SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

TRUE PRAYER

 

PRAYER
And He said to them, “When you pray, say: 
‘Father, hallowed be Your name. 
Your kingdom come. 
Give us each day our daily bread. 
And forgive us our sins, 
For we ourselves also forgive 
everyone who is indebted to us. 
And lead us not into temptation.’”

Luke 11:2-4

What prayer could be more true before God the Father than that which the Son, who is Truth, uttered with His own lips? -- St John Chrysostom

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving (Col 4:2). And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints (Eph 6:18).

I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me (Rom 15:30). For I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance (Phil 1:19).

Have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You (2 Chr 6:19).




FEAR BECAUSE OF SIN

 

FEAR
"Do not be afraid; 
for God has come in order to test you, 
and in order that the fear of Him 
may remain with you, 
so that you may not sin."

Exodus 20:20

He who walks along a precipice, although he may not fall over, yet he trembles and often falls through that very fear. Even so, he who flies not far from sin, but keeps near to it, lives in continual fear, and often falls. -- St John Chrysostom

Blessed are those who fear to do wrong, but the stubborn are headed for serious trouble (Prv 28:14). Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning (1 Tim 5:20). By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, And by the fear of the LORD one keeps away from evil (Prv 16:6). Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still (Ps 4:4).



VIRTUOUS LIFE

 

VIRTUOUS
"The path of the virtuous leads away from evil; 
whoever follows that path is safe."

Proverbs 16:17

It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life. Necessity urges us to pray for ourselves. Fraternal Charity obliges us to pray for others. God finds the prayer motivated by charity to be more meritorious than the prayer motivated by necessity.  -- St John Chrysostom

The righteous LORD loves justice. The virtuous will see his face (Ps 11:7). The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness (Prv 11:5). And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it (Is 35:8). The wicked bluff their way through, but the virtuous think before they act (Prv 21:29).

O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure (Ps 7:9). You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand (Ps 16:11). Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you (Ps 140:13). And I--in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness (Ps 17:15).


FRIENDSHIP WITH THE LORD

 

FRIENDS
"On behalf of a man he pleads with God 
as a man pleads for his friend."

Job 16:21

When you perceive that God is chastening you, fly not to his enemies...but to his friends, the martyrs, the saints, and those who were pleasing to him, and who have great power in God.  -- St John Chrysostom : Orations 396AD

Eating and drinking don't make friendships - such friendship even robbers and murderers have. But if we are friends, if we truly care for one another, let's help one another spritually....Let's hinder those things that lead our friends away to hell. -- St. John Chrysostom

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God (2 Jn 1:11).

Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (Jas 4:4).






Published:
January 12, 2013 - 7:52AM

SAINT JOHN BOSCO

CAREER OR VOCATION

 

PREDESTINED
And he trembling and astonished said, 
Lord, what will you have me to do? 
And the Lord said unto him, 
Arise, and go into the city, 
and it shall be told you what you must do.

Acts 9:6

It is important that you choose your career with care, so that you may really follow the vocation that God has destined for you. No day should pass without some prayer to this end. Often repeat with St. Paul: "Lord, what will you have me do?" -- St John Bosco



PRUDENT RESERVE

 

PRUDENT
Therefore at such a time 
the prudent person keeps silent, 
for it is an evil time. 

Amos 5:13

The principal safeguard is a prudent reserve, and not allowing liberties to be taken with you. Purity is a precious jewel, and the owner of a precious stone would never dream of making a display of his riches in the presence of thieves.  -- St John Bosco


A prudent man conceals knowledge, But the heart of fools proclaims folly (Prv 12:23). The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps (Prv 14:15).

Prudence is a gift of the Holy Spirit, one of the cardinal virtues. We need to be cunning as serpents and wise as doves. Prudence tells us that we should be practical in affairs and cautious in our undertakings. The prudent man looks where he is going (Proverbs 14:15). To be prudent is to discern the good in a given circumstance and the right means of achieving it (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1806).

Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues (Prv 10:19). . .


BAD CONVERSATION CAN HARM YOUNG LISTENERS

ARGUMENT
An argument arose among the disciples 

about which of them was the greatest.

Luke 9:46

No matter how good food is, if poison is mixed with it, it may cause the death of him who eats it. So it is with conversation. A single bad word, an evil action, an unbecoming joke, is often enough to harm one or more young listeners, and may later cause them to lose God's grace.-- St John Bosco

INTENTION OF HEART

Jesus realized the intention of their hearts 

and took a child and placed it by his side.

Luke 9:47

And said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.”   -- Luke 9:48

Things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders which he has wrought. That the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. (Psalms 78: 3, 4, 6 - 8)

PREACHING THE WORD

Many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, 

 not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them. 

Mark 2:2

"Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Mark 2:7)

And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question thus in your hearts?

Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Rise, take up your pallet and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he said to the paralytic -- "I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home." (Mark 2:8-11)  
 
Good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. (Hebrews 4:2)



Father in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, your word that nourishes our mind, heart, body and soul. Let not our words lead us to sin but for the praise and glory of your Name through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco

St. John Bosco known as Don Bosco

Founder of the Salesian Society. Born of poor parents in a little cabin at Becchi, a hill-side hamlet near Castelnuovo, Piedmont, Italy, 16 August, 1815; died 31 January 1888; declared Venerable by Pius X, 21 July, 1907. Note: Pope Pius XI beatified him in 1929 and canonized him in 1934.

John's early years were spent as a shepherd and he received his first instruction at the hands of the parish priest. He possessed a ready wit, a retentive memory, and as years passed his appetite for study grew stronger. Owing to the poverty of the home, however, he was often obliged to turn from his books to the field, but the desire of what he had to give up never left him. In 1835 he entered the seminary at Chieri and after six years of study was ordained priest on the eve of Trinity Sunday by Archbishop Franzoni of Turin.

Leaving the seminary, Don Bosco went to Turin where he entered zealously upon his priestly labours. It was here that an incident occurred which opened up to him the real field of effort of his afterlife. One of his duties was to accompany Don Cafasso upon his visits to the prisons of the city, and the condition of the children confined in these places, abandoned to the most evil influences, and with little before them but the gallows, made such a indelible impression upon his mind that he resolved to devote his life to the rescue of these unfortunate outcasts. On the eighth of December, 1841, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, while Don Bosco was vesting for Mass, the sacristan drove from the Church a ragged urchin because he refused to serve Mass. Don Bosco heard his cries and recalled him, and in the friendship which sprang up between the priest and Bartolomeo Garelli was sown the first seed of the "Oratory", so called, no doubt, after the example of St. Philip Neri and because prayer was its prominent feature. Don Bosco entered eagerly upon the task of instructing this first pupil of the streets; companions soon joined Bartolomeo, all drawn by a kindness they had never known, and in February, 1842, the Oratory numbered twenty boys, in March of the same year, thirty, and in March, 1846, four hundred.

As the number of boys increased, the question of a suitable meeting-place presented itself. In good weather walks were taken on Sundays and holidays to spots in the country about Turin where lunch was eaten, and realizing the charm which music held for the untamed spirits of his disciples Don Bosco organized a band for which some old brass instruments were procured. In the autumn of 1844 he was appointed assistant chaplain to the Rifugio, where Don Borel entered enthusiastically into his work. With the approval of Archbishop Franzoni, two rooms were secured adjoining the Rifugio and converted into a chapel, which was dedicated to St. Francis de Sales. The members of the Oratory now gathered at the Rifugio, and numbers of boys from the surrounding district applied for admission. It was about this time (1845) that Don Bosco began his night schools and with the closing of the factories the boys flocked to his rooms where he and Don Borel instructed them in rudimentary branches.

The success of the Oratory at the Rifugio was not of long duration. To his great distress Don Bosco was obliged to give up his rooms and from this on he was subjected to petty annoyances and obstacles which, at times, seemed to spell the ruin of his undertaking. His perseverance in the face of all difficulties led many to the conclusion that he was insane, and an attempt was even made to confine him in an asylum. Complaints were lodged against him, declaring his community to be a nuisance, owing to the character of the boys he befriended. From the Rifugio the Oratory was moved to St. Martin's, to St. Peter's Churchyard, to three rooms in Via Cottolengo, where the night schools were resumed, to an open field, and finally to a rough shed upon the site of which grew up an Oratory that counted seven hundred members. Don Bosco took lodgings nearby, where he was joined by his mother. "Mama Margaret", as Don Bosco's mother came to be known, gave the last ten years of her life in devoted service to the little inmates of this first Salesian home. When she joined her son at the Oratory the outlook was not bright. But sacrificing what small means she had, even to parting with her home, its furnishings, and her jewelry, she brought all the solicitude and love of a mother to these children of the streets. The evening classes increased and gradually dormitories were provided for many who desired to live at the Oratory. Thus was founded the first Salesian Home which now houses about one thousand boys.

The municipal authorities by this time had come to recognize the importance of the work which Don Bosco was doing, and he began with much success a fund for the erection of technical schools and workshops. These were all completed without serious difficulty. In 1868 to meet the needs of the Valdocco quarter of Turin, Don Bosco resolved to build a church. Accordingly a plan was drawn in the form of a cross covering an area of 1,500 sq. yards. He experienced considerable difficulty in raising the necessary money, but the charity of some friends finally enabled him to complete it at a cost of more than a million francs (about 200,000). The church was consecrated 9 June, 1868, and placed under the patronage of Our Lady, Help of Christians. In the same year in which Don Bosco began the erection of the church fifty priests and teachers who had been assisting him formed a society under a common rule which Pius IX, provisionally in 1869, and finally in 1874, approved.
Character and growth of the oratory

Any attempt to explain the popularity of the Oratory among the classes to which Don Bosco devoted his life would fail without an appreciation of his spirit which was its life. For his earliest intercourse with poor boys he had never failed to see under the dirt, the rags, and the uncouthness the spark which a little kindness and encouragement would fan into a flame. In his vision or dream which he is said to have had in his early boyhood, wherein it was disclosed to him what his life work would be, a voice said to him: "Not with blows, but with charity and gentleness must you draw these friends to the path of virtue." And whether this be accounted as nothing more than a dream, that was in reality the spirit with which he animated his Oratory. In the earlier days when the number of his little disciples was slender he drew them about him by means of small presents and attractions, and by pleasant walks to favorite spots in the environs of Turin. These excursions occurring on Sunday, Don Bosco would say Mass in the village church and give a short instruction on the Gospel; breakfast would then be eaten, followed by games; and in the afternoon Vespers would be chanted, a lesson in Catechism given, and the Rosary recited. It was a familiar sight to see him in the field surrounded by kneeling boys preparing for confession.

Don Bosco's method of study knew nothing of punishment. Observance of rules was obtained by instilling a true sense of duty, by removing assiduously all occasions for disobedience, and by allowing no effort towards virtue, how trivial soever it might be, to pass unappreciated. He held that the teacher should be father, adviser, and friend, and he was the first to adopt the preventive method. Of punishment he said: "As far as possible avoid punishing . . . . try to gain love before inspiring fear." And in 1887 he wrote: "I do not remember to have used formal punishment; and with God's grace I have always obtained, and from apparently hopeless children, not alone what duty exacted, but what my wish simply expressed." In one of his books he has discussed the causes of weakness of character, and derives them largely from a misdirected kindness in the rearing of children. Parents make a parade of precocious talents: the child understands quickly, and his sensitiveness enraptures all who meet him, but the parents have only succeeded in producing an affectionate, perfected, intelligent animal. The chief object should be to form the will and to temper the character. In all his pupils Don Bosco tried to cultivate a taste for music, believing it to be a powerful and refining influence. "Instruction", he said, "is but an accessory, like a game; knowledge never makes a man because it does not directly touch the heart. It gives more power in the exercise of good or evil; but alone it is an indifferent weapon, wanting guidance." He always studied, too, the aptitudes and vocations of his pupils, and to an almost supernatural quickness and clearness of insight into the hearts of children must be ascribed no small part of his success. In his rules he wrote: "Frequent Confession, frequent Communion, daily Mass: these are the pillars which should sustain the whole edifice of education." Don Bosco was an indefatigable confessor, devoting days to the work among his children. He recognized that gentleness and persuasion alone were not enough to bring to the task of education. He thoroughly believed in play as a means of arousing childish curiosity — more than this, he places it among his first recommendations, and for the rest he adopted St. Philip Neri's words: "Do as you wish, I do not care so long as you do not sin."
Statistics

At the time of Don Bosco's death in 1888 there were 250 houses of the Salesian Society in all parts of the world, containing 130,000 children, and from which there annually went out 18,000 finished apprentices. In the motherhouse Don Bosco had selected the brightest of his pupils, taught them Italian, Latin, French, and mathematics, and this band formed a teaching corps for the new homes which quickly grew up in other places. Up to 1888 over six thousand priests had gone forth from Don Bosco's institutions, 1,200 of whom had remained in the society. The schools begin with the child in his first instruction and lead, for those who choose it, to seminaries for the priesthood. The society also conducts Sunday schools, evening schools for adult workmen, schools for those who enter the priesthood late in life, technical schools, and printing establishments for the diffusion of good reading in different languages. Its members also have charge of hospitals and asylums, nurse the sick, and do prison work, especially in rural districts. The society has houses in the following countries: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Palestine, and Algiers; in Central America, Mexico, in South America, Patagonia, Terra del Fuego, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, The Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia. In the United States the Salesians have four churches: Sts. Peter and Paul and Corpus Christi in San Francisco, California; St. Josephs in Oakland, California; and the Transfiguration in New York City. Very Rev. Michael Borghino, Provincial for America, resides in San Francisco.

Source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02689d.htm

Published: 
September 30, 2013 - 8:58AM
January 18, 2013 - 6:16 AM

THE ASSUMPTION

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name". -- Luke 1:46-49

The Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life. The Virgin Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." Mary's assumption is a divine gift to her as the 'Mother of God'. Mary completed her life as a shining example to the human race, the perspective of the gift of assumption is offered to the whole human race.

The Assumption is a major feast day, commonly celebrated on August 15. In many countries it is a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation.

In  John 14:3, Jesus tells his disciples at the Last Supper, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also."

Mary is the pledge of the fulfillment of Christ's promise. The Assumption and her acceptance into the glory of Heaven is seen as the symbol of the promise made by Jesus to all enduring Christians that they too will be received into paradise.

The prophet's words: "I will glorify the place of my feet," [Isaiah 60:13] is certain that the divine Redeemer had bedecked with supreme glory his most beloved Mother from whom he had received human flesh. A clear statement that the Blessed Virgin has been assumed in her body, where was the place of the Lord's feet…"

In Luke 1:28, words used by the angel who addressed her "Hail, full of grace" stated clearly and incisively that she was exempted from the fourfold curse that had been laid upon Eve [cf. Genesis 3:16]. It is entirely certain that God would never have permitted her body to have been resolved into dust and ashes.

In Song of Songs 8:5, "Who is this that comes up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?" From this we can see that she is there bodily…her blessedness would not have been complete unless she were there as a person. The soul is not a person, but the soul, joined to the body, is a person. It is manifest that she is there in soul and in body. Otherwise she would not possess her complete beatitude.

1 Corinthians 15 reads, "For by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But every one in his own order: the firstfruits Christ, then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming. Afterwards the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have brought to nought all principality, and power, and virtue. For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet. And the enemy death shall be destroyed last: For he hath put all things under his feet."

In this passage Paul alludes to Genesis 3:15 (in addition to the primary reference of Psalms 8:6), where it is prophesied that the seed of the woman will crush Satan with his feet. Since, then, Jesus arose to Heaven to fulfill this prophecy, it follows that the woman would have a similar end, since she shared this enmity with Satan.  The struggle against the infernal foe which, as foretold in the protoevangelium [i.e. Genesis 3:15], would finally result in that most complete victory over the sin and death which are always mentioned together in the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Consequently, just as the glorious resurrection of Jesus was an essential part and the final sign of this victory, so that struggle which was common to the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son should be brought to a close by the glorification of her virginal body, for the same Apostle says: "When this mortal thing hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory."

Psalms 132, a liturgical psalm commemorating the return of the Ark of God to Jerusalem[30] and lamenting its subsequent loss. The second half of the psalm says that the loss will be recompensed in the New Covenant, and so it is hopefully prayed, "Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place: thou and the ark, which thou hast sanctified". Since the Church sees this New Covenant ark in Mary, it understands that she was taken into Heaven in the same manner as the Lord – that is, body and soul.

Psalms 45:9–17 for support of a heavenly Queen present bodily with the heavenly King Jesus, and Song of Songs 3:6, 4:8, and 6:9, which speaks of David's lover "that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer".

In Revelation 12:1-2, "that woman clothed with the sun" whom John the Apostle contemplated on the Island of Patmos" as support for the doctrine. The text seems to parallel this woman with the woman of the Genesis 3 prophecy (and hence Mary): for in verse 9 the passage recalls "that old serpent" of Genesis 3, and reflects the prophecy that God would place "enmities between thee [i.e. Satan] and the woman, and thy seed and her seed" when it says that Satan "was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed" (Rev. 12:17).

All these passages – viz., John 14:3, Isaiah 60:13, Luke 1:28, Song of Songs 8:5, 1st Corinthians 15:21–26, Psalms 132:8, Psalms 45:9–17, Song of Songs 3:6, 4:8, 6:9, Genesis 3:15, and Revelation 12:1–2 – are drawn upon as Scriptural support of the Assumption both in that original document, and today by Catholic apologists.

Published:
August 15, 2011 - 8:27AM

POPE ST. PIUS X

"There is no truth, and there is no mercy, 

and there is no knowledge of God in the land" 

(Hosea 4:1).  

 
Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet Hosea. Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man. -- Pope St. Pius X

O most sweet Jesus, who came into this world to give to all souls the life of your grace, and who, to preserve and increase it in them, willed to be the daily remedy of their weakness and the food for each day, we humbly beseech you, by your heart so burning with love for us, to pour your divine Spirit upon all souls in order that those who have the misfortune to be in the state of mortal sin may, returning to you, find the life of grace that they have lost. Through this same Holy Spirit, may those who are already living by this divine life devoutly approach your divine table every day when it is possible, sot that, receiving each day in Holy Communion the antidote of their daily venial sins and each day sustaining in themselves the life of your grace and thus ever purifying themselves the more, they may finaly come to a happy life with you. Amen. -- Pope St. Pius X

Pope Pius X

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pope Saint Pius X (2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914), born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was Pope from 4 August 1903 to his death in 1914. He was canonized in 1954. He was born in the town of Riese, which would later append "Pio X" (Pius X's name in Italian) to the town's name.

DEVOTED TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Pius X was particularly devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the specific title of Our Lady of Confidence; his papal encyclical Ad Diem Illum expresses his desire through Mary to renew all things in Christ, which he had defined as his motto in his first encyclical. Pius X believed that there was no surer or more direct road than by the Virgin Mary to achieve this goal.

OPPOSED TO MORDERNISM

Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox theology. His most important reform was to publish the first Code of Canon Law, which collected the laws of the Church into one volume for the first time. He vehmently opposed modernism, which claimed that Roman Catholic dogma should be modernized and blended with nineteenth-century philosophies. He viewed modernism as an import of secular errors affecting three areas of Roman Catholic belief: theology, philosophy, and dogma.

DEFENDED THE CATHOLIC FAITH AGAINST INDIFFERNTISM AND RELATIVISM

Pius X defended the Catholic faith against popular 19th-century attitudes and views such as indifferentism and relativism which his predecessors had warned against as well. He followed the example of Leo XIII by promoting Thomas Aquinas and Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions.


PASTORAL EXPERIENCE AND IMPLEMENTATION AT THE PARISH LEVEL

He was also considered a pastoral pope, in the sense of encouraging personal holiness, piety and a daily lifestyle reflecting deep Christian values. He wanted to be pastoral in the sense that he was the only pope in the 20th century who gave Sunday homily sermons in the pulpit every week.

Pius X was the only pope in the 20th century with extensive pastoral experience and implementation at the parish level, in the sense that he favoured the use of the vernacular language in teaching catechesis while the encouragement for frequent communion became a lasting innovation of his papacy.


STRONG SENSE OF COMPASSION, BENEVOLENCE, AND POVERTY

Personally, Pius X combined within himself a strong sense of compassion, benevolence and poverty, but also stubbornness and a certain stiffness. He often referred to his own humble origins, taking up the causes of poor people. I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I wish to die poor.

He rejected any kind of favours for his family; his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome. 


Published:
September 12, 2010 - 5:54AM

SAINT CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

“Do whatever He tells you.”

John 2:5  

DO WHAT CHRIST TELLS YOU

How can a man say he believes in Christ if he doesn't do what Christ commanded him to do?  -- St. Cyprian of Carthage
 

DAY OF JUDGMENT

These days no one thinks of the fears that the future holds. No one takes to heart the day of judgement, and the wrath of God. The punishments to come to unbelievers, and the eternal torments decreed for the faithless. If only they believed, they would heed, and if they took heed, they would escape. -- St. Cyprian of Carthage


GOD TO HIMSELF

Whatever a man prefers to God, that he makes a god to himself. -- St Cyprian

Cyprian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cyprian (Latin: Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus) (c. 200 – September 14, 258) was bishop of Carthage and an important Early Christian writer, many of whose Latin works are extant. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. After converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in 249 and eventually died a martyr at Carthage.

Cyprian was a leading member of legal fraternity in Carthage, He was well into middle age when he was converted to Christianity and baptised. The site of his eventual martyrdom was his own villa. Before becoming a Christian, he was an orator, "pleader in the courts", and a teacher of rhetoric. The date of his conversion is unknown, but after his baptism about 245–248 he gave away a portion of his wealth to the poor of Carthage, as befitted a man of his status.

His original name was Thascius; he took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the presbyter to whom he owed his conversion. In the early days of his conversion he wrote an Epistola ad Donatum de gratia Dei and the Testimoniorum Libri III that adhere closely to the models of Tertullian, who influenced his style and thinking.

Not long after his baptism he was ordained deacon, and soon afterward presbyter; and some time between July 248 and April 249 he was chosen bishop of Carthage, a popular choice among the poor who remembered his patronage as demonstrating good equestrian style, while a portion of the presbytery opposed it, for all Cyprian's wealth and learning and diplomacy and literary talents. Moreover, the opposition within the church community at Carthage did not dissolve during his episcopacy.

Soon, however, the entire community was put to an unwanted test. Christians in North Africa had not suffered persecution for many years; the church was assured and lax. Early in 250 the "Decian persecution" began. Measures were first taken demanding that the bishops and officers of the church sacrifice to the emperor. The proconsul on circuit, and five commissioners for each town, administered the edict; but, when the proconsul reached Carthage, Cyprian had fled.

It is quite evident in the writings of the church fathers from various dioceses that the Christian community was divided on this occasion, among those who stood firm in civil disobedience, and those who buckled, submitting in word or in deed to the order of sacrifice and receiving a ticket or receipt called a "libellus." Cyprian's secret departure from Carthage was interpreted by his enemies as cowardice and infidelity, and they hastened to accuse him at Rome. The Roman clergy wrote to Cyprian in terms of disapproval. Cyprian rejoined that he fled in accordance with visions and the divine command. From his place of refuge he ruled his flock with earnestness and zeal, using a faithful deacon as his intermediary.
Controversy over the lapsed

The persecution was especially severe at Carthage, according to Church sources. Many Christians fell away, and were thereafter referred to as "lapsi", but afterwards asked to be received again into the Church. Their requests were granted early, with no regard being paid to the demand of Cyprian and his faithful among the Carthaginian clergy, who insisted upon earnest repentance. The confessors among the more liberal group intervened to allow hundreds of the lapsed to return to the Church.

Though he had remained in seclusion himself, Cyprian now censured all laxity toward the lapsed, refused absolution to them except in case of mortal sickness, and desired to postpone the question of their re-admission to the Church to quieter times. A schism broke out in Carthage. Felicissimus, who had been ordained deacon by the presbyter Novatus during the absence of Cyprian, opposed all steps taken by Cyprian's representatives. Cyprian deposed and excommunicated him and his supporter Augendius. Felicissimus was upheld by Novatus and four other presbyters, and a determined opposition was thus organized.

When, after an absence of fourteen months, Cyprian returned to his diocese, he defended leaving his post in letters to the other North African bishops and a tract "De lapsis," and called a council of North African bishops at Carthage to consider the treatment of the lapsed and the apparent schism of Felicissimus (251). The council in the main sided with Cyprian and condemned Felicissimus, though no acts of this council survive. The "libellatici" were to be restored at once upon sincere repentance; but such as had taken part in heathen sacrifices could be received back into the Church only when on the point of death. Afterward this regulation was essentially mitigated, and even these were restored if they repented immediately after a sudden fall and eagerly sought absolution; though clerics who had fallen were to be deposed and could not be restored to their functions.

In Carthage the followers of Felicissimus elected Fortunatus as bishop in opposition to Cyprian, while in Rome the followers of the Roman presbyter Novatian, who also refused absolution to all the lapsed, elected their man as bishop of Rome, in opposition to Cornelius. The Novatianists secured the election of a rival bishop of their own at Carthage, Maximus by name. Novatus now left Felicissimus and followed the Novatian party.

But these extremes strengthened the firm but moderating influence exhibited in Cyprian's writings, and the following of his opponents grew less and less. He rose still higher in the favor of the people when they witnessed his self-denying devotion during the time of a great plague and famine.

He comforted his brethren by writing his "De mortalitate," and in his "De eleemosynis" exhorted them to active charity towards the poor, while he set the best pattern by his own life. He defended Christianity and the Christians in the apologia "Ad Demetrianum," directed against a certain Demetrius and the reproach of the heathens that Christians were the cause of the public calamities.

At the end of 256 a new persecution of the Christians under Emperor Valerian I broke out, and both Pope Stephen I and his successor, Pope Sixtus II, suffered martyrdom at Rome.

In Africa Cyprian courageously prepared his people for the expected edict of persecution by his "De exhortatione martyrii," and himself set an example when he was brought before the Roman proconsul Aspasius Paternus (August 30, 257). He refused to sacrifice to the pagan deities and firmly professed Christ.

The consul banished him to Curubis, modern Korba, whence he comforted to the best of his ability his flock and his banished clergy. In a vision he saw his approaching fate. When a year had passed he was recalled and kept practically a prisoner in his own villa, in expectation of severer measures after a new and more stringent imperial edict arrived, demanding the execution of all Christian clerics, according to reports of it by Christian writers.

On September 13, 258, he was imprisoned at the behest of the new proconsul, Galerius Maximus. The day following he was examined for the last time and sentenced to die by the sword. His only answer was "Thanks be to God!" The execution was carried out at once in an open place near the city. A vast multitude followed Cyprian on his last journey. He removed his garments without assistance, knelt down, and prayed. After he blindfolded himself, he was beheaded by the sword.

The body was interred by Christian hands near the place of execution, and over it, as well as on the actual scene of his death, churches were afterward erected, which, however, were destroyed by the Vandals. Charlemagne is said to have had the bones transferred to France, and Lyons, Arles, Venice, Compiegne, and Roenay in Flanders claim the possession of the martyr's relics.


Published: 
March 21, 2014 - 7:26AM
September 23, 2013 - 9:32AM

SAINT CATHERINE OF GENOA

SELF WILL

"I can do nothing on my own initiative. 

As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, 

because I do not seek my own will, 

but the will of Him who sent Me."

John 5:30

Our self will is so subtle and so deeply rooted within us, so covered with excuses and defended by false reasoning, that it seems to be a demon. When we cannot do our own will in one way, we do it in another, under all kinds of pretexts. -- St. Catherine of Genoa

Catherine of Genoa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, 1447 – 15 September 1510) is an Italian Roman Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor and remembered because of various writings describing both these actions and her mystical experiences. She was a member of the noble Fieschi family, and spent most of her life and her means serving the sick, especially during the plague which ravaged Genoa in 1497 and 1501. She died in that city in 1510.

Her fame outside her native city is connected with the publication in 1551 of the book known in English as the Life and Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa. She and her teaching were the subject of Baron Friedrich von Hügel's classic work The Mystical Element of Religion (1908).

For about 25 years, St. Catherine, though frequently going to confession, was unable to open her mind for direction to anyone; but towards the end of her life a Father Marabotti was appointed to be her spiritual guide. He had been a director of the hospital where her husband died in 1497. To him she explained her states, past and present, and he compiled the Memoirs. During this period, her life was devoted to her relationship with God, through "interior inspiration" alone.

In 1551, 41 years after her death, a book about her life and teaching was published, entitled Libro de la vita mirabile et dottrina santa de la Beata Caterinetta de Genoa. This is the source of her "Dialogues on the Soul and the Body" and her "Treatise on Purgatory", which are often printed separately. Her authorship of these has been denied, and it used to be thought that another mystic, the Augustinian canoness Battistina Vernazza, who lived in a monastery in Genoa from 1510 till her death in 1587, had edited the two works, a suggestion discredited by recent scholarship, which attributes a large part of both works to St. Catherine, though they received their final literary form only after her death.

Catherine's thought on purgatory, for which she is particularly known, and her way of describing it has original characteristics in relation to her era.

Catherine's writings were examined by the Vatican's Holy Office and pronounced to contain doctrine that would be enough, in itself, to prove her sanctity, and she was beatified in 1675 by Pope Clement X, and canonized in 1737 by Pope Clement XII. Her writings also became sources of inspiration for other religious leaders such as Saints Robert Bellarmine and Francis de Sales and Cardinal Henry Edward Manning. St Catherine of Genoa's liturgical feast is celebrated on 15 September. Pope Pius XII declared her patroness of the hospitals in Italy.

SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

COMPLETE SURRENDER

This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Rise up, be off to the potter’s house; there I will give you my message. I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. -- Jeremiah 18:1-6


Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly. -- St Ignatius Loyola

ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

St. Ignatius of Loyola  was a Spanish knight from a local noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and was its first Superior General. Ignatius emerged as a religious leader during the Counter-Reformation. Loyola's devotion to the Catholic Church was characterized by absolute obedience to the Pope.

During his period of convalescence in 1521, Ignatius read a series of religious texts, on the life of Jesus and on the lives of the saints; he became fired with an ambition to lead a life of self-denying labour and to emulate the heroic deeds of Francis of Assisi and other great monastics. He resolved to devote himself to the conversion of non-Christians in the Holy Land. Ignatius also began seeing a series of visions in full daylight while in hospital. These repetitive visions appeared as "a form in the air near him and this form gave him much consolation because it was exceedingly beautiful … it somehow seemed to have the shape of a serpent and had many things that shone like eyes, but were not eyes. He received much delight and consolation from gazing upon this object … but when the object vanished he became disconsolate." In 1523, he instituted a pilgrimage to the Holy Land on a path of self-denial and sacrifice.

Ignatius was beatified by Pope Paul V on July 27, 1609 and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622. His feast day is celebrated annually on July 31, the day he died. Saint Ignatius is venerated as the patron saint of Catholic soldiers, the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Basque country and various towns and cities in his native region.




Published: 6/29/13-7:08AM
Source: EWTN

SAINT IRENAEUS

WORD BECAME MAN

For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God. -- St. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses

MAN BEARS THE DIVINE FORM
 
God fashioned man with his own hands [that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit] and impressed his own form on the flesh he had fashioned, in such a way that even what was visible might bear the divine form. -- St. Irenaeus

DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, ONE TRADITION

For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the Celts, nor those of the East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at the centre of the world. . .-- St. Iranaeus, Adversus haereses

LANGUAGE AND TRADITION

Irenaeus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Irenaeus was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire (now Lyons, France). He was an early Church Father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology. He was a hearer of Polycarp, who in turn was traditionally a disciple of John the Evangelist.

Irenaeus' best-known book, Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies (c. 180) is a detailed attack on Gnosticism, which was then a serious threat to the Church, and especially on the system of the Gnostic Valentinus. As one of the first great Christian theologians, he emphasized the traditional elements in the Church, especially the episcopate, Scripture, and tradition. Against the Gnostics, who said that they possessed a secret oral tradition from Jesus himself, Irenaeus maintained that the bishops in different cities are known as far back as the Apostles—and none of them was a Gnostic—and that the bishops provided the only safe guide to the interpretation of Scripture.[3] His writings, with those of Clement and Ignatius, are taken as among the earliest signs of the developing doctrine of the primacy of the Roman see.[2] Irenaeus is the earliest witness to recognition of the canonical character of all four gospels.[4]

Irenaeus is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. His feast day is on June 28 in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, where it was inserted for the first time in 1920; in 1960 it was transferred to July 3, leaving June 28 for the Vigil of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, but in 1969 it was returned to June 28, the day of his death.[5] The Lutheran Church,[6][7] commemorates[8] Irenaeus on that same date for his life of exemplary Christian witness. In the Orthodox Church his feast day is 23 August.




Published: Feb. 12, 2013 - 7:08AM; March 12, 2013 6:29 AM; April 12, 2013 - 6:43AM; July 5, 2013 - 8:44AM; July 30, 2013 - 6:38AM

Saint Martha

Martha

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martha of Bethany is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She is the middle child of her family with Lazarus being the eldest and her sister Mary the youngest. She was witness to Jesus' resurrection of her brother, Lazarus.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Mary and Martha. The two sisters are contrasted: Martha was "cumbered about many things" while Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen "the better part", that of listening to the master's discourse. The name of their village is not recorded, nor any mention of whether Jesus was near Jerusalem:

In the Gospel of John, Martha and Mary appear in connection with two incidents: the raising from the dead of their brother Lazarus (John 11) and the anointing of Jesus in Bethany (John 12:3).

In the account of the raising of Lazarus, Jesus meets with the sisters in turn: Martha followed by Mary. Martha goes immediately to meet Jesus as he arrives, while Mary waits until she is called. As one commentator notes, "Martha, the more aggressive sister, went to meet Jesus, while quiet and contemplative Mary stayed home. This portrayal of the sisters agrees with that found in Luke 10:38-42."[4] In speaking with Jesus, both sisters lament that he did not arrive in time to prevent their brother's death: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21,32). But where Jesus' response to Mary is more emotional, his response to Martha is one of teaching calling her to hope and faith.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

RESURRECTION 

God [the Son] did not impede death from separating his soul from his body according to the necessary order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the Resurrection, so that he himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for death and life, by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts.

Gregory of Nyssa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gregory of Nyssa, also known as Gregory Nyssen (c. 335 – c. 395), was bishop of Nyssa from 372 to 376 and from 378 until his death. He is venerated as a saint in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism. Gregory, his brother Basil of Caesarea, and Gregory of Nazianzus are collectively known as the Cappadocian Fathers.

Gregory lacked the administrative ability of his brother Basil or the contemporary influence of Gregory of Nazianzus, but he was an erudite theologian who made significant contributions to the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene creed. Gregory's philosophical writings were influenced by Origen. Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a significant increase in interest in Gregory's works from the academic community, particularly involving universal salvation, which has resulted in challenges to many traditional interpretations of his theology.

Background

In the book of Acts, it depicts that at on the Day of Pentecost, that there were visiting Jews who were "residents of...Cappadocia"[1] in attendance. In the First Epistle of Peter, written after AD 65, the author greets Christians who are "exiles scattered throughout…Cappodicia." There is no further reference to Cappadocia in the rest of the New Testament.

Christianity arose in Cappadocia relatively late with no evidence of a Christian community before the late second century AD.[2] Alexander of Jerusalem was the first bishop of the province in the early to mid third century, a period in which Christians suffered persecution from the local Roman authorities.[2][3] The community remained very small throughout the third century: when Gregory Thaumaturgus acceded to the bishopric in c. 250, according to his namesake, the Nyssen, there were only seventeen members of the Church in Caesarea.[4]

Cappadocian bishops were among those at the Council of Nicaea. Because of the broad distribution of the population, rural bishops [χωρεπισκοποι] were appointed to support the Bishop of Caesarea. During the late fourth century there were around fifty of them. In Gregory's lifetime, the Christians of Cappadocia were devout, with the cults of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste and Saint George being particularly significant and represented by a considerable monastic presence. There were some adherents of heretical branches of Christianity, most notably Arians, Encratites and Messalians.[5]

Biography
Early life and education

Gregory was born around 335, probably in or near the city of Neocaesarea, Pontus.[6] His family was aristocratic and Christian - according to Gregory of Nazianzus, his mother was Emmelia of Caesarea, and his father, a rhetorician, has been identified either as Basil the Elder or as a Gregory.[6][7] Among his nine siblings were St. Macrina the Younger, St. Naucratius, St. Peter of Sebaste and St. Basil of Caesarea. The precise number of children in the family was historically contentious: the commentary on 30 May in the Acta Sanctorum, for example, initially states that they were nine, before describing Peter as the tenth child. It has been established that this confusion occurred due to the death of one son in infancy, leading to ambiguities in Gregory's own writings.[8] Gregory's parents had suffered persecution for their faith: he writes that they "had their goods confiscated for confessing Christ."[9] Gregory's maternal grandmother, Macrina the Elder is also revered as a saint[10] and his maternal grandfather was a martyr as Gregory put it "killed by Imperial wrath"[9] under the persecution of the Roman Emperor Maximinus II.[11] Between the 320's to the early 340's the family rebuilt its fortunes, with Gregory's father working in the city of Neocaeaseria as an advocate and rhetorician.[12]

Gregory's temperament is said to be quiet and meek, in contrast to his brother Basil who was known to be much more outspoken.[13]

Gregory was first educated at home, by his mother Emmelia and sister Macrina. Little is known of what further education he received. Apocryphal hagiographies depict him studying at Athens, but this is speculation probably based on the life of his brother Basil.[14] It seems more likely that he continued his studies in Caesarea, where he read classical literature, philosophy and perhaps medicine.[15] Gregory himself claimed that his only teachers were Basil, "Paul, John and the rest of the Apostles and prophets".[16]

While his brothers Basil and Naucratius lived as hermits from c. 355, Gregory initially pursued a non-ecclesiastical career as a rhetorician. He did however, act as a lector.[15] He is known to have married a woman named Theosebia during this period, who is sometimes identified with Theosebia the Deaconess, venerated as a saint by Orthodox Christianity. This is controversial, however, and other commentators suggest that Theosebia the Deaconess was one of Gregory's sisters.[17][18]

Episcopate

In 371, the Emperor Valens split Cappadocia into two new provinces, Cappadocia Prima and Cappadocia Secunda.[19] This resulted in complex changes in ecclesiastical boundaries, during which several new bishoprics were created. Gregory was elected bishop of the new see of Nyssa in 372, presumably with the support of his brother Basil, who was metropolitan of Caesarea.[20] Gregory's early policies as bishop often went against those of Basil : for instance, while his brother condemned the Sabellianist followers of Marcellus of Ancyra as heretics, Gregory may have tried to reconcile them with the church.[20]

Gregory faced opposition to his reign in Nyssa, and, in 373 Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium had to visit the city to quell discontent. In 375 Desmothenes of Pontus convened a synod at Ancyra to try Gregory on charges of embezzlement of church funds and irregular ordination of bishops. He was arrested by imperial troops in the winter of the same year, but escaped to an unknown location. The synod of Nyssa, which was convened in the spring of 376, deposed him.[21] However, Gregory regained his see in 378, perhaps due to an amnesty promulgated by the new emperor Gratian. In the same year Basil died, and despite the relative unimportance of Nyssa, Gregory took over many of his brother's former responsibilities in Pontus.[22]
The First Council of Constantinople, as depicted in a fresco in the Stavropoleos Monastery, Bucharest, Romania.

He was present at the Synod of Antioch in April 379, where he unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile the followers of Meletius of Antioch with those of Paulinus.[23] After visiting the village of Annisa to see his dying sister Macrina, he returned to Nyssa in August. In 380 he travelled to Sebaste, in the province of Armenia Prima, to support a pro-Nicene candidate for the election to the bishopric. To his surprise, he himself was elected to the seat, perhaps due to the population's association of him with his brother.[24] However, Gregory deeply disliked the relatively unhellenized society of Armenia, and he was confronted by an investigation into his orthodoxy by local opponents of the Nicene theology.[24] After a stay of several months, a substitute was found - possibly Gregory's brother Peter, who was bishop of Sebaste from 381 - and Gregory returned home to Nyssa to write books I and II of Against Eunomius.[24]

Gregory participated in the First Council of Constantinople (381), and perhaps gave there his famous sermon In suam ordinationem. He was chosen to eulogise at the funeral of Melitus, which occurred during the council. The council sent Gregory on a mission to Arabia, perhaps to ameliorate the situation in Bostra, where two men, Agapius and Badagius, claimed to be bishop. If this is the case, Gregory was unsuccessful, as the see was still contested in 394.[24][25] He then travelled to Jerusalem, where Cyril of Jerusalem faced opposition from local clergy due to the fact that he had been ordained by Acacius of Caesarea, an Arian heretic. Gregory's attempted mediation of the dispute was unsuccessful, and he himself was accused of holding unorthodox views on the nature of Christ.[25] His later reign in Nyssa was marked by conflict with his Metropolitan, Helladius. Gregory was present at a 394 synod convened at Constantinople to discuss the continued problems in Bostra. The year of his death is unknown.[26]
Theology

The traditional view of Gregory is that he was an orthodox Trinitarian theologian, who was influenced by the neoplatonism of Plotinus and believed in universal salvation following Origen.[27] However, as a highly original and sophisticated thinker, Gregory is difficult to classify, and many aspects of his theology are contentious among both conservative Orthodox theologians and Western academic scholarship.[28] This is often due to the lack of systematic structure and the presence of terminological inconsistencies in Gregory's work.[29]
Conception of the Trinity

Gregory, following Basil, defined the Trinity as "one essence [οὐσία] in three persons [ὑποστάσεις]", the formula adopted by the Council of Constantinople in 381.[30] Like the other Cappadocian Fathers, he was a homoousian, and Against Eunomius affirms the truth of the consubstantiality of the trinity over Eunomius' Platonic belief that the Father's substance is unengendered, whereas the Son's is engendered.[31] According to Gregory, the differences between the three persons of the Trinity reside in their relationships with each other, and the triune nature of God is revealed through divine action (despite the unity of God in His action).[32][33] The Son is therefore defined as begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father and the Son, and the Father by his role as progenitor. However, this doctrine would seem to subordinate the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to the Son. Robert Jenson suggests that Gregory implies that each member of the Godhead has an individual priority: the Son has epistemological priority, the Father has ontic priority and the Spirit has metaphysical priority.[34] Other commentators disagree: Morwenna Ludlow, for instance, argues that epistemic priority resides primarily in the Spirit in Gregory's theology.[35]

Modern proponents of social Trinitarianism often claim to have been influenced by the Cappadocians' dynamic picture of the Trinity.[36] However, it would be fundamentally incorrect to identify Gregory as a social Trinitarian, as his theology emphasises the unity of God's will, and he clearly believes that the identities of the Trinity are the three persons, not the relations between them.[29][35]

Infinitude of God

Gregory was one of the first theologians to argue, in opposition to Origen, that God is infinite. His main argument for the infinity of God, which can be found in Against Eunomius, is that God's goodness is limitless, and as God's goodness is essential, God is also limitless.[37]

An important consequence of Gregory's belief in the infinity of God is his belief that God, as limitless, is essentially incomprehensible to the limited minds of created beings. In Life of Moses, Gregory writes: "...every concept that comes from some comprehensible image, by an approximate understanding and by guessing at the Divine nature, constitutes a idol of God and does not proclaim God."[38] Gregory's theology was thus apophatic: he proposed that God should be defined in terms of what we know He is not rather than what we might speculate Him to be.[39]

Accordingly, the Nyssen taught that due to God's infinitude, a created being can never reach an understanding of God, and thus for man in both life and the afterlife there is a constant progression [ἐπέκτασις] towards the unreachable knowledge of God, as the individual continually transcends all which has been reached before.[40] In the Life of Moses, Gregory speaks of three stages of this spiritual growth: initial darkness of ignorance, then spiritual illumination, and finally a darkness of the mind in mystic contemplation of the God who cannot be comprehended.[41]
Universalism

In the Life of Moses, he writes that just as the darkness left the Egyptians after three days, perhaps redemption [ἀποκατάστασις] will be extended to those suffering in hell [γέεννα].[42] This salvation may not only extend to humans; following Origen, there are passages where he seems to suggest (albeit through the voice of Macrina) that even the demons will have a place in Christ's "world of goodness".[43] Gregory's interpretations of 1 Corinthians 15:28 ("And when all things shall be subdued unto him ...") and Philippians 2:10 ("That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth") support this understanding of his theology.[43]

However, in the Great Catechism, Gregory suggests that while every human will be resurrected, salvation will only be accorded to the baptised, although he also states that others driven by their passions can be saved after being purified by fire.[44] While he believes that there will be no more evil in the hereafter, it is arguable that this does not preclude a belief that God might justly damn sinners for eternity.[45] Thus, the main difference between Gregory's conception of ἀποκατάστασις and that of Origen would be that Gregory believes that mankind will be collectively returned to sinlessness, whereas Origen believes that personal salvation will be universal.[45]

Attempting to reconcile these disparate positions, Orthodox theologian Mario Baghos notes that "when taken at face value the saint seems to be contradicting himself in these passages; on the one hand he asserted the salvation of all and the complete eradication of evil, and, on the other, that the fire needed to purge evil is ‘sleepless’, i.e. everlasting. The only solution to this inconsistency is to view any allusion to universal salvation in St Gregory as an expression of God’s intention for humanity, which is in fact attested to when his holy sister states that God has “one goal […] some straightway even in this life purified from evil, others healed hereafter through fire for the appropriate length of time.” That we can choose either to accept or ignore this purification is confirmed by the saint’s many exhortations that we freely undertake the virtuous path." [46]

Anthropology

Gregory's anthropology is founded on the ontological distinction between the created and uncreated. Man is a material creation, and thus limited, but infinite in that his immortal soul has an indefinite capacity to grow closer to the divine.[47] Gregory believed that the soul is created simultaneous to the creation of the body (in opposition to Origen, who believed in preexistence), and that embryos were thus persons. To Gregory, the human being is exceptional, being created in the image of God.[48] Humanity is theomorphic both in having self-awareness and free will, the latter which gives each individual existential power, because to Gregory, in disregarding God one negates one's own existence.[49] In the Song of Songs, Gregory metaphorically describes human lives as paintings created by apprentices to a master: the apprentices (the human wills) imitate their master's work (the life of Christ) with beautiful colors (virtues), and thus man strives to be a reflection of Christ.[50] Gregory, in stark contrast to most thinkers of his age, saw great beauty in the Fall: from Adam's sin from two perfect humans would eventually arise myriad.[50]

Gregory was also one of the first Christian voices to say that slavery as an institution was inherently sinful.[51] He believed that slavery violated mankind's inherent worth, and the nature of humanity to be free. In Homilies on Ecclesiastes, he wrote: "'I got me slave-girls and slaves.' For what price, tell me? What did you find in existence worth as much as this human nature? What price did you put on rationality? How many obols did you reckon the equivalent of the likeness of God? How many staters did you get for selling that being shaped by God? God said, Let us make man in our own image and likeness. If he is in the likeness of God, and rules the whole earth, and has been granted authority over everything on earth from God, who is his buyer, tell me? Who is his seller? To God alone belongs this power; or, rather, not even to God himself. For his gracious gifts, it says, are irrevocable. God would not therefore reduce the human race to slavery, since he himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God's?"[52]

Neoplatonism

There are many similarities between Gregory's theology and neoplatonist philosophy, especially that of Plotinus.[53] Specifically, they share the idea that the reality of God is completely inaccessible to human beings and that man can only come to see God through a spiritual journey in which knowledge [γνῶσις] is rejected in favour of meditation.[54] Gregory does not refer to any neoplatonist philosophers in his work, and there is only one disputed passage which may directly quote Plotinus.[55] Considering this, it seems possible that Gregory was familiar with Plotinus and perhaps other figures in neoplatonism. However, some significant differences between neoplatonism and Gregory's thought exist, such as Gregory's statement that beauty and goodness are equivalent, which contrasts with Plotinus' view that they are two different qualities.[56]

Eastern Orthodox theologians are generally critical of the theory that Gregory was influenced by neoplatonism. For example, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos argues in Life After Death that Gregory opposed all philosophical (as opposed to theological) endeavour as tainted with worldliness.[57] This view is supported by Against Euthonius, where Gregory denounces Euthonius for placing the results of his systematic Aristotelean philosophy above the traditional teachings of the Church.[31]


Legacy

Gregory is revered as a saint. However, unlike the other Cappadocian fathers, he is not a Doctor of the Church. He is venerated chiefly in the East. His relics were held by the Vatican until 2000, when they were translated to the Greek Orthodox church of St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Diego, California.[58]

Gregory's work received little scholarly attention in the West until the mid-twentieth century, and he was historically treated as a minor figure in comparison to Basil the Great or Gregory of Nazianzus.[59] As late as 1942, Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote that his work was virtually unknown.[60] In part due to the scholarship of Balthasar and Jean Daniélou, by the 1950s Gregory became the subject of much serious theological research, with a critical edition of his work published (Gregorii Nysseni Opera), and the founding of the International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa.[59] This attention has continued to the present day. Modern studies have mainly focused on Gregory's eschatology rather than his more dogmatic writings, and he has gained a reputation as an unconventional thinker whose thought arguably prefigures postmodernism.[61] Major figures in contemporary research include Sarah Coakley, John Zizioulas and Robert Jenson.[62][63]
Commentary on Gregory

In 787 AD, the Seventh Ecumenical Council of the Church, (also known as the Second Council of Nicea) honored Gregory of Nyssa:

    "Let us then, consider who were the venerable doctors and indomitable champions of the Church...[including] Gregory Primate of Nyssa, who all have called the father of fathers."[64]

Henry Fairfield Osborn wrote in his work on the history of evolutionary thought, From the Greeks to Darwin (1894):

    Among the Christian Fathers the movement towards a partly naturalistic interpretation of the order of Creation was made by Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century, and was completed by Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries. ...[Gregory] taught that Creation was potential. God imparted to matter its fundamental properties and laws. The objects and completed forms of the Universe developed gradually out of chaotic material. [65]

Anthony Meredith writes of Gregory's mystical and apophatic writings in his book Gregory of Nyssa (The Early Church Fathers) (1999):

    "Gregory has often been credited with the discovery of mystical theology, or rather with the perception that darkness is an appropriate symbol under which God can be discussed. There is much truth in this....Gregory seems to have been the first Christian writer to have made this important point..."[66]

J. Kameron Carter writes about Gregory's stance on slavery, in the book Race a Theological Account (2008):

    "What interests me is the defining features of Gregory's vision of the just society: his unequivocal stance against 'the peculiar institution of slavery' and his call for the manumission of all slaves. I am interested in reading Gregory as a fourth century abolitionist intellectual....His outlook surpassed not only St. Paul's more moderate (but to be fair to Paul, in his moment, revolutionary) stance on the subject but also those of all ancient intellectuals -- Pagan, Jewish and Christian - from Aristotle to Cicero and from Augustine in the Christian West to his contemporary, the golden mouthed preacher himself, John Crysotom in the East. Indeed, the world would have to wait another fifteen centuries -- until the nineteenth century, late into the modern abolitionist movement -- before such an unequivocal stance against slavery would appear again."[67]

STS. JOACHIM AND ANNE

Joachim ("he whom YHWH has set up") was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary the mother of Jesus, according to the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the apocryphal Gospel of James. Joachim and Anne are not mentioned in the Bible. His feast day is July 26.

Since the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke do not explicitly name either of Mary's parents, but apparently name two different fathers for Saint Joseph, many scholars from John of Damascus (8th century), and particularly Protestant scholars, argue that the genealogy in Luke is actually the family tree of Mary, and that Heli is her father.[2] To resolve the problem of Joseph having two fathers - one descended from Solomon, one descended from Nathan, son of David, traditions from the 7th century specify that Heli was a first cousin of Joachim.[3]

According to tradition, Saint Anne was born in Bethlehem, and married Joachim of Nazareth, both descendants of David.[4] In the Protoevangelium of James, Joachim is described as a rich and pious man, who regularly gave to the poor and to the synagogue at Sepphoris. Tradition has it that the parents of the Blessed Virgin, who, apparently, first lived in Galilee, came later on to settle in Jerusalem.[5] However, as his wife was barren, the high priest rejected Joachim and his sacrifice, as his wife's childlessness was interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure. Joachim consequently withdrew to the desert where he fasted and did penance for forty days. Angels then appeared to both Joachim and Anne to promise them a child. Joachim later returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate. There was ancient belief that a child born of an elderly mother who had given up hope of having offspring was destined for great things. Parallels occur in the Old Testament in the case of Hannah, mother of Samuel.[6]

The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne were included in the Golden Legend and remained popular in Christian art until the Council of Trent restricted the depiction of apocryphal events.

No liturgical celebration of Saint Joachim was included in the Tridentine Calendar. It was added to the General Roman Calendar in 1584, for celebration on March 20, the day after the feast day of Saint Joseph. In 1738, it was transferred to the Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption of Mary. As part of his effort to allow the liturgy of Sundays to be celebrated, Pope Pius X transferred it to August 16, the day after the Assumption, so that Joachim may be remembered in the celebration of Mary's triumph.[7] It was then celebrated as a Double of the 2nd Class, a rank that was changed in 1960 to that of 2nd Class Feast. In the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar it was joined to that of Anne, for celebration on July 26.[8]

The Eastern Orthodox Churches and Greek Catholics commemorate Joachim on September 9, the Synaxis of Joachim and Anne, the day after the Nativity of the Theotokos. (Wikipedia)

SAINT ANSELM OF CANTERBURY

God has promised pardon to the one who repents, 
but He has not promised repentance to the one who sins!

Background:

Saint Anselm of Canterbury, also called Anselm of Aosta for his birthplace, and Anselm of Bec for his home monastery, was a Benedictine monk, philosopher, and prelate of the Church, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109.
 
Born: 1033, Aosta, Italy
Died: April 21, 1109, Canterbury, United Kingdom
Full name: Anselmo d'Aosta

Source: Wikipedia

SAINT CLAUDE DE LA COLOMBIERE

PLEASING OTHER MEN
 
To prefer man to God: A strange and unhappy slavery is that of a man who seeks to please other men. I vow never to do anything nor to leave anything undone because of what people think. This will set up in me a great interior peace.

SAINT JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE

PURITY


Vigilance and prayer are the safeguards of chastity. You should pray often and fervently to be preserved from temptations against purity, and for the grace to overcome them.
 
Guard your eyes that they may not look upon anything contrary to purity; your ears, that they may not listen to evil conversation; your mind, by banishing from it all suggestive thoughts; your heart, by stifling impure desires at their very birth. 

Published: November 14, 2010 - 5:39AM

SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES

Today is the Feast of St. Francis de Sales. Francis was a man who knew intimately the loving nature of God and wrote some wonderful explanations of it for posterity. It is very rewarding to reflect on his writings today, centuries after he wrote them. Let us pray that we will be more concerned with receiving God’s love for us and sharing it than wreaking vengeance on the lives of those towards whom we are jealous. (Kerygma)

WITHOUT ANY RESERVE

There are many who say to the Lord, "I give myself wholly to Thee, without any reserve," but there are few who embrace the practice of this abandonment, which consists in receiving with a certain indifference every sort of event, as it happens in conformity with Divine Providence, as well afflictions as consolations, contempt and reproaches as honor and glory. -St. Francis de Sales.

Give it all to God!

Many times in our lives we say, "We surrender everything to you Lord for we trust in you". This usually happens when we are in a state of experiencing problems and difficulties. When things turn out to be well again, we tend to go back to our old ways of doing things on our own.

If we are made to give up something which is of value to us, we struggle with God's Will. This kind of reservation limits us to what we have and prevents us from receiving an even more overflowing of God's graces.

Afflictions are consolations. You must first fall before you can stand. You must first be sick before you can get healed. No one receives consolation if he is not under the state of affliction.

Friend, you may be in a state of affliction but be rest assured that its end result is consolation. You shall again stand and be healed by the Lord. Surrender everything to Him for with God, nothing is impossible.

Lord, you are my consolation in times of affliction. I may not fully understand why I am passing through such painful and difficult situation but I just ask you to give me enough strength, will, and determination to accept my ordeal and persevere towards the glorious prize that awaits me. Take full control of my mind and heart not to waiver in  this pursuit for your greater glory, honor and praise. With much hope and faith I pray, in Jesus Name. Amen.


THE MEASURE OF LOVE
Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

St. Francis de Sales said, “The measure of love is to love without measure.” Today’s saint was bishop of Geneva and spiritual director of St. Jeanne de Chantal and many others. When Protestantism spread throughout Europe, most Catholic leaders reacted defensively. Francis de Sales was different. He perceived the Reformation as a call to conversion and to a more intense effort to achieve holiness. His preaching became known because of his love, moderation and balance. He did not, like many other spiritual guides, impose the usual harsh disciplines or force the faithful to make a drastic choice between good and evil. For him, the intensity of one’s charity is more important than self-mortification. This reflects the ministry of Jesus, who reached out and called all to “love God and love neighbor.”

The only complaint against Francis came from rigorist critics who charged that he made it appear all too easy to become a saint. While most spiritual books were for clerics and nuns, he addressed his Introduction to the Devout Life and his Treatise on the Love of God also to lay people. Francis taught that one could become a saint wherever one lives in the world. He wrote, “Devotion is to be practiced differently by the noble, the worker, the servant, the prince, the widow, the young girl, the wife.”

For him, genuine devotion is simply true love of God. He wrote, “In holy Church, all is by love, in love, for love and of love.” These simple words make us check whether in our lives all is by, in, for and of love. Love is the key to other persons’ hearts and to the heart of God. Of course, it needs time and effort to achieve genuine and profound love of God. We get easily discouraged when we commit the same mistake again.

Let us end with his very practical advice for our prayer life: “A single ‘Our Father,’ said with feeling, has greater value than many repetitions, said quickly and hurriedly.”


REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Do you get easily discouraged because of your repeated failures? Are you gentle and understanding when you meet erring fellowmen?


Lord, today I thank You for giving the Church a man like St. Francis de Sales. Make me more understanding, gentle and compassionate with my fellowmen.

Published: Sept. 12, 2013 - 9:11AM