From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Who do you honor at your table?   
      
   Who do you honor at your table? The Lord is always ready to receive us   
   at his table. As far as we can tell from the gospel accounts, Jesus   
   never refused a dinner invitation! Why, in this particular instance,   
   does Jesus lecture his host on whom he should or shouldn't invite to   
   dinner? Did his host expect some favor or reward from Jesus? Did he   
   want to impress his neighbors with the honor of hosting the "miracle   
   worker" from Galilee? Luke 14:12-14   
      
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   April 13th - Saint Hermenegild, Martyr   
      
   (d. 586)   
   Leovigild, Arian King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermenegild and   
   Recared, who were reigning conjointly with him. All were Arians, but   
   Hermenegild married a zealous Catholic, the daughter of Sigebert, King   
   of France, and by her holy example was converted to the faith. His   
   father, on hearing the news, denounced him as a traitor, and marched   
   to seize his person. Hermenegild tried to rally the Catholics of Spain   
   in his defense, but they were too weak to make any stand; and after a   
   two years’ fruitless struggle, Hermenegild surrendered on the   
   assurance of a free pardon. Once he was safely in the royal camp, the   
   king had him loaded with fetters and cast into a foul dungeon at   
   Seville.   
      
   Tortures and bribes were in turn employed to shake his faith, but   
   Hermenegild wrote to his father that he regarded the crown as nothing,   
   and preferred to lose scepter and life rather than betray the truth of   
   God. At length, on Easter night, an Arian bishop entered his cell, and   
   promised him his father’s pardon if he would receive Communion from   
   his hands. Hermenegild indignantly rejected the offer, and knelt with   
   joy for his death-stroke, praying for his persecutors. The same night   
   a light streaming from his cell told the Christians keeping vigil   
   nearby that the martyr had won his crown and was celebrating the   
   Resurrection of the Lord with the Saints in glory.   
      
   King Leovigild, on his death-bed, was changed interiorly. He had been   
   witness to the miracles that had occurred after his son’s cruel death,   
   and he told his son and successor Recared to seek out Saint Leander,   
   whom he himself had persecuted. Recared should follow Hermenegild’s   
   example, said the king, and be received by the bishop into the Church.   
   Recared did so; and although his father himself had not had the   
   courage to renounce the false faith publicly, after his father’s death   
   the new king labored so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that   
   he brought over the whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church. “Nor   
   is it to be wondered,” says Saint Gregory, “that he came thus to be a   
   preacher of the true faith, since he was the brother of a martyr,   
   whose merits helped him to bring so many into the haven of God’s   
   Church.”   
      
   Reflection. The victory of Saint Hermenegild teaches us that constancy   
   and sacrifice are the best arguments for the faith, and the surest way   
   to win souls to God.   
      
   Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "I have always something to repent for after having talked, but have never   
   been sorry for having been silent."   
   --St. Arsanius, The Tutor Of the Emperor's Children.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death; stay you   
   here, and watch. (Mark 11:34)   
      
      
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   ACT OF LOVE TO THE SACRED HEART   
      
   How great, O my Jesus, is the extent of Thine excessive   
   charity! Thou hast prepared for me, of Thy most precious   
   Body and Blood, a divine banquet, where Thou givest me   
   Thyself without reserve. What hath urged Thee to this excess   
   of love?  Nothing but Thine own most loving Heart.   
      
   O adorable Heart of my Jesus, furnace of Divine Love,   
   receive my soul into the wound of Thy most Sacred Passion,   
   that in this school of charity I may learn to make a return of   
   love to that God Who hast given me such wonderful proofs of   
   His love.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)