From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Against the Vain Judgements of Men: [II]   
      
   Why should you fear mortal man?(Isa.51:12) Today he is here; tomorrow   
   he is gone forever. Fear God and you need never fear man. What real   
   harm can the words or actions of any man do to you? He injures himself   
   rather than you and he cannot escape the judgement of God, whoever he   
   is. Keep God always before you and do not engage in bitter   
   controversies. Even if for the present you seem to suffer defeat and   
   undeserved disgrace, do not complain nor lessen your due reward   
   through impatience.(Heb.12:1) Instead, raise your eyes to Me in   
   Heaven, for I have power to deliver you from all shame and wrong and   
   to reward every man according to his merits.(Rom.2:6)   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 36   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 5th – St. Nonna of Nazianzen, Matron   
      
   Died 374   
   Let me introduce St. Nonna (1), a model Christian wife and mother.   
      
   Nonna was born around 290 AD in Cappadocia (now a part of Turkey). Her   
   prominent Christian parents raised her in a firm Christian faith. It   
   might seem odd, then, that she should have married a non-Christian.   
   Her husband, Gregory, a magistrate in the city of Nazianzus, belonged   
   to a small sect, half-pagan, half-Jewish, called the Hypsistarians.   
   But even though the Church discourages such marriages as risky for the   
   Catholic party, this particular mixed marriage turned out brilliantly.   
      
   Influenced by the good example of his wife, Gregory not only became a   
   Christian, but a priest and bishop of Nazianzus. (In those days Church   
   law still permitted married bishops.) Indeed, Gregory was so   
   outstanding that today we venerate him as St. Gregory of Nazianzus the   
   Elder.   
      
   Nonna and Gregory had three children: Gregory Junior, Gorgonia and   
   Caesarius. Before young Gregory was born, his mother offered him to   
   God as a special gift. God accepted. Gregory Junior became a monk, a   
   priest, a bishop and as St. Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 330-390), one of   
   the four great Eastern doctors of the Church. He won special fame as a   
   defender of the divinity of Christ against Arius of Alexandria, who   
   claimed that Jesus was no more God than you or I.   
      
   Gorgonia, much like her mother in her virtues, married and raised a   
   family with equal care. She devoted her spare time to the needs of the   
   local church and the poor of the district. Caesarius became a   
   physician, held in the highest respect as a medic and a man. Emperor   
   Julian the Apostate so admired him that he offered him all sorts of   
   favors to win him over to paganism. Caesarius not only refused but   
   resigned the public offices he already held.   
      
   The Christian Emperor Valens, who succeeded Julian, named him his   
   private financial secretary. In 368, however, after narrowly escaping   
   death in an earthquake, Caesarius renounced worldly life and gave all   
   his property to the poor.   
      
   St. Gregory the Younger preached at the funerals of both Gorgonia and   
   Caesarius. Since then, they too, have been venerated as saints.   
      
   What a family Nonna gave to God – herself and four other saints! True   
   to the scriptural ideal of the “valiant woman,” she won from her   
   husband and children deserved thanks and praise (Proverbs, 31).   
      
   Nonna (1), mother of Gregory Nazianzen ; a lady of good birth, the   
   child of Christian parents, Philtatius and Gorgonia, brought up in the   
   practice of the Christian virtues, of which she was so admirable an   
   example. Her son describes in glowing terms the holiness of her life   
   and the beautiful conformity of all her actions to the highest   
   standards of Christian excellence. To her example, aided by her   
   prayers, he ascribes the conversion of his father from the strange   
   medley of paganism and Christianity which formed the tenets of the   
   Hypsistarian sect, to which by birth he belonged (Greg. Naz. Or. ii,   
   19; Carm. 1, 2). We know of two other children of the marriage, a   
   sister named Gorgonia, probably older than Gregory, and a brother   
   named Caesarius. Nonna's death probably occurred on Aug. 5 (on which   
   day she is commemorated both by the Greek and Latin churches) in 374   
   (Orat. 19, p. 315; Carm. 1, p. 9). Tillem. Mém. eccl. t. ix. pp.   
   309-311, 317, 318, 322, 385, 397.   
   –Father Robert F. McNamara   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Humility is necessary not only for the acquisition of virtues, but   
   even for salvation.  For the gate of Heaven, as Christ Himself   
   testifies, is so narrow that it admits only little ones.   
   --St. Bernard   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   He hath not dealt with us according to our sins: nor rewarded us   
   according to our iniquities.  For according to the height of the   
   heaven above the earth: he hath strengthened his mercy towards them   
   that fear him.  (Psalms 102:10-11)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A Prayer of Petition   
      
   Let us adore and give thanks to God the Father everlasting, Who, of   
   the great love He bore us, was pleased to send His only-begotten Son   
   into the world to suffer and die on the gibbet of the Cross; and let   
   us beseech Him, for the sake of His passion and death and by the   
   intercession of Saint Gabriel, that most loving follower of our   
   crucified Lord, to grant us the favor for which We pray [here mention   
   your request].   
      
   Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.   
      
   Let us adore and give thanks to God the eternal Son, Who, becoming man   
   and dying for us upon the Cross, left us Mary most holy to be our   
   Mother; and let us beseech Him, by the merits of this sorrowful Virgin   
   Mother and by the intercession of Saint Gabriel, who was her most   
   devoted servant, to grant us the favor for which we pray [here mention   
   your request].   
      
   Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.   
      
      
   1. Synarchie or synarchia - a secret society whose goal is to control   
   the technological growth in the world and its financial consequences.   
   The term is habitually used to refer to the Masonic control of   
   technology, or simply as synonymous with the technocratic mentality,   
   as in this comment of Prof. Plinio.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)