Of the Good, Peaceable Man  (1)

   FIRST keep peace with yourself; then you will be able to bring
peace to others. A peaceful man does more good than a learned man.
Whereas a passionate man turns even good to evil and is quick to
believe evil, the peaceful man, being good himself, turns all things
to good.
   The man who is at perfect ease is never suspicious, but the
disturbed and discontented spirit is upset by many a suspicion. He
neither rests himself nor permits others to do so. He often says what
ought not to be said and leaves undone what ought to be done. He is
concerned with the duties of others but neglects his own.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 3

==============
April 22nd - St. Theodore of Sykeon, Bishop of Anastasiopolis
d. 613

ST THEODORE was born in the Galatian town of Sykeon in Asia Minor, the
son of n harlot who kept an inn. From infancy he was so given to
prayer that as a schoolboy he often deprived himself of his meal to
spend the dinner hour in church. At an early age he shut himself up,
first in a cellar of his mother’s house and then in a cave under a
disused chapel. The desire to escape still more completely from the
world led him subsequently to take up his abode for a time on a desert mountain. He assumed the monastic habit when on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, and received ordination to the priesthood from his own
bishop. His life was extremely austere. Vegetables were his only food,
but of these he partook most sparingly, and he wore an iron girdle
about his body. Endowed with the gifts of prophecy and of miracles, he
obtained by his prayers, when on a second visit to the Holy Land, an
abundant fall of rain after a severe drought.

Several monasteries were founded by St. Theodore, notably one near an
ancient chapel dedicated in honour of St. George, to whom he had a
great devotion, and another at his native town of Sykeon. Over the
latter he ruled as abbot, although he continued to reside mainly in a
remote and secluded cell. Maurice, the general of the armies of the
Emperor Tiberius, upon his return from his victorious cam­paign in
Persia, visited the saint, who foretold to him his accession to the
imperial throne. When the prophecy was fulfilled in 582, Maurice did
not fail to commend himself and his empire to the holy man’s prayers.
By main force Theodore was consecrated bishop of Anastasiopolis--a
post for which he felt himself totally unfitted--but after ten years
he succeeded in obtaining leave to resign. From Sykeon whither he
joyfully retired he was recalled to Constantinople to bless the
emperor and senate, and he then cured one of the emperor’s sons of a
skin disease, supposed to be leprosy. St. Theodore died at Sykeon on
April 22, 613. He had done much to propagate and popularize the cultus
of St. George.

There is a long account of this St. Theodore, written by a
contemporary. Perhaps for modern taste it is too much a succession of
wonders, anecdotes and encounters with demoniacs, and it is not free
from what Dr Baynes calls that “portentous rhetoric which often makes
the reading of Byzantine hagiography a weariness of the flesh”. But it
is a fascinating work for all that and, again to quote Dr. Baynes,
“the best picture known to us of life in Asia Minor in the Byzantine
period before the Arab invasions of the empire”.
In the Acta Sanctorum for April, vol. iii, is the Latin translation of
the Greek biography, which purports to have been written by a disciple
of the saint, Eleusius, called George. The Greek text has been
published by Theophilus Joannis, and there is an excellent English
version, a little abridged, in E. Dawes and N. H. Baynes, Three
Byzantine Saints (1948). There is also the Greek text of a lengthy “Encomium” by Nicephorus Scevophylax which adds other details. This
has been edited in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xx (1901), pp.
249-272.


Bible Quote:
With all thy strength love him that made thee: and forsake not his
ministers. Honour God with all thy soul and give honour to the
priests, and purify thyself with thy arms. Give them their portion, as
it is commanded thee, of the firstfruits and of purifications: and for
thy negligences purify thyself with a few. Offer to the Lord the gift
of thy shoulders, and the sacrifice of sanctification, and the
firstfruits of the holy things: [Sirach 7: 32-36]  DRB

Saint Quote:
Charity is a love of friendship, a friendship of choice, a choice of preference, but an incomparable, a sovereign, and supernatural
preference which is like a sun in the whole soul, to embellish it with
its rays; in all our spiritual faculties to perfect them; in all our
powers to moderate them; but in the will, as its seat, to reside
there, and to make it cherish and love its God above all things.
-- St. Francis of Sales


<><><><>
Reflection and Prayer from the Imitation of Christ

To study the truths of religion, not so much to know as to practice
them; to listen to the Divine Word, which speaks more to the heart
than to the understanding; to know and to do what is necessary for
salvation, is the true science of a Christian. I am weary of
speculative knowledge, which does not change nor move my heart, but
only flatters the curiosity of my mind; I am tired of knowing and
saying so much concerning eternal truths and salvation, and yet doing
so little to obtain it.

Prayer:
 O Jesus! Who hast taught us that not all those who say Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only such as do the will
of Thy Father, whose lives correspond with their belief, grant us a
truly Christian spirit, a Christian heart, and guide us in the paths
of a Christian life. Grant that I may become detached from all things,
and in all things seek Thee alone. Grant that I may direct all my
knowledge, my whole capacity, all my happiness, and all my exertions,
to please Thee, to love Thee, and to obtain Thy love for time and
eternity. Amen.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)