From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Time of Healing   
      
      "Recall that the human race lay sick, because of its sins.   
      To heal this great body of the sick the Almighty Physician came   
   down from heaven. He humbled himself to take mortal flesh to himself,   
   coming to the sick bed.   
      Come to this Physician. This is the time to be healed, not the time   
   for vain pleasure."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 87, 13   
      
   Prayer: Lord, you are my helper and the helper of everyone who reaches   
   out to you. Indeed, you are my Redeemer for the very purpose of   
   enabling me to reach out to you.   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 18, 15   
      
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   March 17th - St. Patrick, Bishop, Apostle of Ireland   
   373-464   
      
   If the virtue of children reflects honor on their parents, much more   
   justly is the name of Saint Patrick rendered illustrious by the   
   innumerable lights of sanctity which shone in the Church of Ireland   
   during many ages, and by the colonies of Saints with which it peopled   
   many foreign countries. The Apostle of Ireland was born in Scotland   
   towards the close of the fourth century, in a village which seems to   
   be the present-day Scotch town of Kilpatrick, between Dumbarton and   
   Glasgow. He calls himself both a Briton and a Roman, that is, of mixed   
   extraction, and says his father was of a good family named   
   Calphurnius. Some writers call his mother Conchessa, and say she was   
   the niece of Saint Martin of Tours.   
      
   In his 16th year he was carried into captivity in Ireland by   
   barbarians. There he was obliged to shepherd cattle on the mountains   
   and in the forests, in hunger and nakedness, amid snow, rain, and ice.   
   The young man had recourse to God with his whole heart, in fervent   
   prayer and fasting, and from that time faith and the love of God   
   acquired a constantly renewed strength in his tender soul. After six   
   months spent in slavery, Saint Patrick was admonished by God in a   
   dream to return to his own country, and was informed that a ship was   
   then ready to sail there. He went at once to the seacoast, though at a   
   great distance, and found the vessel, but he could not obtain his   
   passage--probably for want of money. Patrick was returning to his hut,   
   praying as he went, when the sailors, though pagans, called him back   
   and took him on board.   
      
   Some years afterwards he was again taken captive, but recovered his   
   liberty after two months. While he was at home with his parents, God   
   manifested to him, by divers visions, that He destined him for the   
   great work of the conversion of Ireland. His biographers say that   
   after his second captivity he traveled into Gaul and Italy, and saw   
   Saint Martin, Saint Germanus of Auxerre, and Pope Saint Celestine, and   
   that he received his mission and the apostolical benediction from this   
   Pope, who died in 432. It is certain that he spent many years in   
   preparing himself for his sacred calling. Great opposition was raised   
   to his episcopal consecration and mission, both by his own relatives   
   and by the clergy. They made him great offers in order to detain him   
   among them, and endeavored to affright him by exaggerating the dangers   
   to which he exposed himself amid the enemies of the Romans and   
   Britons, who did not know God. All these temptations cast the Saint   
   into great perplexity; but the Lord, whose Will he consulted by   
   earnest prayer, supported him and he persevered in his resolution.   
      
   He therefore left his family, sold his birthright and dignity, and   
   consecrated his soul to God, to serve strangers and carry His name to   
   the ends of the earth. In this disposition he passed into Ireland, to   
   preach the Gospel where the worship of idols still generally reigned.   
   He traveled over the island, penetrating into the remotest corners,   
   and such was the fruit of his preaching and sufferings that he   
   baptized an infinite number of persons. Everywhere he ordained   
   clergymen, induced women to live in holy widowhood and continence,   
   consecrated virgins to Christ, and founded monasteries, not without   
   many persecutions.   
      
   Saint Patrick held several councils to regulate the discipline of the   
   Church he had planted. Saint Bernard and the tradition of the country   
   testify that he fixed his metropolitan see at Armagh. He established   
   other bishops, as appears by the acts of a council and various other   
   documents. He not only converted the whole country by his preaching   
   and wonderful miracles, but also cultivated this vineyard with so   
   fruitful a benediction from heaven as to render Ireland a flourishing   
   garden in the Church of God, and a land of Saints. He converted and   
   baptized the kings of Dublin and Munster and the seven sons of the   
   king of Connaught, with the majority of their subjects, and before his   
   death almost the whole island. He founded three monasteries and filled   
   the countryside with churches and schools of piety and learning. He   
   died and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body was found there in a   
   church of his name in 1185, and moved to another part of the same   
   church.   
      
   Reflection. By the instrumentality of Saint Patrick the Faith remained   
   for long centuries as fresh in Ireland as when it was first planted.   
   Ask him to obtain for you the special grace his children receive: to   
   prefer the loss of every earthly good to the least compromise in   
   matters of faith.   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Whatever will come my way, whether good or bad, I may accept it   
   calmly, and always give thanks to God, who has ever shown me how I   
   should believe in him unfailing without end."   
   --St. Patrick of Ireland   
      
   Bible Quote:   
       Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from   
   you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you   
   sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail.   
   Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  [James 4:7-10  ]   
      
      
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   St. Patrick's Prayer   
      
   This day I call to me:   
   God's strength to direct me,   
   God's power to sustain me,   
   God's wisdom to guide me,   
   God's vision to light me,   
   God's ear to my hearing,   
   God's word to my speaking,   
   God's hand to uphold me,   
   God's pathway before me,   
   God's shield to protect me,   
   God's legions to save me.   
      
   from A Retreat With St. Patrick   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)