From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of the Good, Peaceable Man  (1)   
      
      FIRST keep peace with yourself; then you will be able to bring   
   peace to others. A peaceful man does more good than a learned man.   
   Whereas a passionate man turns even good to evil and is quick to   
   believe evil, the peaceful man, being good himself, turns all things   
   to good.   
      The man who is at perfect ease is never suspicious, but the   
   disturbed and discontented spirit is upset by many a suspicion. He   
   neither rests himself nor permits others to do so. He often says what   
   ought not to be said and leaves undone what ought to be done. He is   
   concerned with the duties of others but neglects his own.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 3   
      
   ==============   
   April 22nd - St. Theodore of Sykeon, Bishop of Anastasiopolis   
   d. 613   
      
   ST THEODORE was born in the Galatian town of Sykeon in Asia Minor, the   
   son of n harlot who kept an inn. From infancy he was so given to   
   prayer that as a schoolboy he often deprived himself of his meal to   
   spend the dinner hour in church. At an early age he shut himself up,   
   first in a cellar of his mother’s house and then in a cave under a   
   disused chapel. The desire to escape still more completely from the   
   world led him subsequently to take up his abode for a time on a desert   
   mountain. He assumed the monastic habit when on a pilgrimage to   
   Jerusalem, and received ordination to the priesthood from his own   
   bishop. His life was extremely austere. Vegetables were his only food,   
   but of these he partook most sparingly, and he wore an iron girdle   
   about his body. Endowed with the gifts of prophecy and of miracles, he   
   obtained by his prayers, when on a second visit to the Holy Land, an   
   abundant fall of rain after a severe drought.   
      
   Several monasteries were founded by St. Theodore, notably one near an   
   ancient chapel dedicated in honour of St. George, to whom he had a   
   great devotion, and another at his native town of Sykeon. Over the   
   latter he ruled as abbot, although he continued to reside mainly in a   
   remote and secluded cell. Maurice, the general of the armies of the   
   Emperor Tiberius, upon his return from his victorious cam­paign in   
   Persia, visited the saint, who foretold to him his accession to the   
   imperial throne. When the prophecy was fulfilled in 582, Maurice did   
   not fail to commend himself and his empire to the holy man’s prayers.   
   By main force Theodore was consecrated bishop of Anastasiopolis--a   
   post for which he felt himself totally unfitted--but after ten years   
   he succeeded in obtaining leave to resign. From Sykeon whither he   
   joyfully retired he was recalled to Constantinople to bless the   
   emperor and senate, and he then cured one of the emperor’s sons of a   
   skin disease, supposed to be leprosy. St. Theodore died at Sykeon on   
   April 22, 613. He had done much to propagate and popularize the cultus   
   of St. George.   
      
   There is a long account of this St. Theodore, written by a   
   contemporary. Perhaps for modern taste it is too much a succession of   
   wonders, anecdotes and encounters with demoniacs, and it is not free   
   from what Dr Baynes calls that “portentous rhetoric which often makes   
   the reading of Byzantine hagiography a weariness of the flesh”. But it   
   is a fascinating work for all that and, again to quote Dr. Baynes,   
   “the best picture known to us of life in Asia Minor in the Byzantine   
   period before the Arab invasions of the empire”.   
   In the Acta Sanctorum for April, vol. iii, is the Latin translation of   
   the Greek biography, which purports to have been written by a disciple   
   of the saint, Eleusius, called George. The Greek text has been   
   published by Theophilus Joannis, and there is an excellent English   
   version, a little abridged, in E. Dawes and N. H. Baynes, Three   
   Byzantine Saints (1948). There is also the Greek text of a lengthy   
   “Encomium” by Nicephorus Scevophylax which adds other details. This   
   has been edited in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xx (1901), pp.   
   249-272.   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   With all thy strength love him that made thee: and forsake not his   
   ministers. Honour God with all thy soul and give honour to the   
   priests, and purify thyself with thy arms. Give them their portion, as   
   it is commanded thee, of the firstfruits and of purifications: and for   
   thy negligences purify thyself with a few. Offer to the Lord the gift   
   of thy shoulders, and the sacrifice of sanctification, and the   
   firstfruits of the holy things: [Sirach 7: 32-36]  DRB   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Charity is a love of friendship, a friendship of choice, a choice of   
   preference, but an incomparable, a sovereign, and supernatural   
   preference which is like a sun in the whole soul, to embellish it with   
   its rays; in all our spiritual faculties to perfect them; in all our   
   powers to moderate them; but in the will, as its seat, to reside   
   there, and to make it cherish and love its God above all things.   
   -- St. Francis of Sales   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Reflection and Prayer from the Imitation of Christ   
      
   To study the truths of religion, not so much to know as to practice   
   them; to listen to the Divine Word, which speaks more to the heart   
   than to the understanding; to know and to do what is necessary for   
   salvation, is the true science of a Christian. I am weary of   
   speculative knowledge, which does not change nor move my heart, but   
   only flatters the curiosity of my mind; I am tired of knowing and   
   saying so much concerning eternal truths and salvation, and yet doing   
   so little to obtain it.   
      
   Prayer:   
    O Jesus! Who hast taught us that not all those who say Lord, Lord,   
   shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only such as do the will   
   of Thy Father, whose lives correspond with their belief, grant us a   
   truly Christian spirit, a Christian heart, and guide us in the paths   
   of a Christian life. Grant that I may become detached from all things,   
   and in all things seek Thee alone. Grant that I may direct all my   
   knowledge, my whole capacity, all my happiness, and all my exertions,   
   to please Thee, to love Thee, and to obtain Thy love for time and   
   eternity. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)