From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of contempt of all temporal honour   
      
   2. O Lord, we are in blindness, and are quickly seduced by vanity.  If   
   I look rightly within myself, never was injury done unto me by any   
   creature, and therefore I have nought whereof to complain before Thee.   
   But because I have many times and grievously sinned against Thee, all   
   creatures do justly take arms against me.  Therefore to me confusion   
   and contempt are justly due, but to Thee praise and honour and glory.   
   And except I dispose myself for this, namely, to be willing that every   
   creature should despise and desert me, and that I should be esteemed   
   altogether as nothing, I cannot be inwardly filled with peace and   
   strength, nor spiritually enlightened, nor fully united to Thee.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 41   
      
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   December 30th - St. John Alcober, Martyr   
      
   Born at Gerona, Spain, in 1694; died in Tonkin, 1748; beatified by   
   Pope Leo XIII in 1893. Canonized in 2000.  John Alcober was a good   
   friend of Bishop Blessed Francis Serrano, who was a brother Dominican   
   of the Granada monastery and a fellow martyr in Tonkin. The two had   
   planned to enter the Chinese missions together, but problems with the   
   ship marooned Father Alcober in Lorca. There he spent his time as a   
   popular preacher. In fact, he was beginning to forget about going to   
   China until the Lord reminded him one day. As he was preaching, he   
   used the words, "How long, you sinners, will you remain hardened?" His   
   crucifix reproached him, "And you, John--how long?"   
      
   He sailed to Manila with 43 religious in 1726, and he finally made it   
   to China in 1728, where he labored for 16 years in the province of   
   Fokien. Here his life was very difficult; he had to hide in   
   uncomfortable places, and, once, he was smuggled in a coffin to anoint   
   a dying man. Sometimes disguised as a water seller, he moved about the   
   city. Once, he was far from any shelter, and he climbed into a tree to   
   spend the night. Piously intoning the Miserere before going to sleep,   
   he was startled to hear another voice answering his, and, to his joy,   
   realized his old friend Father Serrano was sitting in the same tree.   
      
   One of his last acts as a free man was to baptize a sick woman to whom   
   Our Lady of the Rosary had appeared. The new Christian was so   
   beautiful after her death that pagans crowded in to see her. Father   
   Alcober's presence there led to his capture in 1746. Soon he found   
   himself reunited in prison with Father Serrano and another priest,   
   Francis Diaz. They were tortured to disclose the whereabouts of Bishop   
   Peter Sanz, though they revealed nothing. The bishop and Father   
   Joachim Royo, upon hearing of the capture of the other three,   
   surrendered themselves in order to spare their brothers further   
   suffering.   
      
   The five were dragged before the emperor in chains, and again   
   subjected to torture. Bishop Sanz was beheaded, but the others   
   languished in prison for another six months. Father Alcober wrote a   
   letter to his brother, a Carmelite, saying that they were all in good   
   spirits, but that they hoped it would end soon because they were eager   
   to shed their blood. Here in prison, Father Serrano was appointed   
   successor to Peter Martyr.   
      
   Late in November, these four was strangled in their cell at Futsheu   
   during the night. This was the best way to fend off their apostolic   
   work among the jailers and soldiers. When the executioners returned in   
   the light of day to dispose of the bodies, they were horrified to note   
   that the faces of the martyrs were not only serene, but shone with an   
   unearthly radiance--a phenomenon indeed for someone who had died by   
   strangulation. Afraid of being punished for not carrying out their   
   duty, the executioners covered the faces of their victims, but the   
   Christians followed them nonetheless to try to collect relics. The   
   soldiers already knew there would be problems trying to dispose of the   
   relics: Those of Bishop Sanz had resisted burning and various other   
   kinds of destruction. For this reason, the persecuted Christians were   
   able to retain the relics of the five martyrs (Benedictines, Dorcy).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The hands should be at work, the heart with God.   
   --Saint Mary Joseph Rosello   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will   
   forgive you also your offences.  (Matthew 6:14)   
      
      
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   Reflection and Prayer from the Imitation of Christ   
      
   "Watch and pray" is the simple means which Jesus Christ prescribes to   
   enable a Christian to resist temptation, to avoid sin, and secure his   
   salvation. To speak little to creatures and much to God, to renounce   
   useless and curious conversations, to speak only what is good or   
   necessary, is an excellent method of becoming an interior man, of   
   preserving purity of heart and peace of conscience, and of becoming   
   entirely united to God. A soul which gives itself through the senses   
   to creatures, and lives not an interior life, but amuses itself with   
   trifles, is not at all in a state to relish the things of God, or to   
   apply to prayer or recollection, which are so useful and so necessary   
   for salvation. Why, says St. Austin, dost thou, O dissipated and   
   wandering soul, seek content in created objects, in the goods and   
   pleasures of life? Seek within thyself, by recollection, the only true   
   and sovereign Good, who is there, and who alone can satisfy thy   
   desires.   
      
   Prayer: Give me, O God, that spirit of interior recollection which   
   will make me attentive to Thy holy will and faithful to Thy graces.   
   Grant that the remembrance of Thine awful presence may remind me   
   continually of Thy blessed life and conversation, and effectually   
   control me during my earthly pilgrimage. I am weary, O God, of living   
   an exile from Thy presence, and of being so little affected by the   
   consideration of Thy majesty as to do nothing to please Thee. What can   
   I find in Heaven or on earth that is comparable to Thee? Thou art the   
   God of my heart: grant I may be ever sensible of Thy presence, and   
   desire only the happiness of pleasing Thee, in time, that Thou mayest   
   be my portion for eternity. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)