Go very slowly, very quietly

Go very slowly, very quietly

   God can work through you better when you are not hurrying. Go very
slowly, very quietly, from one duty to the next, taking time to rest
and pray between. Do not be too busy. Take everything in order.
Venture often into the rest of God and you will find peace. All work
that results from resting with God is good work. Claim the power to
work miracles in human lives. Know that you can do many things through
the Higher Power. Know that you can do good things through God who
rests you and gives you strength. Partake regularly of rest and
prayer.

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December 21st – St. Thomas

ST. THOMAS was a Jew and probably a Galilean of humble birth, but we
are not told that he was a fisherman or the circumstances in which our
Lord made him an apostle. His name is Syriac, and means the “twin”;
Didymus, as we know he was also called, is the Greek equivalent. When
Jesus was going up to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem in order to raise
Lazarus to life the rest of the disciples endeavoured to dissuade Him,
saying, “Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to stone thee; and goest thou
thither again?“ But St. Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die
with Him”, so ardent was his love of his Master. At the last supper,
when our Lord said, “Whither I go you know, and the way you know”, it
was Thomas who asked, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how
can we know the way?” and so drew from Him those words in which are
contained the whole Christian faith, “I am the Way and the Truth and
the Life. No man cometh to the Father but by me.” But this apostle is
especially remembered for his incredulity after our Lord had suffered,
risen from the dead, and on the same day appeared to His disciples to
convince them of the truth of His resurrection. Thomas was not then
with them and refused to believe their report that He was truly risen:
“Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my
finger in the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I
will not believe.” Eight days later, when they were all together and
the doors shut, the risen Christ was suddenly in the midst of them,
greeting them: “Peace be to you.” Then He turned to Thomas and said,”
Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand
and put it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing.” And
Thomas fell at His feet, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus
answered, “Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed.
Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.”

This is all that we are told of St. Thomas in the New Testament, but,
as with the other apostles, there are traditions, of great
unreliability, about his missionary activities after the descent of
the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. Eusebius states that he sent St. Thaddeus
(Addai; August 5) to Edessa to baptize King Abgar, and the field of
his own ministry is assigned to Parthia and “the Medes, Persians,
Carmanians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians and other nations in those parts”.
But the most persistent tradition is that which says that he preached
the gospel in India. This is supported from several seemingly
independent sources, of which the chief is the Acta Thomae, a document
dating apparently from the first quarter of the third century....

At the other end of India from the Punjab, along what is known as the
Malabar Coast, particularly in the states of Cochin and Travancore,
there is a large population of native Christians who call themselves,
“the Christians of St. Thomas”. Their history is known in detail since
the 16th century, but their origin has not yet been indisputably
determined--though theories are far from wanting. There have certainly
been Christians there since very early times, and in their liturgy
they use forms and a language (Syriac) that undoubtedly were derived
from Mesopotamia and Persia. *{* In addition to other native
Christians there are over 1 million Christians of St. Thomas, of whom
more than a half are Catholics (called “of the Syro-Malabar rite”.
Also, since 1930, the small body of the Syro-Malankara rite). Most of
the remainder are now Jacobites, but there is a considerable number of
“Reformed Syrians” (who particularly arrogate to themselves the name
of St. Thomas Christians: Mar Thomakkar) and some Protestants, as well
as a tiny group of Nestorians. All these divisions have happened since
1653.}

They claim, as their name indicates, to have been originally
evangelized by St. Thomas in person. They have an ancient oral
tradition that he landed at Cranganore on the west coast and
established seven churches in Malabar; then passed eastward to the
Coromandel Coast, where he was martyred, by spearing, on the “Big
Hill”, eight miles from Madras; and was buried at Mylapore, now a
suburb of that city.

There are several medieval references to the tomb of St. Thomas in
India, some of which name Mylapore; +(+ It is stated in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that King Alfred in 883 sent Sighelm, Bishop of
Sherborne, with offerings to Rome and to SS. Bartholomew and Thomas in
India, in fulfilment of a vow) In 1522 the Portuguese discovered the
alleged tomb there, with certain small relics now preserved in the
cathedral of St. Thomas at Mylapore. But the bulk of his reputed
relics were certainly at Edessa in the fourth century, and the Acta
Thomae relates they were taken from India to Mesopotamia. They were
later translated from Edessa to the island of Khios in the Aegean, and
from thence to Ortona in the Abruzzi, where they are still venerated.

The Roman Martyrology combines several legends and adopts the view
that St. Thomas preached the gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians
and Hyrcanians, passed into India, and was there martyred at
“Calamina”. This name occurs only in later writings and nobody has yet
succeeded in identifying the place; upholders of the Malabar tradition
have of course endeavoured to connect it with the neighbourhood of
Mylapore. The Martyrology mentions the translation of his relics to
Edessa on July 3, but in Malabar, and indeed throughout the Syrian
churches, this date is the principal feast of St. Thomas,
commemorating his martyrdom “in the year 72 A.D....”


Saint Quote:
All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in
what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may
be.
-- Saint Francis de Sales

Bible Quote:
"If any man wants wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth to all
abundantly, and upbraideth not." [James 1: 5]

Saint Quote:
If you have too much to do, with God's help you will find time to do it all.
--Peter Canisius


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I adore You, O Precious Blood of Jesus

   ''I adore You, O Precious Blood of Jesus, flower of creation,
fruit of virginity, ineffable instrument of the Holy Spirit, and I
rejoice at the thought that You came from the drop of virginal
blood on which eternal Love impressed its movement; You
were assumed by the Word and deified in His person."
--(St. Albert the Great, Doctor of the Church, 1206-1280)