Saint of the day and Feast days - Part 2

[Shin]

Dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament! 

[Shin]

'The man ensnared by pride will need God's help, since man is of no use to him.'

St. John Climacus

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'The man ensnared by pride will need God's help, since man is of no use to him.'
St. John Climacus

I wonder if a man such as that would be willing to accept the Lord's help  

[odhiambo]

April 2
One of the many Saints we remember to day is:
Saint Abundius of Como

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Saint Abundius
Bishop of Como.
He was born in Thessalonica, modern Greece; was ordained and named bishop of Como, Italy. A noted theologian, Abundius attended the Council of Constantinople in 450. As a result of his obvious intellect and holiness, he was sent by Pope Leo the Great to Emperor Theodosius II, as envoy of the Holy See. His mission led to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and to the Council of Milan in 452.
Abundius served as the pope’s representative in various councils, clearly stating the Church’s role and concerns. He died in 469.
Saint Abundius
Pray for us!

[Shin]

'The man ensnared by pride will need God's help, since man is of no use to him.'
St. John Climacus

I wonder if a man such as that would be willing to accept the Lord's help  

Good question! Pride is a disability that prevents someone from seeing honestly how things are! 

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April 3
One of the many Saints we remember to day is:
Saint Mary of Egypt

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Saint Mary of Egypt
Also known as Maria Aegyptica, Mary was born in, Egypt in 344. The following account is taken from SQPN.
Mary was reportedly, a beautiful, spoiled rich girl. At the age of twelve, she ran away from home to Alexandria where she found work as as a dancer and a singer. She also worked as a prostitute. This was the sad state of affairs for many years.
Around age 30, Mary went on a pilgrimage to Palestine, where she hoped to get customers from the ranks of the pilgrims. She went up to Jerusalem.
On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Mary intended to go to the church, not to pray but to look for possible customers. At the church door, however, a miracle happened. As SQPN puts it, “she found herself invisibliy repelled” According to Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson, however, she was converted when she visited the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. And still, according to Dictionary of Saints by John J. Delaney, she was brought to the realization of her sinful life before an icon of the BVM and at the Virgin’s direction, she went to the Jordanian desert where she lived as a hermitess for 47 years, not seeing a single human being.
Around the year 430, Mary was 'discovered' in the desert by a holy man named Zosismus who was impressed by her spiritual knowledge and wisdom. He saw her the following Lent but when he returned, he found her dead and buried her. When he returned to his monastery near the Jordan, he told the others what had happened and the story spread.
The Dictionary of Saints by John J. Delaney states that in Cyril of Scythopolis’ life of Saint Cyriacus, he tells of a woman named Mary found by Cyriacus and his companions living as a hermitess in the Jordanian desert. She told him she had been a famous singer and actress who had sinned and was doing penance in the desert; when they returned later, she was dead. It appears that she met at least two people during her life of penance out there in the desert, before she died in 421.
She is patron saint of penitent women, reformed prostitutes and against sexual temptation.
Saint Mary of Egypt
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

April 4
One of the many Saints we remember to day is:
Saint Zosimus of Palestine

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Saint Zosimus of Palestine
Hermit.
Zosimus was a 5th century hermit who settled on the banks of the Jordan River. He discovered Saint Mary of Egypt, the saint we whose Memorial was yesterday. He reportedly brought her the Eucharist one Easter, and on returning one year later, found she had died. He wrote a biography of her.
Saint Zosimus,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

While we don't yet have a copy here, one can easily find 'Life of Our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt' online and read the full story.

There are many writings about St. Zosimus.

Abba Zosimus said: "Of many kinds are the effects of our intentions. It is possible for an ardent spirit to find with God, in a single moment, favor that another spirit, if it is cold and lax, cannot find in a period of fifty years. Thus, for example, if the demons see that someone has been insulted, belittled, and hurt, or has suffered some similar thing and is upset, not because he suffered something bad, but because he failed to endure this temptation with courage and without feeling sorrow -- such a spiritual disposition the demons greatly fear. For they know that this man has found the way of truth and wishes to walk in accord with the commandments of God"

Another time, the same Abba said, "If one brings to mind someone who has caused him upset, ridiculed him, hurt him, or has in any way caused him some evil, he should think of him as a physician and from the depths of his heart thank him for these things. If, however, he entertains in his mind thoughts against such a person, then he is giving thought, like the demons, to something contrary to his soul. Indeed, he becomes a demon himself and his own enemy, since he does not wish to be released from this evil, but to continue uncured. For if he were not ill, he would not be occupied with feelings against the person who made him sad and upset him and whom Christ sent to him as a physician to reveal his illness through assault and injury.

If, indeed, he truly wishes to be cured, it is to his benefit to consider the person who troubled him his benefactor and to accept all the evil things coming from that person as therapeutic medicines that have been sent to him by Jesus -- and to be thankful for these things, even if for the moment they may cause him sadness. For an ill man is not happy when he has an operation, or undergoes cauterization, or takes a cathartic. Indeed, quite the opposite: he is unsettled even thinking about it. But when he convinces himself that, without these things, he is not going to be cured form his illness, he yields himself all the more to his physician, for he knows well that after a little inconvenience, he can be delivered from even the most bothersome chronic disease."

- the sayings of the Desert Fathers

[Shin]

Dancer, singer, prostitute. Notice how they are all grouped together!

[odhiambo]

Dancer, singer, prostitute. Notice how they are all grouped together!

Meaning?

[odhiambo]

April 5
Today we remember the
Martyrs of North-West Africa
Among many other saints

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Martyrs of North-West Africa.
In 459, a large group of Christians were murdered in North-West Africa while celebrating Easter Mass, during the persecutions of Genseric, the Arian king of the Vandals.
Martyrs of North-West Africa
Pray for us!

[Shin]

They definitely are associated in more ways than one!