From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The antidote to fear, pride, and greed   
      
   There is one master alone who has the power to set us free from   
   slavery to sin, fear, pride, and greed, and a host of other hurtful   
   desires. That master is the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can save us   
   from all that would keep us bound up in fear and anxiety. Jesus used   
   an illustration from nature--the birds and the flowers--to show how   
   God provides for his creatures in the natural order of his creation.   
   God provides ample food, water, light, and heat to sustain all that   
   lives and breathes. How much more can we, who are created in the very   
   image and likeness of God, expect our heavenly Father and creator to   
   sustain not only our physical bodies, but our mind, heart, and soul as   
   well? God our Father is utterly reliable because it is his nature to   
   love, heal, forgive, and make whole again.   
      
   ============   
    1 July – Saint Oliver Plunkett   
      
   Martyr, Archbishop and Primate of All Ireland, Confessor, Reformer.   
   Born on 1 November 1629 at Loughenew, County Meath, Ireland and died   
   by being hanged, drawn, and quartered on 1 July 1681 at Tyburn,   
   England. PatronageS – archdiocese of Armagh, Irelanda, around 100   
   Churches, Apostolates, Schools, Sports facilities, Streets and   
   Estates, even an aeroplane of the national airline.   
      
   Oliver Plunkett was born in Loughcrew, County Meath in the midlands of   
   Ireland on 1 November 1625. At that time in Irish history, Catholics   
   were being persecuted for their faith by their overlords, England.   
   Many were evicted from their homes and forbidden to attend Mass. In   
   all of Ireland there was only one active Bishop. Priests were hunted   
   down and persecuted. Many fled to Europe. In 1647 Oliver Plunkett had   
   to go to Rome to study for the priesthood because there were no   
   Colleges or institutions of learning in Ireland.   
      
   In 1647 Oliver went to study for the priesthood under Jesuit guidance   
   in the Irish College in Rome. Oliver was Ordained a Priest in Rome in   
   1654. Due to the religious persecution in his native land, it was not   
   possible for him to return to minister to his people. Oliver remained   
   in Rome and taught as a Professor of Theology at the Propaganda   
   College. Because the persecution of Catholics was at a high point in   
   Ireland, Oliver t could not be Consecrated Archbishop in Ireland but   
   was Consecrated in Ghent by Bishop Eugene D’Allmont on 1 December   
   1669. He was installed as the then the Archbishop of Armagh and   
   Primate of Ireland.   
      
   Archbishop Plunkett returned to Ireland and began a ministry of reform   
   and renewal of clergy and laity for the next eleven years. Archbishop   
   Plunkett soon established himself as a man of peace and, with   
   religious fervour, set about visiting his people, establishing   
   schools, ordaining priests and confirming thousands. During the   
   reforms he made many enemies, not least among the clergy and it was   
   one of the renegade priests whom he had censured who later gave   
   evidence against him at his trial.   
      
   1673 brought a renewal of religious persecution and Bishops were   
   banned by a British Government edict. Archbishop Plunkett went into   
   hiding, suffering a great deal from cold and hunger. His many letters   
   showed his determination not to abandon his people but to remain a   
   faithful shepherd.    
   The persecution eased slightly for a short while and he was once again   
   able to move more openly among his people. In 1679 he was arrested and   
   falsely charged with treason. Oliver was charged with plotting to   
   bring 20 000 French soldiers to Ireland and levying a tax on the   
   poverty-stricken clergy to support 70 000 armed men.   
      
   Such an absurd charge had no chance of sticking in Ireland. The   
   government in power could not get him convicted at his trial in   
   Dundalk, Ireland, so they brought him to London where he was again   
   tried. He was unable to defend himself because he was not given time   
   to bring his own witnesses from Ireland. Oliver was tried and with the   
   help of perjured witnesses, was sentenced to death. The Judge, Sir   
   Francis Pemberton, said in passing judgement: “You have done as much   
   as you could to dishonour God in this case; for the bottom of your   
   treason was your setting up your false religion, than which there is   
   not any thing more displeasing to God, or more pernicious to mankind   
   in the world”.. He was found guilty of high treason “for promoting the   
   Roman faith.” The jury returned within fifteen minutes with a guilty   
   verdict and Archbishop Plunkett replied: “Deo Gratias” – Thanks be to   
   God.”   
      
   Numerous pleas for mercy were made but Charles II, although himself a   
   reputed crypto-Catholic, thought it too politically dangerous to spare   
   Plunkett. The French Ambassador to England, Paul Barillon, conveyed a   
   plea for mercy from his King, Louis XIV. Charles told him frankly that   
   he knew Plunkett to be innocent but that the time was not right to   
   take so bold a step as to pardon him. Lord Essex, apparently realising   
   too late that his intrigues had led to the condemnation of an innocent   
   man, made a similar plea for mercy. The King, normally the most   
   self-controlled of men, turned on Essex in fury, saying: “his blood be   
   on your head – you could have saved him but would not, I would save   
   him and dare not”.   
      
   With deep serenity of soul, Oliver prepared to die, calmly rebutting   
   the charge of treason, refusing to save himself by giving false   
   evidence against his brother Irish Bishops. Oliver Plunkett publicly   
   forgave all those who were responsible for his death.   
      
   Oliver was hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1 July 1681, aged   
   55, the last Catholic Martyr to die under the English persecutio. His   
   body was initially buried in two tin boxes, next to five Jesuits who   
   had died previously, in the courtyard of St Giles in the Fields   
   Church. The remains were exhumed in 1683 and moved to the Benedictine   
   Monastery at Lamspringe, near Hildesheim in Germany. The head was   
   brought to Rome and from there to Armagh and eventually to Drogheda   
   where since 29 June 1921 it has rested in Saint Peter’s Church. Most   
   of the body was brought to Downside Abbey, England, where the major   
   part is located today, with some parts remaining at Lamspringe. On the   
   occasion of his Canonisation in 1975, his casket was opened and some   
   parts of his body given to the Cathedral at Drogheda in Ireland.   
      
   In 1920 he was declared a Martyr for the Faith and was Beatified on 23   
   May 1920 in Rome by Pope Benedict XV and Canonised on12 October 1975   
   by Pope Paul VI,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)