From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
    -- Acts 20:24 –   
      
   However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the   
   race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -- the task of   
   testifying to the gospel of God's grace.   
   ========================   
   We often feel that life is a failure unless we're getting a lot out of it:   
   recognition, fun, money, success. But Paul considered life worth nothing   
   unless he used it for God's work. What he put into life was far more   
   important than what he got out. Which is more important to you – what   
   you get out of life, or what you put into it?   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 8th - St. Dominic, Founder   
      
   Saint Dominic de Guzman was born in Spain in 1170. As a student, he   
   sold his books to feed the poor during a famine, and offered himself   
   to ransom a slave. At the age of twenty-five, after taking the   
   religious habit he became acting Superior of the Canons Regular of   
   Saint Augustine in Osma, and was soon offered an episcopal chair at   
   Compostella. He answered as afterward he also answered many times:   
   “God has not sent me to be a bishop, but to preach.” He accompanied   
   his prelate to southern France on a commission for the king of   
   Castille. There his heart was well-nigh broken by the ravages of the   
   Albigensian heresy, a variant of ancient Manicheanism, and the source   
   of devastating wars in southern France. His life from that time on was   
   devoted to the conversion of heretics and the defense of the Faith.   
      
   In the year 1199, while he was still a Canon Regular of Saint   
   Augustine and was preaching near the Spanish coasts, he was taken   
   captive, with all his audience and a Brother in religion, by a band of   
   pirates. They placed the prisoners in their galleys at the oars. When   
   a furious storm broke, the young Saint exhorted the disciples of   
   Mohammed to think seriously of their souls, to open their eyes to the   
   truth of Christianity, and above all, to invoke the Mother of God.   
   They did not listen until his third exhortation, at a moment when it   
   was clear the ship and passengers could not be saved. They swore to   
   him then that if the God of Christians preserved them by the   
   intercession of His Holy Mother, they would dedicate themselves to   
   their service. Immediately the storm ceased, and the pirates kept   
   their word.   
      
   When in his 46th year, and with six companions, he began the great   
   Order of Preaching Friars, this Order with that of the Friars Minor,   
   founded by his contemporary friend Saint Francis of Assisi, was the   
   chief means God employed to renew Christian fervor during the Middle   
   Ages. In addition, Saint Dominic founded his Second Order for nuns for   
   the education of Catholic girls, and his Third Order, or Tertiaries,   
   for persons of both sexes living in the world. God abundantly blessed   
   the new Order, and France, Italy, Spain, and England welcomed the   
   Preaching Friars. Our Lady took them under Her special protection.   
   During a debate with the heretics, a book by the Saint, defending Her   
   Immaculate Conception, was thrown into the flames along with one by   
   the heretics, to see whether one might be spared. Saint Dominic’s was   
   not injured, and many heretics were converted.   
      
   It was in 1208, while Saint Dominic knelt in the little chapel of   
   Notre Dame de La Prouille, and implored the great Mother of God to   
   save the Church, that Our Lady appeared to him and gave him the   
   Rosary, bidding him to go forth and preach it. During the famous   
   battles in southern France against the Albigensians, with his rosary   
   in hand he revived the courage of the Catholic armies, led them to   
   victory against overwhelming numbers, and finally subdued the heresy.   
   His nights were spent in prayer; and, though all beheld him as an   
   Angel of purity, before morning broke he would scourge himself to   
   blood. His words rescued countless souls, and three times raised the   
   dead to life. At length, on August 6, 1221, at the age of fifty-one,   
   he gave up his soul to God.   
      
   Reflection: “God has never refused me what I have asked,” said Saint   
   Dominic. How could God refuse to respond to the single intention of   
   His Saints, which is His own -- the salvation and sanctification of   
   souls? Saint Dominic has left us the Rosary that we may learn, with   
   Mary’s help, to ask what pleases God, and then to pray easily and   
   simply with the same trust.   
      
   Patronage:   
   Astronomers, astronomy, Dominican Republic, falsely accused people, scientists   
      
   Sources: Les plus illustres captifs, by Rev. Fr. Calixte de la   
   Providence, Trinitarian (Delhomme et Briguet: Lyons, 1892), Vol. I;   
   Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   “The first thing about the angels we ought to imitate is their   
   consciousness of the presence of God.”   
   --St. John Vianney   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that   
   your joy may be made full.  (John 15:11)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Walking in Faith and Courage   
      
   Saint Dominic observed walking as a mode of prayer while traveling from one   
   country to another, especially when he passed through some deserted region.   
   He then delighted in giving himself completely to meditation, disposing for   
   contemplation, and he would say to his companion on the journey: It is   
   written in Hosea "I will lead my spouse into the wilderness and I will speak   
   to her ear" (Hos 2: 14). Parting from his companion, he would go on ahead   
   or, more frequently, follow at some distance. Thus withdrawn, he would walk   
   and pray; in his meditation he was inflamed and the fire of charity was   
   enkindled. While he prayed it appeared as if he were brushing dust or   
   bothersome flies from his face when he repeatedly fortified himself with the   
   Sign of the Cross.   
      
   The brethren thought that it was while praying in this way that the saint   
   obtained his extensive penetration of Sacred Scripture and profound   
   understanding of the divine words, the power to preach so fervently and   
   courageously, and that intimate acquaintance with the Holy Spirit by which   
   he came to know the hidden things of God.   
      
   from   
   SAINT DOMINIC'S NINE WAYS OF PRAYER   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)