From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How Surrender of Self Brings Freedom of Heart  [I]   
      
   CHRIST.   
    My son, renounce self and you shall find me. (Matt. 16:24) Retain no   
   private choice or personal interest and you will always be the gainer.   
   As soon as you yield yourself unreservedly into My hands, I will grant   
   you even richer graces.   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
    How often shall I yield myself and in what way forsake myself, Lord?   
      
   CHRIST.   
   Always and at all times, in small things as well as in great. I make   
   no exceptions, for I desire to have you wholly divested of self:   
   otherwise, unless you are wholly stripped of self-will, how can you be   
   Mine, or I yours? The sooner you do this the better it will be with   
   you and the more completely and sincerely you do it, the better you   
   will please Me and the greater will be your gain.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 37   
      
   ================   
   February 19th - Saint Barbatus of Benevento   
    (also known as Barbas, Barbato )   
      
   Born in the area of Benevento, Italy. Born of Christian parents,   
   Barbatus was raised to sanctity. Devout meditation on the holy   
   scriptures was his chief entertainment. His innocence, simplicity, and   
   purity of heart qualified him for the service of the altar, to which   
   he was ordained as soon as the canons of the church would allow it.   
      
   Barbatus was immediately employed by the bishop in preaching because   
   he had an extraordinary talent for it. Later he was made curate of   
   Saint Basil's in Morcona near Benevento, a typical parish where the   
   people hesitated to change their sinful ways. As they desired only to   
   slumber on in their sins, they could not bear the remonstrations of   
   their pastor who endeavored to wake them to a sense of their miseries   
   and to sincere repentance. They, in turn, treated him as a disturber   
   of the peace and violently persecuted him.   
      
   Their malice was answered by Barbatus's patience and humility, and his   
   character shining still more brightly was an even greater reproach.   
   Finally, he was forced to withdraw from them. But by these fiery   
   trials, God purified his heart from all earthly attachments, and   
   perfectly crucified it to the world.   
      
   Barbatus returned to Benevento were he was received with joy by those   
   who were acquainted with his innocence and sanctity. Barbatus was the   
   enemy of superstition, which still prevailed among the Lombards even   
   after the conversion of the Arian king Grimoald. The people expressed   
   a religious veneration for a golden viper and prostrated themselves   
   before it. They also paid superstitious honor to a tree on which they   
   hung the skin of a wild animal.   
      
   Barbatus preached zealously against these abuses, and added fervent   
   prayer and rigorous fasting for the conversion of his people. At   
   length he roused their attention by foretelling the calamities they   
   were to suffer from the army of Emperor Constans, who, soon after   
   landing in Italy, besieged Benevento. Soon they were listening to the   
   preacher and renounced their errors and idolatrous practices. Then   
   Barbatus assured them that the siege would be ended and it so   
   happened.   
      
   Upon their repentance the saint cut down the tree with his own hand   
   and melted down the golden viper to make a chalice for the altar.   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For behold the day shall come kindled as a furnace: and all the proud,   
   and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh   
   shall set them on fire, saith the Lord of hosts, it shall not leave   
   them root, nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of   
   justice shall arise, and health in his wings: and you shall go forth,   
   and shall leap like calves of the herd.  [Malachi 4:1-3]   
      
   Reflection. Saint Augustine says, “When the enemy has been cast out of   
   your hearts, renounce him not only in word but in works; not only by   
   the sound of the lips, but in every act of your life.”   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Whoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. -Lk. 14:11   
      
   "What is it, O my God, that we expect to gain by appearing well before   
   creatures, and by pleasing them? What does it matter to us if we are   
   blamed by them, and considered worthless, provided we are great and   
   faultless before Thee? Ah, we never come fully to an understanding of   
   this truth, and so we never succeed in standing upon the summit of   
   perfection! The Saints had no greater pleasure than to live unknown   
   and abject in the hearts of all.   
   --St. Bernard   
      
       A holy bishop, in order to live unknown, left his diocese, and   
   putting on a poor dress went secretly to Jerusalem, where he worked as   
   a laborer. There a nobleman saw him several times sleeping on the   
   ground, with a column of fire rising from his body even to the   
   heavens. Wondering at this, he asked him privately who he was. He   
   answered he was a poor man who lived by his work, and had no other   
   means of support. The count, not satisfied with this, urged him to   
   reveal the whole truth, and the bishop, after exacting a promise of   
   secrecy during his lifetime, told him who he was, and how he had left   
   his country to escape from renown and esteem, as he held it to be   
   unworthy of a Christian, who ought always to have in mind the insults   
   and reproaches heaped upon his Lord, to enjoy the honor and reverence   
   of men.   
      
   ( "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)