The desire of the heart

[Weedy]

The desire of the heart

The desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire
is constant, so is your prayer. Not for nothing did the apostle tell
us to pray without ceasing. But did he mean that we were to be
perpetually on our knees, lying prostrate, or raising our hands?
Is this what is meant by praying without ceasing? Even if we admit
that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all
the time.
Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing,
namely the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you
but fix your desire on God's sabbath rest, your prayer will be
ceaseless. Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not
cease to desire. The constancy of your desire will itself be the
ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be
silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent if not those of
whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow
cold?
The chilling of love means that the heart is silent. If your love
is without ceasing, you are always crying out; if you are always
crying out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are
calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.
--St. Augustine of Hippo

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September 8th - Saints Eusebius, Nestablus, Zeno, and Nestor, Martyrs

In the reign of Julian the Apostate, Eusebius, Nestablus, and Zeno, 3
zealous Christian brothers at Gaza, were seized by the pagans in their
houses, where they had concealed themselves: they were carried to
prison, and inhumanly scourged. Afterwards the idolaters, who were
assembled in the amphitheatre at the public shows, began loudly to
demand the punishment of the sacrilegious criminals, as they called
the confessors. By these cries the assembly soon became a tumult; and
the people worked themselves into such a ferment that they ran in a
fury to the prison, which they forced, and hauling out the 3 brothers,
began to drag them, sometimes on their bellies, sometimes on their
backs, bruising them against the pavement, and striking them with
clubs, stones, or any thing that came in their way.

The very women, quitting their work, ran the points of their spindles
into them, and the cooks took the kettles from off the fire, poured
the scalding water upon them, and pierced them with their spits. After
the martyrs were thus mangled, and their skulls so broken that the
ground was smeared with their brains, they were dragged out of the
city to the place where the beasts were thrown that died of
themselves. Here the people lighted a fire, burned the bodies, and
mingled the bones that remained with those of camels and asses, that
it might not be easy for the Christians to distinguish them.

This cruelty only enhanced the triumph of the martyrs before God, who
watches over the precious remains of his elect, to raise them again to
glory. With these three brothers there was taken a young man, named
Nestor, who suffered imprisonment and scourging as they had done; but
as the furious rioters were dragging him through the street, some
persons took compassion on him on account of his great beauty and
comeliness, and drew him out of the gate.

He died of his wounds, within three days, in the house of Zeno, a
cousin of the three martyrs, who himself was obliged to fly, and,
being taken, was publicly whipped.

See Theodoret, Hist. l. 3, c. 7, and Sozomen, l. 5, c. 9.


Saint Quote:
Humility is the only thing that no devil can imitate. If pride made
demons out of angels, there is no doubt that humility could make
angels out of demons.
--St John Climacus

Bible Quote:
I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory to come. (Rom. 8:18)

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Prayer Before Starting on a Journey

My holy Angel Guardian, ask the Lord to bless the journey
which I undertake, that it may profit the health of my soul and
body; that I may reach its end, and that, returning safe and
sound, I may find my family in good health. Do thou guard,
guide and preserve us. Amen.