Awakening the Christ asleep within you

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Awakening the Christ asleep within you

"When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are being buffeted
by the wind. When your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the
waves. So when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in
danger, your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On
hearing yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of
revenge brings with it another kind of misfortune--shipwreck. Why is
this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do I mean? I mean you have
forgotten his presence. Rouse him, then; remember him, let him keep
watch within you, pay heed to him... A temptation arises: it is the
wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging of the sea. This is the
moment to awaken Christ and let him remind you of those words: 'Who
can this be? Even the winds and the sea obey him."
--St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermons 63:1-3)

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• October 28th - SS. Anastasia and Cyril, Martyrs

CARDINAL BARONIUS added the following entry to the Roman Martyrology
under this date “At Rome, the passion of the holy martyrs Anastasia
the Elder, a virgin, and Cyril. This same virgin during the
persecution of Valerian was bound with fetters by the prefect Probus,
smitten with blows and tortured with fire and scourges; and as she
continued unmoved in the confession of Christ her breasts were cut
off, her nails torn out, her teeth broken, her hands and feet hacked
away. Then she was beheaded and, beautified with the jewels of so many
sufferings, she passed to her Bridegroom. Cyril brought her water when
she asked therefor, and received martyrdom for his reward.”

Traditions of the Church of Rome know nothing of these martyrs, who
were first venerated in the East. Their Greek passio says that St
Anastasia was a maiden of patrician birth, twenty years old, who lived
in a community of consecrated virgins. Soldiers of the prefect broke
into the house, carried her off, and brought her before Probus, who
ordered that she be stripped naked. On her protesting that this would
shame him more than it would her, she was maltreated as the
martyrology sets out. Her body was afterwards translated to
Constantinople.

The passio exists both in Greek and in Latin. Both texts are printed
in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. xii. J. P. Kirsch seems inclined
to think that the only historical martyr was the widow who suffered at
Sirmium (December 25), but that, as her feast was kept on a different
date in the East, some Greek hagiographer thought it well to invent a
new story of a virgin bearing the same name, which he embellished with
the fantastic details recounted above. See Lexikon für Theologie und
Kirche, vol. i (1930), c. 389.


Saint Quote:
The garden of the Lord, brethren, includes-- yes, it truly includes--
includes not only the roses of martyrs but also the lilies of virgins,
and the ivy of married people, and the violets of widows. There is
absolutely no kind of human beings, my dearly beloved, who need to
despair of their vocation; Christ suffered for all. It was very truly
written about him: who wishes all men to be saved, and to come to the
acknowledgement of the truth.
-- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bible Quote
1 He is come up that shall destroy before thy face, that shall keep
the siege: watch the way, fortify thy loins, strengthen thy power
exceedingly. 2 For the Lord hath rendered the pride of Jacob, as the
pride of Israel: because the spoilers have laid them waste, and have
marred their vine branches. (Nahum 2:1-2)


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Canticle Philippians 2

Christ, God's servant

Jesus Christ, although he shared God’s nature,
did not try to seize equality with God for himself;
but emptied himself, took on the form of a slave,
and became like a man – not in appearance only,
for he humbled himself by accepting death – even death on a cross.
For this, God has raised him high,
and given him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bend,
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,
and every tongue will proclaim “Jesus Christ is Lord”,
to the glory of God the Father.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.