful God does not wish it. Vice never   
   goes ultimately unpunished. Virtue in the end is rewarded. And true   
   happiness can be found only in God Himself.   
      
   Fairly recent attempts to show that this could not have been composed   
   by a 'practicing' Christian have proven ephemeral (Attwater, Bentley,   
   Delaney, Encyclopedia).   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   Remember the devil never sleeps, but seeks our ruin in a thousand ways.   
   --St. Angela Merici   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in   
   heaven and in earth. 19 Going therefore, teach ye all nations;   
   baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the   
   Holy Ghost. 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have   
   commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the   
   consummation of the world.  (Matthew 28:18-20)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer for the Helpless Unborn   
      
               Heavenly Father, in your love for us,   
               protect against the wickedness of the   
               devil, those helpless little ones to   
               whom you have give the gift of life.   
      
               Touch with pity the hearts of those   
               women pregnant in our world today   
               who are not thinking of motherhood.   
      
               Help them to see that the child they   
               carry is made in your image- as well   
               as theirs- made for eternal life.   
      
               Dispel their fear and selfishness and   
               give them for womanly hearts to love   
               their babies and give them birth and   
               all the needed care that a mother   
               alone can give.   
      
               We ask this through Jesus Christ,   
               your Son, our Lord, who lives and   
               reigns in the Holy Spirit, one God,   
               forever and ever.   
      
               Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)