From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

June 8th =E2=80=93 St. Melania the Elder
(Christian religious leader, religious community founder

Melania is known as "the Elder" to distinguish her from her
granddaughter who is known as Melania the Younger.

Melania was born in Spain and, married at fourteen, moved with her
husband to the suburbs of Rome.=C2 She was widowed at 22: the same
illness that took her husband also took two of her sons and left her
with one living son, with whom she moved to Rome.

There, she became a Christian and, when her son was ten, placed him
with a guardian and set off for Alexandria where she joined other
Christian desert ascetics.=C2 She began to associate with monks of the
Arian party--those who believed that God the Son, Christ, had been
created after God the Father.=C2 When the Arians were banished from
Egypt, she left with them.

After some adventures, Melania came to Jerusalem, where she founded a monastery. Rufinus, a scholar she'd met in Alexandria, joined her
there. Jerome and Paula were among those who stayed at the monastery
of Melania and Rufinus.

Rufinus was a scholar of the third century theologian Origen, and
Melania also studied the writings of Origen, many of which Rufinus
translated from Greek to Latin. Origen's writings questioned the
doctrine of eternal damnation and doctrines of bodily resurrection.
When Origen's teachings were condemned, Rufinus refused to renounce
them, and so Jerome also condemned Rufinus.

While Melania's association with Rufinus tarnished her own religious reputation, she was not herself condemned--but because of her
association with heresy, even those Christian writers who knew of her
omitted her from their historical accounts or the church's history.

Melania founded more monasteries and promoted theological tolerance
and the unity of Christianity.

On a visit to Rome to see her son, she also influenced his daughter,
Melania. Known as Melania the Younger, she too took up a religious
calling.

Melania the Elder visited Bishop Augustine of Hippo on her return to
Palestine about 404 CE.=C2 She died in Jerusalem about 410.


Saint Quote:
No one's body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not
pleased the mind. If you were to lift my hand to your idol and so make
me offer against my will, I would still be guiltless in the sight of
the true God, who judges according to the will and knows all things.
If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity
will be gloriously imputed to me. You cannot bend my will to your
purpose; whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me.
-- Saint Lucy of Syracuse

Bible Quote:
Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit. And there
are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in
all. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto
profit.=C2 [1 Cor 12:4-7] (DRB)


<><><><>
O Heart of Jesus, All Love
By St John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

O Heart of Jesus all love,
I offer You these humble prayers for myself
and for all those,
who unite themselves with me in spirit to adore You.
O holiest Heart of Jesus most lovely,
I intend to renew and to offer to You,
these acts of adoration and these prayers,
for myself, a wretched sinner
and for all those, who are associated with me
in Your adoration,
through all moments which I breath,
even to the end of my life.
I recommend to You, O my Jesus,
Holy Church, Your dear spouse
and our true Mother,
all just souls and all poor sinners,
the afflicted, the dying and all mankind.
Let not Your Blood be shed for them in vain.
Finally, deign to apply it in relief
of the souls in Purgatory
and of these in particular

Amen

--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)