How Truth Instructs us in Silence: (III)

[Rich]

How Truth Instructs us in Silence: (III)

Therefore, let not Moses speak to me, but You, O Lord my God, the
Everlasting Truth, lest I die and bear no fruit if I am but warned in
word, and not kindled at heart; lest it turn to my condemnation, if I
hear Your word, but do no obey it; know it, but do not love it;
believe it, but do not keep it. Therefore, Speak, Lord, for Your
servant is listening. `You have the words of eternal life.'(John 6:68)
Speak to me, Lord, and comfort my soul: order my life to Your praise,
glory, and eternal honour.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 2

<<>><<>><<>>
25 May – St Pope Gregory VII

(1015-1085)
Monk, Priest, Reformer, Administrator, Adviser, born Hildebrand of
Sovana (Italian: Ildebrando da Soana), was Pope from 22 April 1073 to
his death in 1085. Patronage – Diocese of Sovana. St Pope Gregory was
born in c 1015 in Soana (modern Sovana), Italy and died on 25 May 1085
at Salerno, Italy of natural causes.

Pope Gregory “was probably the most energetic and determined man ever
to occupy the See of Peter and was driven by an almost mystically
exalted vision of the awesome responsibility and dignity of the papal
office” (Eamonn Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes.

A disciple of Pope Gregory VI
Born at Sovana, a small town in southern Tuscany, the son of a
blacksmith and christened Hildebrand, he was educated in Rome by the
archpriest John Gratian, who in 1045 became Pope Gregory VI. However,
because of a financial deal involved in getting rid of his corrupt
predecessor, Gregory was deposed in 1046 by the reforming German king
and Holy Roman Emperor Henry III and went into retirement in the
Benedictine monastery of Cluny, France. Hildebrand went with his
master into exile at Cluny and spent three years there as a monk.

Ambassador of four popes
However, he returned to Rome in 1049 to serve the newly elected Pope
St Leo IX as papal treasurer. Hildebrand became a deacon and then
prior of the monastery of St Paul’s Outside the Walls and was an
assistant to a major influence on the next four popes, all of whom
were reformers. He was also successful in various ambassadorial roles.
On the death of Pope Alexander II (1061-73, he was elected pope by
popular acclaim by the clergy and people of Rome. He still had to be
ordained priest and bishop before he could act as pope.

Conflict with King Henry IV of Germany
Taking his name from his mentor Gregory VI, Gregory VII immediately
set about cleaning up the abuses of simony, clerical concubinage and
lay investiture. He demanded that bishops take an oath of obedience to
him and threatened those who wouldn’t carry out papal decrees. Over
lay investiture he faced opposition from King Philip I of France,
William the Conqueror of England and the young King Henry IV of
Germany. Henry, whose father had appointed bishops and popes at will,
resented the brusqueness of this new pontiff and gathered “his”
bishops at Worms and insisted Gregory be deposed. But Gregory then
excommunicated Henry and all the bishops collaborating with him and
absolved his subjects from allegiance. Ecclesiastical support for
Henry cracked and in 1077 he had to travel to the house of Matilda of
Canossa in Italy where Gregory was staying and there he begged the
Pope’s pardon and absolution. Gregory left Henry standing in
humiliation for three days in the snow before eventually granting him
pardon.

Pyrrhic victory and death
But Gregory’s victory was short lived. Henry rallied his forces and in
1080 invaded Italy, captured Rome, declared Gregory deposed. He
installed an antipope Guibert of Ravenna as Clement III. Gregory took
refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo, invited in the Normans under Robert
Guiscard to rescue him. However, the Normans behaved so badly in Rome
that the Romans turned on Gregory and forced him to retire first to
Monte Cassino and then to Salerno south of Naples where he died. His
last words were famously an adaptation of Psalm 44 (45) verse 7: “I
have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile”.

Papal claims
Gregory’s pontificate represents a strong staking out of the papal
claim of power over the secular world and though he achieved little,
the spirit of papal reform continued and the papacy never receded from
its claims to freedom from secular and political control in spiritual
matters. From this time on also the pope began to be presented not
just as the vicar of St Peter, but as “the vicar of Christ himself”
(Innocent III 1198-1216).

His influence
Gregory’s beatification (1585) and canonisation (1605) took place at a
time when the papacy was in conflict with secular powers – Queen
Elizabeth I and James I in England. His feast was extended to the
universal Church in 1728, causing some fury among proponents of
Gallicanism in France.
He was later seen as a precursor of Vatican I with its definition of
the doctrine of papal infallibility . One could perhaps be forgiven
for detecting a hint of spin or ideology in his promotion but the
tyrannies of the 20th century bear out the value of his insistence on
the freedom of the Church in speaking out on spiritual matters.

https://anastpaul.com/2018/05/25/


Saint Quote:
Can the life of a good Christian be anything other than that of a man
nailed to the Cross with Jesus Christ?
-- Saint John Vianney

Bible Quote:
Wonder not at this: for the hour cometh wherein all that are in the
graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done
good things shall come forth unto the resurrection of life:
but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.
[John 5:28,29] DRB


<><><><>
A short invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the Roman Breviary:

We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God; despise not thou our
petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin.