From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Great Commission   
      
   "The command to the apostles to be witnesses to him in Jerusalem,   
   Judea, Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth was not   
   addressed exclusively to those to whom it was immediately spoken. They   
   alone would not be the only ones who would carry such an enormous task   
   to completion. Similarly he seems to be speaking to the apostles very   
   personally when he says: "Behold I am with you even to the end of the   
   world," yet who does not know that he made this promise to the   
   universal church which will last from now even to the consummation of   
   the world by successive births and deaths?"   
   --St. Augustine-- (excerpt from Letter 199, To Hesychius 49)   
      
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   April 8th - Saint Perpetuus, Bishop of Tours   
   (461-494)   
      
   Saint Perpetuus was the eighth Bishop of Tours, who governed that see   
   for more than thirty years, from 461 to 494. During all that time he   
   labored by zealous sermons, many synods and wholesome regulations, to   
   lead souls to virtue.   
      
   Saint Perpetuus had great veneration for the Saints and respect for   
   their relics; he adorned their shrines and enriched their churches. As   
   there was a continual succession of miracles at the tomb of Saint   
   Martin, Perpetuus, finding the church built by Saint Bricius too small   
   for the concourse of people coming there, directed its enlargement.   
   When the building was finished, the good bishop solemnized the   
   dedication of this large new church, which a writer of that time said   
   was one of the marvels of the world and worthy to be compared with the   
   temple of Solomon. The translation of the body of Saint Martin was   
   carried out on the 4th of July in 491. It is believed that either   
   Saint Martin or his Angel assisted on this occasion, for the coffin   
   was so heavy that no means were found to move it, until an unknown   
   elderly gentleman came forward and offered his aid, immediately   
   efficacious.   
      
   Saint Perpetuus had made and signed his last will, which is still   
   extant, on the 1st of March, 475, a number of years before his death.   
   In this testament of love, he remitted all debts owing to him; and   
   having bequeathed to his church his library and several farms, and   
   establishing a fund for the maintenance of lamps and the purchase of   
   sacred vessels, he declared the poor his heirs for all the rest. He   
   added exhortations to concord and piety, and begged a remembrance in   
   prayer. His ancient epitaph equals him to the great Saint Martin. He   
   died on the 8th of April, 494.   
      
   Reflection. The sting of poverty, says a spiritual writer, is allayed   
   even more by a word of true sympathy than by the alms we give. Alms   
   given coldly and harshly irritate rather than soothe. Even when we   
   cannot give, words of kindness are like a precious balm; and when we   
   can give, they are salt and seasoning for our alms.   
      
   Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   "O ye souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if   
   you knew how pleasing to God is suffering, and how much it helps in   
   acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in   
   anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to   
   bear the Cross after the Lord"   
   --St. John of the Cross   
      
   Blessed William the Abbot saw, one night in a dream, some angels who   
   were weaving a crown of marvelous richness and beauty; and when he   
   asked them for whom they were making it, they said that it was for   
   him, and would be finished when he had suffered enough.   
   ("A Year with the Saints".  April - Patience)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Wherefore I say to thee: Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath   
   loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less.  (Luke 7:47)   
      
      
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   The story   
      
       He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of   
   darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into an   
   eternal kingdom; who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be   
   his own for ever. He is the Passover that is our salvation. It is he   
   who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed him.   
   In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold,   
   in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb,   
   persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets.   
       It is he who was made man of the Virgin, he who was hung on the   
   tree; it is he who was buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and   
   taken up to the heights of heaven. He is the mute lamb, the slain   
   lamb, the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. He was seized from the   
   flock, dragged off to be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and   
   buried at night. On the tree no bone of his was broken; in the earth   
   his body knew no decay. He is the One who rose from the dead, and who   
   raised us from the depths of the tomb.   
   --Melito of Sardis   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)