From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The heavenly image within us   
      
      We cannot bear the heavenly image within us unless we show a   
   likeness to Christ in the life upon which we have now entered. This   
   means changing from what we used to be and becoming something   
   altogether new, so that our divine birth may be seen in us, so that we   
   may imitate the Father by our holy way of life, and so that our lives   
   may give honor and praise to God and he may be glorified in us. This   
   is what he himself has taught and urged us to do, promising that those   
   who glorify him will be rewarded. I will glorify those who glorify me,   
   he says, and those who despise me shall be despised. To instruct us   
   and prepare us for this glorification and produce in us a likeness to   
   God the Father, our Lord, the Son of God, says in his gospel: You have   
   heard it said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you   
   to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you   
   may be like your Father in heaven   
   --St. Cyprian of Carthage   
      
   ===========   
   June 12th - St. Eskil of Tuna, Bishop and Martyr in Sweden   
      
   St. Eskil of Tuna, the Apostle of Södermanland was one of the many   
   missionaries who came to Sweden and Scandinavia from England in the   
   mid 1000’s. He was a monk and was ordained a bishop in order to   
   establish churches with full hierarchical authority – we must bear in   
   mind that this was long before the age of trains and aircrafts, and it   
   was not as easy to “fly in” a bishop when the need arose. It was quite   
   common for missionaries to be ordained bishops in order to fulfill   
   their sacred mission.   
      
   We have very few sources regarding St. Eskil’s life, but the bishop   
   Brynolf Alogotsson († 1317) had a life written. In this narrative we   
   learn that Bishop Eskil was of English ancestry, and that he mainly   
   worked in Södermanland, Sweden, under Inge the Elder’s reign. King   
   Inge was baptized a Christian through St. Eskil’s mission, but was   
   driven out by his pagan subjects when he refused maintain riksblotet   
   (the pagan sacrifices of the land) at the council in Old Uppsala.   
   Instead, the Swedes made Blot-Sven their new king. The epithet Blot   
   (“blood sacrifice”) was given to the king precisely because he agreed   
   to uphold the old pagan sacrificial traditions.   
      
   When Blot-Sven organized a major pagan sacrifice in Strängnäs to honor   
   the Aesir gods, St. Eskil traveled there to preach repentance to the   
   assembled pagans. While the saint preached the pagans were enraged and   
   stoned him. Thus St. Eskil became a martyr for his Lord and God and   
   Savior Jesus Christ. The body of the holy martyr was buried in Tuna   
   (today’s Eskilstuna) by his friends. The local tradition says that   
   during the journey back to Tuna, his body was at one point placed on   
   the ground and a spring miraculously gushed from that spot, and   
   started to flow out of the mountain side just outside Strängnäs. The   
   spring is there to this day, and is known as the Spring of Saint   
   Eskil. King Inge eventually returned, and dethroned Blot-Sven. Through   
   these events, Christianity gained a permanent foothold in the region.   
      
   St. Eskil’s repose was celebrated on June 11. Since this day was   
   dedicated to the Apostles Barnabas and Bartholomew, the commemoration   
   of Hieromartyr Eskil was moved to June 12, by the Roman Catholic   
   Church following the Great Schism. June 12 is therefore still   
   remembered as “Eskilsdagen” (Eskil’s Day) in Sweden. The translation   
   of his relics in Eskilstuna is remembered on October 6th   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Be careful to give no credit to yourself for anything; if you do, you   
   are stealing from God, to whom alone every good thing is due.   
   --St. Vincent de Paul   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   We give thanks to God the Father for having made you worthy to share   
   in the inheritance of the saints in light.  (Colossians 1:12)   
      
      
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   MOST SACRED, MOST LOVING HEART   
   By Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman   
      
   Most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus,   
   You are concealed in the Holy Eucharist,   
   And You beat for us still.   
   Now, as then, You say: “With desire I have desired.”   
   I worship You with all my best love and awe,   
   With fervent affection,   
   With my most subdued, most resolved will.   
   For a while You take up Your abode within me.   
   O make my heart beat with Your Heart!   
   Purify it of all that is earthly,   
   All that is proud and sensual,   
   All that is hard and cruel,   
   Of all perversity,   
   Of all disorder,   
   Of all deadness.   
   So fill it with You,   
   That neither the events of the day,   
   Nor the circumstances of the time,   
   May have the power to ruffle it;   
   But that in Your love and Your fear,   
   It may have peace. Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)