Live here as one about to migrate

Saint Dorothea's Day - Herbert James Draper

 "O Death, where is thy victory? O Death, where is thy sting?" With this happy home awaiting us with the arms of Jesus outstretched to welcome us we need ask no more about our future joy and blessedness. A home that shall last forever, that shall never be broken into by deaths or departures, not marred by any jealousy or strife : a home that shall know no disappointments, no coldness of affection, no fears for those we love ; this is what our hear of hearts needs, and longs for, and cannot find on earth. This is what is prepared above awaiting us, if we will but accept it. 

Such is your inheritance, your future fortune. You are already a member of that family. " A fellow citizen with the saints." The sense of this high connection, this heavenly relationship should be always in you, while you travel here in exile through this vale of tears. It should give you interior dignity, a self respect, a reserve in using the things of earth. For here you are a stranger and a pilgrim ; there you will be at home. The ideas and tastes of home, the principles and virtues of your Father's house should influence and determine your conduct here ; and it should be clear to every one that you, you at least, have no abiding mansion in this world, and no desire to barter away your inheritance, and sell your birth right for a bowl of pottage.

 Let no one tell you that the thought of death will sadden or depress your present life. IT will indeed occasion a becoming moderation and reserve in the use of pleasure, it will also save you from a servitude to mundane things ; but it will not touch your happiness except to heighten it. 

They are the brightest, the sunniest soul, they the most serene and courteous, whose conversation is in heaven, and who use the world without abusing it. For them, its joys, its love, its duties, its sorrows, have all a rich meaning and significance, a promise and a brightness from the light of the world to come. 

UT MIGRATUS HABITA 

Some sixteen hundred years ago, among the people to whom life was a real watching for the coming of Christ our Lord, there lived a young girl whose parents had named her Dorothea, which means "a gift from God."

She was born and grew up in the city of Caesarea, then a prosperous and splendid place ; and when she was seventeen years of age, a most fierce persecution broke out against those who had elsewhere, not here, an abiding city ; whose conversation and citizenship was of heaven. The hour came when Dorothea was called before the Prefect, Fabricius, to answer for her faith. She knew no fear ; and so great was her courage, her grace and beauty, so admirable her bearing, that the Prefect marvelled, and at last was moved to love. "I will not condemn her to death," he thought, " I will save her by a handsome bribe." So he offered her his hand in marriage. She answered : 

I am a Prince's bride. In heaven - unseen - He dwells. I join Him through the gates of death ; And happier am I than earth's proudest queen."

Then the Prefect pressed his suit upon her, and promised to dower her with his great estates, with large rich orchards and gardens of flowers, " In heaven are better flowers and fruits than any of the earth." she said, and 

"If I shall die, the sooner shall my eyes behold His presence Whom I long to see, in Whom I live, Who is my heavenly Spouse, Who dwells in paradise, with Whom I long to be, leaving this poor dead earth, and know The heavenly fruits of His garden grow. 

"There the soft unfailing sun shines always, and the sowing time is one with reaping ; fruit and flower together spring upon the trees ; and all the choir of flowers lift up their silent song to the unclouded heaven."

Among the attendants at the Prefect's Court was a certain youthful lawyer, by the name Theophilus, who with the rest, smiled and laughed and scoffed, calling Dorothea a silly girl.

It was a cold December day, and snow lay white upon the ground when St. Dorothea was taken out to martyrdom. Theophilus was there in the crows that stood and watched her pass onward toward her death. He stared in silence till she had gone by, and then mockingly cried after her ; "Send me, this wintry day, some fresh fruit and flowers from Paradise, and I will believe in your heaven and in Christ." The maiden paused ; looked back ; stood mute ; nodded and said : I will.

That evening, so runs the legend, while Theophilus was seated at supper, there entered noiselessly and stood beside him:

A youthful angel fair, With locks of gold and eyes as blue as heaven ; And in his hands he bore a basket, and within three golden fruits of paradise, of scent and hue divine, and with them three fair roses.

"From Dorothea these," he said ; " she awaits thee in the garden whence they came."

His eyes were opened ; he weighed the message in his heart ; he prayed ; and later, dying a martyr, St Theophilus met St. Dorothea in Paradise.

Surely for such as these it is not the substance of death but the shadow only that darkens the earth.

"Though I would walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."