From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Reborn and Fed by the Spirit   
      
      "And then that rebirth, which brings about the forgiveness of all   
   past sins, takes place in the Holy Spirit, according to the Lord's own   
   words, 'Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, one cannot enter   
   the kingdom of God.' But it is one thing to be born of the Spirit,   
   another to be fed by the Spirit; just as it is one thing to be born of   
   the flesh, which happens when a mother gives birth, and another to be   
   fed from the flesh, which appears when she nurses the baby. We see the   
   child turn to drink with delight from the bosom of her who brought it   
   forth to life. Its life continues to be nourished by the same source   
   which brought it into being."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermon 71.19)   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   May 6th - St. John before the Latin Gate   
   (by Fr. Prosper Gueranger 1870)   
      
   The Beloved Disciple John, whom we saw standing near the crib of the   
   Babe of Bethlehem, comes before us again today; and this time, he is   
   paying his delighted homage to the glorious Conqueror of death and   
   hell. Like Philip and James, he too is clad in the scarlet robe of   
   martyrdom. The month of May, so rich in saints, was to be graced with   
   the Palm of St. John.   
      
   Salome one day presented her two sons to Jesus, and, with a mother's   
   ambition, had asked Him to grant them the highest places in His   
   kingdom. The Saviour, in His reply, spoke of the Chalice which He   
   Himself had to drink, and foretold that these two Disciples would also   
   drink of it. The elder, James the Greater, was the first to give His   
   Master this proof of his love; we shall celebrate his victory when the   
   sun is in Leo; it was today that John, the younger Brother, offered   
   his life in testimony of Jesus' Divinity.   
      
   But the martyrdom of such an Apostle called for a scene worthy the   
   event. Asia Minor, which his zeal had evangelized, was not a   
   sufficiently glorious land for such a combat. Rome, whither Peter had   
   transferred his Chair and where he died on his cross, and where Paul   
   had bowed down his venerable head beneath the sword, Rome alone   
   deserved the honour of seeing the Beloved Disciple march on to   
   martyrdom, with that dignity and sweetness which are the   
   characteristics of this veteran of the Apostolic College.   
      
   Domitian was then Emperor, the tyrant over Rome and the world. Whether   
   it were that John undertook this journey of his own free choice, and   
   from a wish to visit the Mother-Church, or that he was led thither   
   bound with chains, in obedience to an imperial edict, John, the august   
   founder of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, appeared before the   
   Tribunal of pagan Rome. He was convicted of having propagated, in a   
   vast province of the Empire, the worship of a Jew that had been   
   crucified under Pontius Pilate. He was a superstitious and rebellious   
   old man, and it was time to rid Asia of his presence. He was therefore   
   sentenced to an ignominious and cruel death. He had somehow escaped   
   Nero's power; but he should not elude the vengeance of Caesar   
   Domitian!   
      
   A huge cauldron of boiling oil is prepared in front of the Latin Gate.   
   The sentence orders that the preacher of Christ be plunged into this   
   bath. The hour is come for the second son of Salome to partake of his   
   Master's Chalice. John's heart leaps with joy, at the thought that he,   
   the most dear to Jesus, and yet the only Apostle that has not suffered   
   death for him, is, at last, permitted to give him this earnest of his   
   love. After cruelly scourging him, the executioners seize the old man,   
   and throw him into the cauldron; but, lo! the boiling liquid has lost   
   all its heat; the Apostle feels no scalding; on the contrary, when   
   they take him out again, he feels all the vigour of his youthful years   
   restored to him. The Praetor's cruelty is foiled, and John, the Martyr   
   in desire, is to be left to the Church for some few years longer. An   
   imperial decree banishes him to the rugged Isle of Patmos, where God   
   reveals to him the future of the Church, even to the end of time.   
      
   The Church of Rome, which counts the abode and martyrdom of St. John   
   as one of her most glorious memories, has marked, with a Basilica, the   
   spot where the Apostle bore his noble testimony to the Christian   
   Faith. This Basilica stands near the Latin Gate, and gives a title to   
   one of the Cardinals.   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For neither did his brethren believe in him. 6 Then Jesus said to   
   them: My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. 7 The   
   world cannot hate you; but me it hateth: because I give testimony of   
   it, that the works thereof are evil.  (John 7:5-7)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   In honour of the great Apostle of love, we give the following   
   Sequence, composed by Adam of Saint Victor.   
      
   Sequence   
      
   The happy realm of grace, (where the King of glory is seen by the   
   soul's unfettered ken,) gives union with his God, and equality with   
   Angels, to John, whose revelations have made known to men the   
   mysteries of heaven.   
      
   He drank of the living waters that spring up to life eternal, when he   
   leaned on his Lord's breast. The wonderful miracles he wrought have   
   made him shine as a bright light in the Church. He quenched the heat   
   of the boiling oil.   
      
   Men know that the torments for him are cruel beyond measure; yet do   
   they wonder within themselves, how a man can be a Martyr, and feel no   
   pain?   
      
   O Martyr, O Virgin, O guardian of the Virgin by whom the world   
   received Him Who is its glory! pray for us to this Jesus, from Whom,   
   and in Whom, and by Whom, are all things.   
      
   O thou that wast loved above the rest!--by thine intercession and   
   prayers, render propitious unto us the Jesus, by Whom thou wast loved.   
      
   Lead us to the Fountain, thou that art a stream!, Lead us to the   
   Mountain, thou that art a hill! O thou, whom grace made so wholly   
   pure, pray for us that we may see the Beloved. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)