Saint of the day and Feast days - Part 2

[odhiambo]

January 23
Today we remember
Saint Agathangelus
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Agathangelus
Martyr.
Agathangelus was a Roman. He reportedly met Saint Clement, bishop of Ancyra, in Rome, where the latter was being held a prisoner. He was converted to Christianity and baptized by Saint Clement. When Clement was taken to Ancyra, now Ankara in Turkey, Agathangelus went with him and shared in his martyrdom there in 309.
Saint Agathangelus,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

January 24
Today we remember
Saint Babylas
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Babylas
Martyr.
Bishop of Antioch
Babylas became Bishop of Antioch around the year 240. Saint John Chrystostome reportedly related that Babylas refused permission for the Emperor Philip, the Arab, to enter his church until he performed penance. Philip had reportedly murdered his predecessor, Gordian III.
During the persecutions of Emperor Trajanus Decius, Babylas and his companions, his young students, were arrested. Babylas died of mistreatment in prison, in 260 while awaiting execution.
Saint Babylas,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

Lots of good early saints of late.

Good evening odhiambo! Or morning!

[odhiambo]

Lots of good early saints of late.

Good evening odhiambo! Or morning!

None of the the above Shin, it is good afternoon 
You start your day very, very early I see 

[odhiambo]

January 25
Today we remember
Saint Ananias of Damascus
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Ananias of Damascus
Ananias lived at the time of Saint Paul.
He was a Christian in the city of Damascus.
He was commanded, in a vision, by Jesus , to seek out Saul who had been brought to the City following his dramatic encounter with the Lord, on the road to Damascus. Finding Saul blind, Ananias cured him and baptized him.
According to tradition, Ananias worked as a missionary in Damascus and Eleutheropolis where he was martyred for the faith.
Saint Ananias of Damascus
Pray for us!

[Shin]

'And as he went on his journey, it chanced that he drew nigh to Damascus: and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? Who said, Who art thou Lord? And he, I am JESUS whom thou doest persecute. it is hard for thee to kick against the prick. And trembling and being astonished he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And our Lord to him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. But the men that went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing the voice, but seeing no man. And Saul rose up from the ground, and his eyes being opened, he saw nothing. And they drawing him by the hands, brought him into Damascus. And he was three days not seeing, and he did neither eat nor drink.

And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias: and our Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. But he said, Lo, here I am Lord. And our Lord to him, Arise, and go into the street that is called Straight: and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul of Tarsus. for behold he prayeth. (And he saw a man named Ananias, coming in and imposing hands upon him for to receive his sight.) But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that invocate thy name. And our Lord said to him, Go, for a vessel of election is this man unto me, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name. And Ananias went, and entered into the house: and imposing hands upon him, he said, Brother Saul, our Lord JESUS hath sent me, he that appeareth to thee in the way that thou camest: that thou mayest see and be filled with the holy Ghost. And forthwith there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received sight, and rising he was baptized.'

Acts 9:3-16

[Shin]

St. Ananias pray for us!

I read that 'kick against the prick' is sometimes translated as 'kick against the goad', and it is said this is in reference to the goads used on oxen, which pricked them so that they would work. If an ox kicked against the goad, it would end up only kicking and hurting itself.

And so it is a proverb of sorts to kick against the goad, wherin people are only causing themselves more trouble by not doing the work they are spurred on to do.

[Shin]

St. Paul, who was blinded by God for three days was also the instrument of blinding another.

'And when they were come to Salamina, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also in the ministry.

And when they had walked through out the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain man that was a magician, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was 'Bar-iesu',

Who was with the Proconsul Sergius Paulus a wise man. He sending for Barnabas and Saul, desired to hear the word of God.

But Elymas the magician (for so is his name interpreted) resisted them, seeking to avert the Proconsul from the faith.

But Saul, otherwise Paul, replenished with the holy Ghost, looking upon him, Said: O full of guile, and all deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all justice, thou ceasest not to subvert the right ways of our Lord.

And now behold the hand of our Lord upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun until a time. And forthwith there fell dimness and darkness upon him, and going about he sought somebody that would give him his hand.

Then the Proconsul, when he had seen that which was done, believed, marveling at the doctrine of our Lord.

Acts 13:5-12

Of note -- 'Bar-' used before someone's name means 'son of'.

[odhiambo]

St. Ananias pray for us!

I read that 'kick against the prick' is sometimes translated as 'kick against the goad', and it is said this is in reference to the goads used on oxen, which pricked them so that they would work. If an ox kicked against the goad, it would end up only kicking and hurting itself.

And so it is a proverb of sorts to kick against the goad, wherin people are only causing themselves more trouble by not doing the work they are spurred on to do.

Yes, it is like fighting oneself, against the inevitable.

[odhiambo]

January 26
Today we remember
Saint Paula of Rome
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Paula of Rome
Also known as Paulina of Rome.
Paula was born of noble parentage on 5 May 347 in Rome, Italy. She married a fellow patrician, Toxotius, with whom she had five children: Toxotius, Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium and Rufina. They were regarded as an ideal married couple. When her husband died in 379, Paula renounced the world. She lived from then on in austerity and devoted herself to helping the poor.
In 382, she met Saint Jerome through Epiphanius and Paulinus of Antioch and she became closely associated with his work. In 384, her daughter Blesilla died. Paula was heartbroken. She left Rome a year later with her son Eustochium and traveled through the Holy Land with Jerome before settling in Bethlehem under his spiritual direction. Paula founded a convent and a hospice for pilgrims in Bethlehem.
Paula became Saint Jerome’s closest confident and assistant. She took care of him and helped him in his biblical work. She built numerous churches which resulted in financial difficulties in her old age.
She died on January 26, 404 at Bethlehem.
Saint Paula is the patron saint of widows.
Saint Paula of Rome
Pray for us!

[Shin]

St. Jerome wrote down the history of her life.

One article describing this says:

After Paula's death, Jerome wrote to Eustochium about her, in a long (thirty-four chapter) letter, a "little book" (“libellum”) which is virtually a saint's life. It begins with the rhetorical flourish, "If all the members of my body were turned into tongues and all my joints sounded with human voice, I could say nothing worthy of the virtues of holy and venerable Paula," and ends with the poems on her tomb and the cave outside. Jerome cites her biblical allusions and comments about life on earth (108.1), and the vision she had in Bethlehem (108.10), describes her illustrious genealogy to praise her scorn of it, her five children, her grief at the death of her husband, and her decision to leave her family and live among the hermits of the East. He speaks of her enthusiastic travels through the Holy Land, building cells and monasteries for the religious and hostels for pilgrims along the travel routes; and she built one monastery for men, three communities for women, for which she established the order of living.(!2) He praises her extraordinary charity to the poor to whom she gave all she had, borrowing money at interest to give more and dying in debt, and her rigorous asceticism. She would not drink wine even when sick and pressed by the bishop to do so, at Jerome's suggestion, as she had guessed; indeed, she almost convinced the bishop to give up wine (108.21). She stood up to Origenists as enemies of God and could not be tricked by them (108.23,25). She was slow to speak, quick to listen, knew the scriptures by heart, loved the literal sense as the basis of truth and followed the mystical as the crown of the soul's edifice; she knew Hebrew which Jerome says he had struggled over from adolescence, while she could sing the psalms and speak it without a Latin accent (108.26). With her daughter Eustochium (though this letter is addressed to her it is certainly meant for a larger audience) she read the Old and New Testaments with Jerome and compelled him to explain to them what he had not yet learned for himself, and when he hesitated among the teachings of illustrious men of the church, she pressed him with questions, forcing him to give an opinion. Jerome sat with her for hours while she was sick, was with her when she died,(!3) and composed two verses for her tomb, the only surviving verses we have of his:

Born from the Scipios, sprung from pauline parents,
scion of the Gracchi, child of the famed Agamemnon.
Here in this tomb lies Paula, foremost in fame;
mother of Eustochium, first in the Senate of Rome, she was.
She made herself a pauper following Christ to rural Bethlehem.

Do you see this tomb, hollowed from the rock? It is Paula's resting place as she takes up her celestial kingdom.
She left brother, family, her home in Rome, wealth and progeny for a cave in Bethlehem.
Here was the manger and here the magi
bore mystical gifts to Christ, both man and God.

...

[Shin]

'I must disfigure the face which contrary to God's commandment I have painted with rouge, white lead, and antimony. I must mortify that body which has been given up to many pleasures. I must make up for my long laughter by constant weeping. I must exchange my soft linen and costly silks for rough goat's hair. I who have pleased my husband and the world in the past, desire now to please Christ.'

St. Paula