From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Faith is the messenger   
      
    Faith is the messenger that bears your prayers to God. Prayer can be   
   like incense, rising ever higher and higher. The prayer of faith is   
   the prayer of trust that feels the presence of God, which it rises to   
   meet. It can be sure of some response from God. We can say a prayer of   
   thanks to God every day for His grace, which has kept us on the right   
   way and allowed us to start living the good life. So we should pray to   
   God with faith and trust and gratitude.   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   January 3rd - St. Peter Balsam, Martyr   
      
   PETER BALSAM, to follow the narrative of his published “acts”, was a   
   native of the territory of Eleutheropolis in Palestine, who was   
   apprehended at Aulana in the persecution of Maximinus. Being brought   
   before Severus, governor of the province, the interrogatory began by   
   asking him his name.   
      
   Peter answered, “Balsam is the name of my family; but I received that   
   of Peter in baptism.”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “Of what family and of what country are you?”   
   PETER:    “ I am a Christian.”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “What is your employment?”   
   PETER:    “What employment can I have more honourable, or what better   
   thing can I do in the world, than to live as a Christian?”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “Do you know the imperial edicts?”   
   PETER:    “I know the laws of God, the sovereign of the universe.”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “You shall quickly know that there is an edict of the most   
   clement emperors, commanding all to sacrifice to the gods, or be put   
   to death.”   
   PETER:    “You will also know one day that there is a law of the   
   eternal King, proclaiming that everyone shall perish who offers   
   sacrifice to devils. Which do you counsel me to obey, and which, think   
   you, ought I to choose—to die by your sword, or to be condemned to   
   everlasting misery by the sentence of the great King, the true God?”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “Since you ask my advice, it is that you obey the edict,   
   and sacrifice to the gods.”   
   PETER:    “I can never be prevailed upon to sacrifice to gods of wood   
   and stone, as those are which you worship.”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “I would have you know that it is in my power to avenge   
   these affronts by putting you to death.”   
   PETER:    “I had no intention of affronting you. I only expressed what   
   is written in the divine law.”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “Have compassion on yourself, and sacrifice.”   
   PETER:    “ If I am truly compassionate to myself, I ought not to   
   sacrifice.”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “I want to be lenient; I therefore still allow you time to   
   reflect, that you may save your life.”   
   PETER:    “This delay will be to no purpose for I shall not alter my   
   mind; do now what you will be obliged to do soon, and complete the   
   work which the devil, your father, has begun; for I will never do what   
   Jesus Christ forbids me.”   
      
   Severus, on hearing these words, ordered him to be stretched upon the   
   rack, and whilst he was suspended said to him scoflingly, “What say   
   you now, Peter; do you begin to know what the rack is? Are you yet   
   willing to sacrifice?“ Peter answered, “Tear me with hooks, and talk   
   not of my sacrificing to your devils:  I have already told you, that I   
   will sacrifice only to that God for whom I suffer.” Hereupon the   
   governor commanded his tortures to be redoubled. The martyr, far from   
   any complaint, sung with alacrity those verses of the royal prophet,   
   “One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek after: that I   
   may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I will   
   take the chalice of salvation, and will call upon the name of the   
   Lord.” The spectators, seeing the martyr’s blood run down in streams,   
   cried out to him, “Obey the emperors! Sacrifice, and rescue yourself   
   from these torments!” Peter replied, “Do you call these torments? I   
   feel no pain: but this I know, that if I be not faithful to my God I   
   must expect real pain, such as cannot be conceived.” The judge also   
   said, “Sacrifice, Peter Balsam, or you will repent it.”   
      
   PETER:    “Neither will I sacrifice, nor shall I repent it.”   
      
   SEVERUS:    “I am on the point of pronouncing sentence.”   
   PETER:    “It is what I most earnestly desire.” Severus then dictated   
   the sentence in this manner: “It is our order that Peter Balsam, for   
   having refused to obey the edict of the invincible emperors, and   
   obstinately defending the law of a crucified man, be himself nailed to   
   a cross.” Thus it was that this glorious martyr finished his triumph,   
   at Aulana, on January 11; but he is honoured in the Roman Martyrology   
   on Jan. 3.   
      
   There can be little doubt that Peter Balsam is to be identified with   
   the martyr Peter Abselamus, whom Eusebius (De Martyribus Palest., x,   
   2-3) describes as having been burnt to death at Caesarea. For this and   
   other reasons very different opinions have been held as to the   
   trustworthiness of the narrative given above. Ruinart, and even   
   Bardenhewer (Geschichte der altkirchl. Literatur, vol. ii, p. 640),   
   treat the acts as authentic. P. Allard (Hist. des persecutions, vol.   
   v, p. 640) and H. Leclercq (Les Martyrs, vol. ii, p. 323) believe them   
   to have been compiled inaccurately; Father Delehaye more logically   
   (Légendes Hagio­graphiques, p. 114) considers that the narrative must   
   be regarded as a historical romance founded on a basis of genuine   
   fact.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not   
   depend on material success, but on Jesus alone.   
   -- Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who slanders a brother,   
   or condemns him, is speaking against the Law and condemning the Law.   
   But if you condemn the Law, you have stopped keeping it and become a   
   judge over it. There is only one lawgiver and he is the only judge and   
   has the power to acquit or to sentence. Who are you to give a verdict   
   on your neighbour?  (James 4:11-12)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer against Covetousness   
      
   O Lord Jesus Christ, who though Thou wast rich yet for our sakes didst   
   become poor, grant that all over-eagerness and covetousness of earthly   
   goods may die in us, and the desire of heavenly things may live and   
   grow in us; keep us from all idle and vain expenditures, that we may   
   always have to give to him that needeth, and that giving not   
   grudgingly nor of necessity, but cheerfully, we may be loved of Thee,   
   and be made through Thy merits partakers of the riches of Thy heavenly   
   treasure. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)