From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the study of divine truths   
      
   We therefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allotting more time to   
   the study of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them,   
   and let our thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge   
   which shows us heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and   
   will deserve punishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and   
   superficial. By serious and frequent meditation it must be concocted,   
   digested, and turned into the nourishment of our affections, before it   
   can be powerful and operative enough to change them, and produce the   
   necessary fruit in our lives. For this all the saints affected   
   solitude and retreats from the noise and hurry of the world, as much   
   as their circumstances allowed them.   
   --St. Apollinaris   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   November 17th - Life of St. Hilda   
      
   Abbess, born 614; died 680. Practically speaking, all our knowledge of   
   St. Hilda is derived from the pages of Bede. She was the daughter of   
   Hereric, the nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria, and she seems like   
   her great-uncle to have become a Christian through the preaching of   
   St. Paulinus about the year 627, when she was thirteen years old.   
      
   Moved by the example of her sister Hereswith, who, after marrying   
   Ethelhere of East Anglia, became a nun at Chelles in Gaul, Hilda also   
   journeyed to East Anglia, intending to follow her sister abroad. But   
   St. Aidan recalled her to her own country, and after leading a   
   monastic life for a while on the north bank of the Wear and afterwards   
   at Hartlepool, where she ruled a double monastery of monks and nuns   
   with great success, Hilda eventually undertook to set in order a   
   monastery at Streaneshalch, a place to which the Danes a century or   
   two later gave the name of Whitby.   
      
   Under the rule of St. Hilda the monastery at Whitby became very   
   famous. The Sacred Scriptures were specially studied there, and no   
   less than five of the monks became bishops, St. John, Bishop of   
   Hexham, and still more St. Wilfrid, Bishop of York, rendering untold   
   service to the Anglo-Saxon Church at this critical period of the   
   struggle with paganism. Here, in 664, was held the important synod at   
   which King Oswy, convinced by the arguments of St. Wilfrid, decided   
   the observance of Easter and other moot points. St. Hilda herself   
   later on seems to have sided with Theodore against Wilfrid. The fame   
   of St. Hilda's wisdom was so great that from far and near monks and   
   even royal personages came to consult her. Seven years before her   
   death the saint was stricken down with a grievous fever which never   
   left her till she breathed her last, but, in spite of this, she   
   neglected none of her duties to God or to her subjects. She passed   
   away most peacefully after receiving the Holy Communion and Anointing,   
   and the tolling of the monastery bell was heard miraculously at   
   Hackness 13 miles away, where also a devout nun named Begu (Saint Bee)   
   saw the soul of St. Hilda borne to heaven by angels.   
      
   With St. Hilda is intimately connected the story of Caedmon (q. v.),   
   the sacred bard. When he was brought before St. Hilda she admitted him   
   to take monastic vows in her monastery, where he most piously died.   
      
   The cultus of St. Hilda from an early period is attested by the   
   inclusion of her name in the calendar of St. Willibrord, written at   
   the beginning of the 8th century. It was alleged at a later date the   
   remains of St. Hilda were translated to Glastonbury by King Edmund,   
   but this is only part of the "great Glastonbury myth." Another story   
   states that St. Edmund brought her relics to Gloucester. There are a   
   dozen or more old English churches dedicated to St. Hilda on the   
   northeast coast and South Shields is probably a corruption of St.   
   Hilda.   
      
   ~*~*~*~*~*   
      
   Whitby Abbey   
      
   Visit the ruins of Whitby Abbey and you'll find yourself standing at   
   the very crossroads of Celtic and Roman Christianity. For here, at the   
   Synod of Whitby in AD 663, the divided church in England finally gave   
   way to Rome and accepted many of the practices that shaped religious   
   belief in this country for centuries to come.   
      
   The site is magnificent, on a dramatic headland 60 metres up above the   
   town of Whitby, and only serves to enhance the edifice you see today.   
      
   Under Abbess Hilda, Whitby gained a great reputation, becoming a   
   burial place for kings, and a place of pilgrimage. It was at this   
   time, that Caedmon was inspired to compose the first hymns written in   
   the English language. Unusually, Whitby was a double monastery, home   
   to both men and women. After sacking by the Danes, it was rebuilt by   
   the Normans after the Conquest.   
      
   The ruins we marvel at today are those of the 13th-century abbey. The   
   east facade shows us what a massive building this was, with its great   
   3-tiered choir and north transept. Even in its skeletal form, it sends   
   a shiver down the spine.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The devil is afraid of us when we pray and make sacrifices. He is also   
   afraid when we are humble and good. He is especially afraid when we   
   love Jesus very much. He runs away when we make the Sign of the Cross.   
   --St. Anthony of Egypt   
      
   Bible Quote   
   And all these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not the   
   promise; God providing some better thing for us, that they should not be   
   perfected without us.  (Hebrews 11:39-40)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   We sin by consenting   
      
      The law is good because it forbids what ought to be forbidden and   
   commands what ought to be commanded. But when people imagine that they   
   can fulfill the law by their own strength without the grace of their   
   Savior, this presumption proves useless, and in fact even harms them,   
   for they are then seized by a stronger desire to sin, and through   
   their sins they also become transgressors. For where there is no law,   
   neither is there transgression.   
      Therefore, let the prostrate sinner, knowing that he cannot rise by   
   his own strength, implore the aid of the Savior. Then he will be given   
   grace which will forgive past sins, assist his own efforts, bestow a   
   love of righteousness, and take away fear. Even after this happens,   
   various desires of the flesh will continue to battle against our   
   spirit as long as we are in this present life, and will try to lead it   
   into sin, but the spirit, firmly established in the grace and love of   
   God, will resist these desires and cease to sin. For we sin not by   
   having evil desires, but by consenting to them.   
   --Augustine of Hippo   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)