From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God is our landlord   
      
      "Our wish, you see, is to attain to eternal life. We wish to reach   
   the place where nobody dies, but if possible we do not want to get   
   there via death. We would like to be whisked away there while we are   
   still alive and see our bodies changed, while we are alive, into that   
   spiritual form into which they are to be changed when we rise again.   
   Who wouldn't like that? Isn't it what everybody wants? But while that   
   is what you want, you are told, Quit. Remember what you have sung in   
   the psalm: 'A lodger am I on earth.' If you are a lodger, you are   
   staying in someone else's house; if you are staying in someone else's   
   house, you quit when the landlord bids you. And the landlord is bound   
   to tell you to quit sooner or later, and he has not guaranteed you a   
   long stay. After all, he did not sign a contract with you. Seeing that   
   you are lodging with him for nothing, you quit when he tells you to.   
   And this, too, has to be put up with, and for this, too, patience is   
   very necessary."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermon 359A,8)   
      
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   March 16th - St. Abraham Kidunata   
      
   The call to be a hermit is not common, yet in every Christian century   
   some have received that call. The golden age of hermits was from   
   around 250 to 700 A.D. Hermits were more numerous in the Near   
   East than in Europe. One of the most interesting of them was St.   
   Abraham Kidunaia. He was a sixth-century Syrian, born in Mesopotamia   
   near the city of Edessa, a vanished metropolis in what is now   
   southeast Turkey.   
      
   Abraham's parents were rich and prominent. When he came of age, they   
   picked a bride for him, according to the Syrian custom. This   
   embarrassed the young man. He had already privately decided to   
   practice a life of religious celibacy. Afraid to disobey his parents,   
   he tried to figure out some escape.   
      
   Now, marriages in that time and place were gala occasions, with a week   
   of partying before the marriage day. Abraham decided to take part in   
   the week-long festivities as if he had no problem. On the 7th day,   
   however, he took flight to the nearby desert, occupying a cave as a   
   cell. Of course, the parents sent a search party after him. Eventually   
   they found him at prayer. They used every argument to persuade him to   
   return, but he stood his ground, so the pursuers finally gave up and   
   left. Then Abraham sealed up the door of his cave, leaving only a   
   small window, through which friends in the desert could pass him food.   
      
   St. Abraham remained a hermit there for the rest of his life. When his   
   parents died, he fell heir to their fortune, but he distributed it to   
   the poor. He had only four possessions he could call his own: a   
   goatskin tunic, a cloak, a bowl to serve both as dish and cup, and a   
   mat of rushes for a bed. We are told that Abraham was an intense man   
   never seen to smile, who looked on each day as his last, and lived it   
   that way. His feats of self-denial were remarkable, yet they did not   
   undermine his naturally frail constitution. He was to reach a hearty   
   70.   
      
   Although at heart a solitary, Abraham did obey a request of the local   
   bishop. The bishop called one day and lamented the fact that he had   
   had no success in his efforts to Christianize the nearby town of   
   Beth-Kiduna, which was inhabited by pagans rooted in idolatry and   
   given up to abominable practices. He asked the hermit to make a try at   
   converting them. Abraham consented, however reluctantly, and even   
   accepted priestly ordination from the bishop.   
      
   Once ordained, Father Abraham went over to Beth-Kiduna. He talked to   
   the people, but they sharply rejected his invitation to baptism. He   
   therefore asked the bishop to build a church in the village. When the   
   church was finished, Abraham, after prolonged prayer, entered the town   
   and toppled over all the images and altars of the gods.   
      
   The citizens were furious, of course, and whipped him out of the   
   village.. But he returned the same night and in the morning they found   
   him praying in the church. Going out into the square, he began to   
   preach, urging all to give up their superstitions. Instead, they   
   seized him, took him out side the walls, stoned him, and left him for   
   dead. The hermit was not dead, however. He returned to the square and   
   resumed his preaching. For 3 years he made this his daily chore. The   
   pagans did not try again to kill him, but they continued to insult   
   him, throw an occasional rock at him, and strike him now and then with   
   a club.   
      
   After 3 years of apparent failure, Abraham suddenly noticed a change   
   for the better. His patience and meekness had finally persuaded the   
   people that he was a holy man, and therefore deserved to be listened   
   to. Eventually he was able to baptize a 1000. Then he spent a full   
   year instructing the citizens more fully in the faith, and baptizing   
   still more. When the year was up, leaving them in the care of other   
   priests, he returned to his cell, his assignment finished.   
      
   When Abraham entered his final illness, the whole neighborhood came to   
   ask his final blessing. After his death, the faithful sought bits of   
   his clothing as precious relics. Good actions speak louder than words.   
   St. Abraham Kidunaia, the unwilling groom, confirms that proverb.   
   --Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "If you guard your tongue, my brother, God will give you the gift of   
   compunction of heart so that you may see your soul, and thereby you will   
   enter into spiritual joy. But if your tongue defeats you--believe me in   
   what I say to you--you will never be able to escape from darkness. If you   
   do not have a pure heart, at least have a pure mouth, as the blessed John   
   said."   
   --Saint Isaac the Syrian.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they   
   were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able   
   to contain the books that should be written.  (John 21:25)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A Prayer To Be Generous   
      
   Teach me, Lord Jesus, to be generous:   
   to serve You as You deserve;   
   to give, not counting the cost;   
   to fight, not heeding the wounds;   
   to toil, not asking for rest;   
   to labor, not seeking any reward,   
   save that of knowing that we do Your will.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)