From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
     A guest with no wedding garment,   
      
   "But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast,   
   our holy church, as a result of God's generosity, be careful, my   
   friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of   
   your heart's clothing. We must consider what comes next with great   
   fear in our hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw   
   there a person not clothed in a wedding garment. What do we think is   
   meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is   
   baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast   
   without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to   
   believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love?   
   That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding   
   garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he   
   does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the   
   wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed   
   when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only   
   God's love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the   
   hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that 'God so loved the   
   world that he gave his only begotten Son for us' (John 3:16)."   
    by John Chrysostom  (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 38.9)   
      
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   August 30th – St. Pammachius the Senator   
      
   The Roman senator, proconsul, and scholar, Pammachius, belonged to the   
   house of the Furii. In 385, he married Paulina, the second daughter of   
   Saint Paula. He spent much of his time in study and religious affairs.   
   He was a great friend of Saint Jerome, his former school fellow.   
      
   Pammachius was probably one of the religious men who denounced to Pope   
   Saint Siricius a certain man named Jovinian. He taught many errors :   
   First, that marriage and virginity were equally meritorious; secondly,   
   that those once baptized can sin no more; thirdly, that those who fast   
   and those who eat have equal merit, if they praise God; fourthly, that   
   all have an equal reward in heaven; fifthly, that all sins are equal;   
   sixthly, that the Blessed Virgin was not a virgin after giving birth   
   to our Lord (4). This last error was followed by Hinckmar, Wickliife,   
   Bucer, Peter Martyr, Molineus, and Basnage   
      
    He certainly sent copies of the heretic's writings to Jerome, who   
   replied to them in a long treatise. This reply did not meet with the   
   entire approval of Saint Pammachius: he found its language too strong   
   (a failing to which Jerome was generally very inclined) and that it   
   contained exaggerated praise of virginity and depreciation of   
   marriage; so he wrote and told him so. Jerome replied in two letters,   
   thanking him for his interest and defending what he had written.   
   Meanwhile, Jovinian was condemned at a synod at Rome in 390 and by   
   Archbishop Saint Ambrose of Milan.   
      
   When Paulina died in childbirth in 397, Pammachius provided a banquet   
   for all the poor of Rome following her funeral Mass. He received a   
   long letter of condolence from his friend Saint Paulinus of Nola, who   
   praised her goodness and her husband's faith and fortitude. The letter   
   ended: "Your spouse is now a pledge and a powerful intercessor for you   
   with Jesus Christ. She now obtains for you as many blessings in heaven   
   as you have sent her treasures [Masses] from hence, not honoring her   
   memory with fruitless tears, but making her partner of these living   
   gifts (i.e., by alms given for the repose of her soul); she is honored   
   by the merit of your virtues; she is fed by the bread you have given   
   to the poor." Saint Jerome tells us that Pammachius watered her ashes   
   with the balm of alms and mercy, which obtains the pardon of sins;   
   that from the time of her death he made the needy their coheirs.   
      
   Thus, Pammachius devoted the balance of his life to study, prayer, and   
   works of charity. (Some say that he donned the monastic habit and   
   received ordination to the presbyterate, but this seems unlikely.)   
   Together with Saint Fabiola he built at Porto a large hospice to   
   shelter pilgrims coming to Rome, especially the poor and the sick.   
   This was the first such enterprise in the West. Pammachius and Fabiola   
   spent much time there personally tending to their guests.   
      
   Pammachius was enormously disturbed by the bitter controversy between   
   Jerome and Saint Rufinus over the teachings of Origen. He wrote to   
   Jerome urging him to undertake the translation of Origen's De   
   principiis, and gave Jerome very useful help in his controversial   
   writings, but he could not convince Jerome to tone down the language   
   of his works.   
      
   Pammachius also wrote to the people living on his estates in Numidia   
   in North Africa to urge them to abandon the Donatist schism and return   
   to the Church. This action drew a letter of thanks from Saint   
   Augustine in 401. Pammachius had a church in his house on the Coelian   
   hill, consequently called titulus Pammachii its site is now occupied   
   by the Passionist church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, beneath which   
   remains of the original house have been found. St. Pammachius died in   
   410 at the time Alaric and the Goths captured Rome; he is often stated   
   to have been a priest but this does not seem to have been so   
   .   
   A fairly complete account of Pammachius, compiled by Father John Pien,   
   is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, August,  vol. vi.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It behooves thee to be very careful, for thou livest under the eyes of   
   the Judge who beholds all things.   
   -- St. Bernard   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let your manners be without covetousness, contented with such things   
   as you have. For he hath said: I will not leave thee: neither will I   
   forsake thee.  [Hebrews 13:5] DRB   
      
      
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   I Love You, O My God   
   By St Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859)   
      
   I love You, O my God   
   and my only desire is to love You   
   until the last breath of my life.   
   I love You,   
   O my infinitely lovable God   
   and I would rather die loving You,   
   than live without loving You.   
   I love You, Lord   
   and the only grace I ask,   
   is to love You eternally My God,   
   if my tongue cannot say   
   in every moment that I love You,   
   I want my heart to repeat it to You   
   as often as I draw breath.   
   Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)