From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

April 4th =E2=80=93 St Isidore of Seville
(560-636)
=C2 Patron of The Internet, Father & Doctor of the Church

Even saints run away, at first.=C2 Peter, all of them, ran away, at
first.=C2 Isidore ran away, too.=C2 Isidore served as Archbishop of
Seville for more than three decades as the classical world was fading
away and the Dark Ages loomed on every side.=C2 He is considered, =E2=80= =9CThe
last scholar of the ancient world=E2=80=9D.

Once, when Isidore was a boy, he ran away from home and from school.
His brother Leander, some twenty years older than he, was his teacher,
and a very strict and demanding one. Isidore despaired of ever
pleasing his brother in his studies.=C2 While Isidore sat by himself out
in the woods, loafing and feeling sorry for himself, he watched some
drops of water falling on a rock. Then he noticed that the dripping
water had worn a hole in the hard rock! The thought came to him that
he could do what the little drops of water did. Little by little, by
sticking to it, he could learn all his brother demanded, and maybe
even more.

Isidore realized that if he kept working at his studies, his seemingly
small efforts would eventually pay off in great learning. He also may
have hoped that his efforts would also wear down the rock of his
brother's heart.=C2 When he returned home, however, his brother =
in
exasperation confined him to a cell (probably in a monastery) to
complete his studies, not believing that he wouldn't run away again=
..
Either there must have been a loving side to this relationship or
Isidore was remarkably forgiving, even for a saint, because later he
would work side by side with his brother and after Leander's death,
Isidore would complete many of the projects he began including a
missal and breviary.

In a time where it's fashionable to blame the past for our present =
and
future problems, Isidore was able to separate the abusive way he was
taught from the joy of learning. He didn't run from learning after =
he
left his brother but embraced education and made it his life's work=
..
Isidore rose above his past to become known as the greatest teacher in Spain.=C2 His love of learning made him promote the establishment of a seminary in every diocese of Spain. He didn't limit his own studies
and didn't want others to as well. In a unique move, he made sure t=
hat
all branches of knowledge including the arts and medicine were taught
in the seminaries.

His encyclopedia of knowledge, the Etymologies, was a popular textbook
for nine centuries. He also wrote books on grammar, astronomy,
geography, history, and biography as well as theology. When the Arabs
brought study of Aristotle back to Europe, this was nothing new to
Spain because Isidore's open mind had already reintroduced the
philosopher to students there.

Still trying to wear away rock with water, he helped convert the
barbarian Visigoths from Arianism, which denies the divinity of
Christ, to Catholicism.=C2 By the time of his death, the light of his
learning caught fire in Spanish minds and held back the Dark Ages of
barbarism from Spain. But even greater than his outstanding mind must
have been the genius of his heart that allowed him to see beyond
rejection and discouragement to joy and possibility.=C2 Many of his
remains are interred in the cathedral of Murcia, Spain.
-by Jos=C3=A9 Alcoverro, 1892, outside the Biblioteca Nacional de Espa=C3= =B1a, in Madrid.


St. Isidore Quotes
=E2=80=9CHeresy is from the Greek word meaning =E2=80=98choice'=E2=
=80=A6. But we are not
permitted to believe whatever we choose, nor to choose whatever
someone else has believed. We have the Apostles of God as authorities,
who did not=E2=80=A6choose what they would believe but faithfully transmitt=
ed
the teachings of Christ. So, even if an angel from heaven should
preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema.=E2=80=9D
--Saint Isidore

=E2=80=9CIndeed, just as we must love God in contemplation, so we must love
our neighbor with action,=E2=80=9D he declared. =E2=80=9CIt is therefore im= possible to
live without the presence of both the one and the other form of life,
nor can we live without experiencing both the one and the other.=E2=80=9D --Saint Isidore

=E2=80=9CIn confession there is mercy. Believe it firmly, do not doubt, do = not
hesitate, never despair of the mercy of God.=E2=80=9D
--St. Isidore of Seville


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Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thy image and bade us to
seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the
divine person of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant
we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore,
bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will
direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and
treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen


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