Appreciating God's Grace

[Weedy]

Appreciating God's Grace

Be grateful, therefore, for the least gift and you will be worthy
to receive a greater. Consider the least gift as the greatest, the
most contemptible as something special. And, if you but look to the
dignity of the Giver, no gift will appear too small or worthless. Even
though He give punishments and scourges, accept them, because He acts
for our welfare in whatever He allows to befall us.
He who desires to keep the grace of God ought to be grateful when
it is given and patient when it is withdrawn. Let him pray that it
return; let him be cautious and humble lest he lose it.
Imitation of Christ:-- a Kempis Bk II Ch 10

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April 5th – St. Irene, Virgin, Martyr

Died at Thessalonica, Macedonia, April 5, 304. The martyrdom of
Irene's sisters Agape and Chionia is described on April 3. The story
is based on an amplified version of genuine records.

In 303, Emperor Diocletian issued a decree making it an offense
punishable by death to possess any portion of sacred Christian
writings. Irene and her siblings, daughters of pagan parents living in
Salonika, owned and hid several of the forbidden volumes of Holy
Scriptures.

The sisters were arrested and Chionia and Agape were sentenced by
Governor Dulcitius to be burned alive because they refused to consume
foods offered to pagan gods. Meanwhile, their house had been searched
and the forbidden volumes discovered. Irene was examined again:

Dulcetius: "Your madness is plain, since you have kept to this day so
many books, parchments, codicils, and papers of the scriptures of the
impious Christians. You were forced to acknowledge them when they were
produced before you, though you had before denied you had any. You
will not take warning from the punishment of your sisters, neither
have you the fear of death before your eyes your punishment therefore
is unavoidable. In the mean time I do not refuse even now to make some
condescension in your behalf. Notwithstanding your crime, you may find
pardon and be freed from punishment, if you will yet worship the gods.
What say you then? Will you obey the orders of the emperors? Are you
ready to sacrifice to the gods, and eat of the victims?"

Irene: "By no means: for those that renounce Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, are threatened with eternal fire."

Dulcetius: "Who persuaded you to conceal those books and papers so long?"

Irene: "Almighty God, who has commanded us to love Him even unto
death; on which account we dare not betray Him, but rather choose to
be burnt alive, or suffer any thing whatsoever than discover such
writings."

Dulcetius: "Who knew that those writings were in the house?"

Irene: "Nobody but the Almighty, from Whom nothing is hid: for we
concealed them even from our own domestics, lest they should accuse
us."

During the questioning Irene told him that when the emperor's decree
against Christians was published, she and others fled to the mountains
without her father's knowledge. She avoided implicating those who had
helped them, and declared that nobody but themselves know they had the
books:

Dulcetius: "Where did you hide yourselves last year, when the pious
edict of our emperors was first published?"

Irene: "Where it pleased God, in the mountains."

Dulcetius: "With whom did you live?

Irene: "We were in the open air, sometimes on one mountain, sometimes
on another."

Dulcetius: "Who supplied you with bread?"

Irene: "God, Who gives food to all flesh."

Dulcetius: "Was your father privy to it?

Irene: "No; he had not the least knowledge of it."

Dulcetius: "Which of your neighbors knew it?"

Irene: "Inquire in the neighborhood, and make your search."

Dulcetius: "After you returned from the mountains, as you say, did you
read those books to anybody?"

Irene: "They were hid at our own house, and we dared not produce them;
and we were in great trouble, because we could not read them night and
day, as we had been accustomed to do."

Dulcetius: "Your sisters have already suffered the punishments to
which they were condemned. As for you, Irene, though you were
condemned to death before your flight for having hid these writings, I
will not have you die so suddenly, but I order that you be exposed
naked in a brothel, and be allowed one loaf a day, to be sent you from
the palace; and that the guards do not suffer you to stir out of it
one moment, under pain of death to them."

Irene was sent to a soldiers' brothel, where she was stripped and
chained. There she was miraculously protected from molestation. So,
after again refusing a last chance to conform, she was sentenced to
death. She died either by being forced to throw herself into flames
or, more likely, by being shot in the throat with an arrow. The books,
including the Sacred Scripture, were publicly burned.

Irene was sent to a soldiers' brothel, where she was stripped and
chained but was miraculously protected from molestation. So, after
again refusing a last chance to conform, she was sentenced to death.
She died two days after her sisters either by being forced to throw
herself into flames or, more likely, by being shot in the throat with
an arrow. The books, including the Sacred Scripture, were publicly
burned.

Three other women and a man were tried with these martyrs, of whom one
woman was remanded because she was pregnant. It is not recorded what
happened to the others (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
White).

In art, this trio is represented generally as three maidens carrying
pitchers, though they may be shown being burned at the stake (Roeder).
They are venerated in Salonika (Roeder).
Saint Quote:
Being comes first, and afterwards, being good or evil. However, had
God kept from being made those who through His goodness were to have
existence but who by their own choice were to become evil, then evil
would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Thus, all things which
God makes He makes good, but each one becomes good or evil by his own
choice.
-- Saint John of Damascus

Bible Quote:
Be nothing solicitous: but in every thing, by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the
peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever
lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise
of discipline: think on these things. (Philippians 4:6-8) DRB


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And what kind of affronts did not the Redeemer suffer in His Passion?
He saw Himself affronted by His own disciples. One of them betrays Him
and sells Him for thirty pieces. Another denies Him many times,
protesting publicly that he knows Him not; and thus attesting that he
was ashamed to have known Him in the past. The other disciples, when
they see Him taken and bound, all fly and abandon Him: Then his
disciples leaving him, all fled away. (Mark xiv. 50).

O my Jesus, thus abandoned, who will ever undertake Thy defence, if,
when Thou art first taken, those most dear to Thee depart from and
forsake Thee? But, my God, to think that this dishonour did not end
with Thy Passion! How many souls, after having offered themselves to
follow Thee, and after having been favoured by Thee with many graces
and special signs of love, being then driven by some passion of vile
interest, or human respect, or sordid pleasure, have ungratefully
forsaken Thee! Which of these ungrateful ones is found to turn and
lament, saying, Ah, my dear Jesus, pardon me; for I will not leave
Thee again. I will rather lose my life a thousand times than lose Thy
grace, O my God, my Love, my All.
--From The Passion And Death Of Jesus Christ, by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori: