From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Tomorrow may never come   
      
    Don't put off conversion - tomorrow may never come   
      
      "God is not now so long-suffering in putting up with you that He   
   will fail to be just in punishing. Do not say then: 'Tomorrow I shall   
   be converted, tomorrow I shall please God, and all that I shall have   
   done today and yesterday will be forgiven me.' What you say is true:   
   God has promised forgiveness if you turn back to Him. But what He has   
   not promised is that you will have tomorrow in which to achieve your   
   conversion."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 144,11)   
      
   ===========   
   March 18th - Saint Edward the Martyr   
   Also known as   
       • Edward II   
   Memorial   
       • 18 March   
       • 20 June (translation of relics)   
      
   d. 979   
   ST EDWARD was the son of King Edgar, sovereign of all the English, by   
   his first wife, Ethelfleda, who did not long survive the birth of her   
   son; he was baptized by St. Dunstan, then archbishop of Canterbury.   
   After Edgar’s death a party sought to set aside Edward in favour of   
   Ethelred, a boy hardly ten years old, who was Edgar’s son by his   
   second queen, Elfrida. Edward himself was but a youth when he came to   
   the throne, and his reign lasted a brief 3 years. The guidance of St.   
   Dunstan was unable to commend him to the disaffected thegns, for which   
   the young king’s violent temper was perhaps partly responsible. The   
   chroniclers, who all agreed that he was murdered, are not in accord as   
   to the actual perpetrator of the deed, but William of Malmesbury   
   claims to describe the crime in detail. He tells us that, from the   
   moment of Edward’s accession, his stepmother had sought an opportunity   
   to slay him. One day, after hunting in Dorsetshire, the king, who was   
   weary and wished to see his little stepbrother, of whom he was fond,   
   determined to visit Corfe Castle, the residence of Elfrida, which was   
   close at hand. Apprised of his arrival, the queen went out to meet him   
   and noticed that he was alone, having outstripped his companions and   
   attendants. She feigned pleasure at seeing him and ordered a cup to be   
   brought to allay his thirst. As he drank, Elfrida made a sign to one   
   of her servants, who stabbed the young king with a dagger. Although   
   Edward immediately set spurs to his horse and tried to regain his   
   escort, he slipped from the saddle, his foot caught in the stirrup,   
   and he was dragged along till he died.   
      
    “This year”, says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under 979, “was King   
   Edward slain at eventide at Corfe-gate, and was buried at Wareham   
   without any kind of kingly honours.” William of Malmesbury says that   
   Elfrida had his body thrown into a marsh, thinking thus to dispose of   
   it, but a pillar of light caused it to be discovered, and it was taken   
   up and buried in the church at Wareham. His relics were afterwards   
   removed to Shaftesbury. Elfrida herself was in the end seized with   
   remorse for her crime and, retiring from the world, she built the   
   monasteries of Amesbury and Wherwell, in the latter of which she died.   
      
   The earliest account of the murder attributes it to Ethelred’s   
   retainers. There is no good evidence for Queen Elfrida’s alleged part   
   in it, which is not mentioned till over a hundred years after the   
   event. Edward was a martyr only in the broad sense of one who suffers   
   an unjust death, but his cultus was considerable, encouraged by the   
   miracles reported from his tomb at Shaftesbury and his feast is still   
   observed in the diocese of Plymouth.   
      
   Our principal authorities are William of Malmesbury, Florence of   
   Worcester, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Osbern the hagiographer and,   
   earliest of all, the author of the Life of St. Oswald in the   
   Historians of the Church of York (Rolls Series), vol. i, pp. 448-452.   
   See also F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943), pp. 366-369; and   
   particularly K. M. Wilson, Lost Literature of Medieval England (1952),   
   pp. 111-112.   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross   
   that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. He has   
   blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it   
   with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage   
   and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to   
   you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God.   
   --Saint Francis de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And stretch out thy hand to the poor, that thy expiation and thy   
   blessing may be perfected.  A gift hath grace in the sight of all the   
   living, and restrain not grace from the dead.  Be not wanting in   
   comforting them that weep, and walk with them that mourn.  Be not slow   
   to visit the sick: for by these things thou shalt be confirmed in love.   
   In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never   
   sin.  [Sirach 7: 36 40]  DRB   
      
   <><><><>   
   Lent is a good time for us to renew our pledge to walk along his Way   
   and to ask for a deep level of faith to do so.   
      
       The seven Signs in John are:   
   1. The changing of water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana (2:1-11)   
   2. The healing of the royal official’s son (4:46-54)   
   3. The healing of a man who is crippled at the Bethesda pool (5:1-18)   
   4. Feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-15)   
   5. Jesus walking on the water (6:16-21)   
   6. Healing of the man born blind (9:1-41)   
   7. The raising of Lazarus (11:1-44   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)