The Lord our God wants all of us to respect Him and do what He says. He wants you to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 10:12

One thought on “The Lord our God wants all of us to respect Him and do what He says. He wants you to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 10:12”

1. 😭49 years ago today, Palestinians invaded the Lebanese Christian town of Damour and massacred hundreds of civilians.
   Men were lined up against the walls of their homes and gunned down.
   Women were tortured and gang-raped.
   Babies were shot in the back of their heads.
   Pregnant women had their babies cut out of the womb.
   ‘It was an apocalypse’, said Father Labaky, a priest who survived the massacre.
   “They were coming in thousands, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad’, they were slaughtering everyone, men, women and children.”49 years ago today, Palestinians invaded the Lebanese Christian town of Damour and massacred hundreds of civilians.
   Men were lined up against the walls of their homes and gunned down.
   Women were tortured and gang-raped.
   Babies were shot in the back of their heads.
   Pregnant women had their babies cut out of the womb.
   ‘It was an apocalypse’, said Father Labaky, a priest who survived the massacre.
   “They were coming in thousands, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad’, they were slaughtering everyone, men, women and children.”
   1976
   reposting
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   January 9 Saint Julian, Martyr and Saint Basilissa: Converted Home into Hospital for Poor and Sick.
   Maria Angela Grow
   Jan 20
   READ IN APP
   January 9 Saint Julian, Martyr and Saint Basilissa: Converted Home into Hospital for Poor and Sick.
   († 313)
   Julian is the patron of hospitals.
   Basilissa is invoked against chilblains.
   .
   Saint Julian was born at Antinoe, in Egypt, of noble parents. As they were good and fervent Christians, they took great care to bring him up in the school of virtue. Hence, even in his earliest years, Julian showed by the innocence of his life and the fidelity wherewith he devoted himself to his religious duties, that he was called to accomplish one day great things for the glory of God and the salvation of his neighbor. From his very childhood, he seemed fully to understand that saying of the Apostle, “the fashion of this world passeth away.” The love of God, and God alone, filled his heart from earliest childhood.
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   Wherefore, he looked upon all the temporal blessings which God had bestowed upon him as a means to attain the end of his creation, and not as objects whereon a Christian may suffer his affections to rest – knowing how short-lived and uncertain they are. Accordingly he found his delight in reading the Sacred Writings and the records of the glorious deeds of the martyred Saints; while he would never grow weary of conversing with persons whom he knew to be faithful observers of the Divine Law. Thus he passed the days of his youth in preparing himself for the trials of life – which began with him much sooner than he had reason to anticipate.
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   At the age of 18, when his good parents thought that he had now come to man’s estate, and concluded that it would be best for him to settle in life by making choice of some virtuous person, who might be a suitable consort to accompany him on this world’s journey. This troubled him much, for he had read the saying of Saint Paul, ” He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.” i Cor. vii. 32, 33.
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   They were not a little astonished at the objections made by the youth, to whom every expression of their will or desire had ever been a law obeyed without hesitation.
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   He besought his parents to allow him to defer giving them a final answer till he had well considered their proposal during seven days. He now fasted, and watched, and prayed, revealing to God the desire of his heart, to keep his body in virginity, and his soul devoted to God alone. At the end of the seven days he saw Christ in a vision, who said to him, ” Fear not, Julian, to take thee a wife, and to fulfil the desire of thy parents. As virgins ye shall serve me, and I shall not be separated from you, and as virgins shall ye enter into my kingdom.” Then Julian was filled with great joy, and he considered whom he should choose. Now there was one maiden, Basilissa by name, who was well-known to his parents, and with whom he had been acquainted from childhood, and whom he loved for her whiteness of soul. Therefore he told his father that he consented to marry Basilissa. And she, on her side, was glad to be the wife of Julian, but her timid soul shrank from the cares and responsibilities of marriage, for she was as yet young and fresh to the world.
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   The marriage took place with all the boisterous merriment and display, usual then as now; and evening approaching, the young bride was led by the maidens, who were her fellows, to the nuptial chamber. Now when Julian entered, there came an odour in the apartment, as of lilies and roses, though the season was mid-winter, and an awe fell on their young hearts. And they put their hands together, and promised to serve God together in purity and fervour, with singleness of heart all their days. Then they were aware of One present in the room, and kneeling down, they fell prostrate, and besought Him to accomplish the good work He had begun in them. And when they looked up, the chamber was full of light, and they saw Jesus and Mary, and an innumerable company of virgin Saints. Then the Lord said, “Thou hast conquered, O Julian, thou hast conquered!” And the Blessed Virgin said, “Blessed art thou, Basilissa, who hast thus sought with single heart the glory that is eternal.”
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   Then said Jesus, “My soldiers, who have overcome the wiles of the old serpent, rise and behold what is prepared tor you!” Thereupon came two clothed in white robes, and girded about the loins with golden zones, having crowns of flowers in their hands, and they raised them from the ground and showed them an open book seven times brighter than silver, inscribed with golden letters, and round about it stood four elders, having vials in their hands of pure gold, from which ascended diverse odours. And one, answering, said, “In these four vials your perfection is contained. For out of these daily ascends an odour of sweet fragrance before the Lord. Therefore, blessed are ye, because ye have rejected the unsatisfying pleasures of this world to strive after those which are eternal, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.”
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   Then Julian looked, and beheld his name, and the name of his wife, Basilissa, written in the book. And the elder said, “In that book are written the chaste and the sober, the truthful and the merciful, the humble and gentle, those whose love is unfeigned, bearing adversities, patient in tribulation, and those who, for the love of Jesus Christ, have given up father and mother, and wife and children, and lands, for his sake, lest they should impede the progress oi their souls to perfection, and they who have not hesitated to shed their blood for his name, in the number of whom you also have merited to be written.”
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   Then the vision passed. But Julian and Basilissa spent the night in prayer, and singing joyful praises to the Lord.
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   Saint Julian and Saint Basilissa, though married, lived by mutual consent in perpetual chastity. They sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life.
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   And when his parents were dead, Julian divided his house and made it into a hospital, in which they sheltered up to a thousand poor people. All his substance he spent in relieving the necessities of the sick and suffering. Basilissa attended those of her sex in separate lodgings, and Julian, who for his charity is known as the Hospitaler, cared for the men.
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   Egypt, where they lived, was in those days blessed with persons who, either in the cities or in the deserts, devoted themselves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, and mortification. Conversions were numerous, and persecutions by furious pagans followed as the numbers of Christians increased. Basilissa, after having survived seven of those, died in peace, foretelling to her husband that he would die a martyr.
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   Julian lived afterwards for a number of years, but in 313, Marcian, Governor of Middle Egypt under Diocletian, had arrived in Antinoe to see that the edicts of his imperial master were enforced. By his order, in every street and market place some idol was put up, that no one might have a chance of selling or buying anything without first offering sacrifice. Moreover, he commanded every citizen to have in some prominent place of his dwelling a statue of Jupiter, as a proof of his fidelity to the religion of the empire. When it was reported to him that in the neighborhood there were living, under the care and direction of Julian, formerly a distinguished citizen of Antinoe, a great number of Christians, who were ready to suffer torments and death rather than offer incense to his gods, he grew exceedingly angry. Forthwith calling his Assessor, he ordered him to repair at once to the abode of these men, and to command them to comply without delay with the laws, that thus they might avoid the punishment prepared for the disobedient. The Assessor, accompanied by his assistant and some of the chief men of the city, straightway proceeded to execute the order of the Governor. Beside those who were there already, many other Christians, both of the clergy and laity, had come to seek an asylum near the Saint, feeling persuaded that, if they did not escape the dangers of the persecution, they should at least derive strength and courage from his words and example.
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   When the Governor heard that Julian and the brethren were resolved not to comply with his wicked commands, he flew into a great passion, and without considering the cruelty and injustice of the action, sent a band of soldiers with orders to consign to the flames all the dwellings of the servants of God with their inmates. He directed, however, that Julian himself, after witnessing the death of his spiritual children, should be brought to the city, that he might have the pleasure of interrogating and of punishing him, if he should refuse to yield to his wishes. In this manner, therefore, their faith being tried by fire, this numerous company of Martyrs went to receive the reward of their fidelity to their heavenly King. Nor was the fact of their living in glory left unknown to the people of the neighborhood. For, it is related that during many succeeding years they could daily be heard singing, at stated hours, both by day and by night, the offices of the Church, as they had been wont to do under the direction of their spiritual father. At the place, also, where the ruins of the buildings lay, all sorts of diseases continued to be healed, as of old, whenever the faithful resorted thither to implore the intercession of the holy cenobites
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   Julian was seized and subjected to cruel tortures. The governor, Marcian, ordered him to be dragged, laden with chains, and covered with wounds, about the city. As the martyr passed the school where Celsus, the son of the governor, was being instructed, the boys turned out into the street to see the soldier of Christ go by. Then suddenly the lad exclaimed, “I see angels accompanying, and extending a glorious crown to him. I believe, I believe in the God of the Christians!” And throwing away his books, he fell at the feet of Julian, and kissed his wounds. When the father heard this, he was filled with ungovernable fiiry, and believed that the Saint had bewitched the boy; he ordered them both to be cast into the lowest dungeon, a loathsome place, where the corrupting carcases of malefactors lay, devoured by maggots. But God filled this hideous pit with light, and transformed the stench into fragrant odours, so that the soldiers who kept the prison were filled with wonder, and believed. That same night, a priest, Antony, who lived with seven little boys, orphans committed to his care by their parents, summoned by God, came with these seven children to the prison. An angel went before them, and at his touch the gates flew open. Then Antony, the priest, baptized Celsus and the believing soldiers.
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   On the morrow the governor, supposing that the night in the pit had cured his son, sent him to his mother, and the boy, having related to her in order all he had seen and heard, she believed with her whole heart, and was baptized by the priest.
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   The governor, Marcian, ordered all these converts to death. With Julian died thirty-one other persons, including a priest named Anthony, a new Christian named Anastasius, Celsus, the seven-year-old son of the judge who sentenced Julian, Marcianilla, the mother of Celsus, who when she came to visit her son was won over to the faith, and many other Christians. Spared by fire and wild beasts, Saint Julian finally was decapitated.
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   During the night the Christians came, and, easily distinguished the Martyrs by a soft and mysterious light that shone from them; they took them up with great reverence and deposited them carefully beneath the altar in one of the churches. Here many healings, both of body and soul, were performed in behalf of persons who came to implore the intercession of the Saints with God.
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   Julian’s tomb became illustrious by many great miracles, including the cure of ten lepers on the same day.
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   Many churches and hospitals, in both the East and in the West, bear the name of one or another of these martyrs. Four churches at Rome and three in Paris are dedicated to Saint Julian.
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   Reflection. God often rewards men for works that are pleasing in His sight by giving them grace and opportunity to do other works higher still. Such was the case for Saint Julian, whose posthumous miracles attained prodigious numbers.
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   Eternal Father, I wish to honor Saints Julian and Basilissa, and I give Thee thanks for all the graces Thou hast bestowed upon them. I ask Thee to please increase grace in my soul through the merits of these saints, and I commit the end of my life to them by this special prayer, so that by virtue of Thy goodness and promise, Saints Julian and Basilissa might be my advocate and provide whatever is needed at that hour. Amen.

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