-- James 1:17 --

 -- James 1:17 --

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
How sad to be in a senseless world without a changeless God. We have a
God with whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning. He doesn't
have shifting moods, bad days, "oops" moments, momentary breakdowns,
or changes of mind or heart. He's as consistent as a plumb line, as
steady as a rock, and as unchanging as eternity. He is as he has
always been and will always be. Forever he is enthroned in the
highest, and forever his Word is fixed in the heavens. Culture
changes. Churches change. Life changes. GOD DOESN'T CHANGE.

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16 September =E2=80=93 Saint Euphemia

(c 290-c 305)
 Virgen Martyr. Her name means =E2=80=9Cthe well-spoken [of].=E2=80=9D Patr=
onages =E2=80=93
Alba Adriatica, Italy, Rovinj, Croatia. Also known as =E2=80=93 Euphemia of
Chalcedon.

The Roman Martyrology states of her today: =E2=80=9CAt Chalcedon, the birth=
day
of St Euphemia, Virgin and Martyr, under the Emperor Diocletian and
the Proconsul Priscus. For faith in Our Lord, she was subjected to
tortures, imprisonment, blows, the torment of the wheel, fire, the
crushing weight of stones, the teeth of beasts, scourging with rods,
the cutting of sharp saws, burning pans, all of which she survived.
But when she was again exposed to the beasts in the amphitheatre,
praying to Our Lord to receive her spirit, one of the animals, having
inflicted a bite on her sacred body, whilst the rest licked her feet,
she yielded her unspotted soul to God.=E2=80=9D

St. Euphemia lived on the cusp of the 3rd and 4th centuries. According
to tradition, she was the daughter of a senator named Philophronos and
his wife Theodosia in Chalcedon, located across the Bosporus from the
City of Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul). From her youth she
consecrated her virginity to God.

The governor of Chalcedon, Priscus, had published a decree that all of
the inhabitants of the City take part in sacrifices to the deity Ares.
Euphemia was discovered, with forty-nine other Christians, hiding in a
house and worshiping God, in defiance of the governor=E2=80=99s orders.
Because of their refusal to sacrifice, they were tortured for a number
of days, and then, all but Euphemia, were sent to the Emperor for
trial. Euphemia, the youngest among them, was separated from her
companions and subjected to particularly harsh torments, including the
wheel, in hopes of breaking her spirit. She was placed in the arena,
where lions were sent out to kill her, but they instead licked her
wounds. She eventually died of wounds from a wild bear in the arena.

The Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, took place in
the City of Chalcedon in the year 451. It repudiated the Eutychian
doctrine of monophysitism and set forth the Chalcedonian Definition,
which describes the =E2=80=9Cfull humanity and full divinity=E2=80=9D of Je=
sus Christ,
the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Present at the Council were 630
representatives from all the local Christian Churches. The meetings
were quite contentious and no decisive consensus could be reached.

According to the Synaxarion of Constantinople, a collection of
hagiographies,, both parties wrote a confession of their faith and
placed them on the breast of Saint Euphemia within her tomb. After
three days the tomb was opened and the scroll with the confession of
the true faith, was seen in the right hand of St Euphemia, while the
scroll of the Monophysites lay at her feet.

When the persecution of Diocletian ended, the Christians laid Saint
Euphemia=E2=80=99s relics in a golden sarcophagus, placed within a Church t=
hat
was dedicated to her. Her relics attracted crowds of pilgrims for
centuries.

Around the year 620, in the wake of the conquest of Chalcedon by the
Persians in the year 617, Saint Euphemia=E2=80=99s relics were transferred =
to
a new Church in Constantinople. There, during the persecutions of the
Iconoclasts, her reliquary was said to have been thrown into the sea,
from which it was recovered by the ship-owning brothers, Sergios and
Sergonos, who belonged to the Church and who gave it to the local
Bishop who hid them in a secret crypt. The relics were afterwards
taken to the Island of Lemnos and in 796 they were returned to
Constantinople. The majority of her relics are still in the
Patriarchal Church of St. George, in Istanbul and others are in
Rovini, Croatia.

See images at
https://anastpaul.com/2021/09/15/


Saint Quote:
"It is written, 'God is not mocked.' (Gal. vi, 7.) Indeed God cannot
be mocked, nor circumvented, nor deluded by any man's astute deceit. .
. Let each of you, then, I beg you, brethren, confess his fault while
the sinner is yet in this world, while confession is still possible,
while the satisfaction and remission granted by the priests is still
acceptable to God."
--St. Cyprian

Bible Quote:
As one that taketh off a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon
soda, So is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart. [Pro 25:20 ]


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Sighing for the Holy Spirit

O MILDEST Comforter, Holy Spirit, come to me. My soul sighs for Thee!
My heart thirsts for Thee! Thou alone canst satisfy my longing; Thou
alone canst make me happy. Despise not, O Divine Bridegroom, the
dwelling of my poor heart.
My heart, alas, is unclean, but Thou canst purify it.
My heart is dark, but Thou canst illuminate it.
My heart is wicked, but Thou canst penetrate it with love.
My heart is sad, but Thou canst comfort it.
My heart is weak, but Thou canst strengthen it.
My heart is cold, but Thou canst inflame it.
My heart clings to earth, but Thou canst fill it with heavenly desires.
My heart is full of sin, but Thou canst adorn it with all virtues.
My heart is inconstant and wayward, but Thou canst make it docile.
Come then, O Holy Spirit, Thou Father of the poor,
come and fill me with Thy love. Amen.
Father, Father, send us the promised Paraclete,
through Jesus Christ Our Lord.