The Interior Life, Meditation (6)

[Weedy]

The Interior Life, Meditation (6)

He who learns to live the interior life and to take little account of
outward things, does not seek special places or times to perform
devout exercises. A spiritual man quickly recollects himself because
he has never wasted his attention upon externals. No outside work, no
business that cannot wait stands in his way. He adjusts himself to
things as they happen. He whose disposition is well ordered cares
nothing about the strange, perverse behavior of others, for a man is
upset and distracted only in proportion as he engrosses himself in
externals.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 1

<<>><<>><<>>
February 11th - St. Gregory II

715 - 731
St. Gregory II was a Roman of noble family. From his youth a cleric,
Gregory was made treasurer by St. Sergius, and papal librarian. As a
deacon he accompanied Constantine on his visit to Justinian II and is
credited with the skillful answers which at once satisfied the
half-mad monarch and safeguarded Catholic doctrine and practice.
Gregory was consecrated on May 19, 715. A man of virtue and eloquence,
he was well versed in Holy Scripture. Above all, he was prudent and
firm.

Gregory II showed great interest in the vital work of conversion going
on in lands beyond the old empire's far-flung borders. He encouraged
St. Corbinian to keep on sacrificing his desire for solitude and
continue his work among the Bavarians. In 718 Pope Gregory received
Winfred, a zealous young English monk who sought his blessing on a
mission to the Germans. The Pope gave him not only a blessing but a
name glorious in the annals of Christianity--Boniface. He recalled St.
Boniface to Rome in 722, questioned him about his faith, and
thoroughly satisfied, consecrated him bishop and sent him back to his
Germans.

Gregory was fond of monks. He turned his ancestral mansion into a
monastery and rebuilt Monte Cassino. This mother abbey of the
Benedictines, destroyed by the Lombards around 580, had been a
desolate ruin. On the Lombards, Gregory had a good influence. He helped
them with their laws. But when these still untamed barbarians began
raiding imperial territory in Italy, Gregory tried to stop them.
Loyalty to the Emperor, however, was becoming difficult.

Leo III, a tough soldier from the Isaurian uplands, had saved the
empire from the Saracens by his spirited defense of Constantinople in
717. Leo was a very demanding tax gatherer. His impositions caused
discontent especially in Italy, where the small protection afforded by
imperial forces made high taxes seem a bad investment. Discontent
flamed higher when in 726 the Emperor touched not only his subjects'
purses but their devotion. Leo, rough soldier that he was, decided to
play the theologian. His pet idea was to forbid the use of sacred
images. Iconoclasm, the Greek word for image breaking, is a
Jewish-Moslem idea, quite alien to Christian tradition. The imperial
decree, issued in 726, provoked riot and rebellion in the East. More
constructively, it occasioned the masterful writings of the great
Eastern doctor of the Church, St. John Damascene.

The imperial decree forbidding images reached Italy in 727. Pope
Gregory held a synod at Rome which stated the traditional teaching of
the Church. He then wrote to Leo reproving him for his meddling and
teaching him the traditional doctrine of the Church. He quite bluntly
warned the Emperor against enforcing his decree in the West. The Pope
also supported the deposed patriarch of Constantinople and threatened
his intruded successor. Leo sent a fleet to seize the Pope, but a
storm destroyed it. He did seize the estates of Peter's patrimony in
Sicily and Calabria. His officials in Italy were prevented by the
aroused Italians and the Lombards from taking measures against the
Pope. The Italians wished to set up a rival emperor, but Gregory
dissuaded them. The extraordinary circumstances forced Gregory to
assume more temporal power in Rome.

http://www.cfpeople.org/Books/Pope/POPEp89.htm


Saint Quote:
What does it cost us to say: "My God help me! Have mercy on me!" Is
there anything easier than this? And this little will suffice to save us
if we be diligent in doing it.
-- St. Alphonsus Liguori

Bible Quote:
I will give glory to Thee, O Lord, O King, and I will praise Thee, O
God my Saviour. I will give glory to Thy name: for Thou hast been a
helper and protector to me. (Ecclesiasticus 51:1-2)

<><><><>
A Prayer for a Pure Heart and Heavenly Wisdom

Strengthen me, O Lord God, by the grace of Your Holy Spirit.(Ps.
51:12) Grant me inward power and strength (Eph.3:16) and empty my
heart of all profitless anxiety and care.(Matt.5:34) Let me never be
drawn away from You by desire for anything else, whether noble or
base, but help me to realize that all things are passing, and myself
with them. Nothing in this world is lasting, and everything in this
life is uncertain, troubling to the spirit (Eccles.1:14; 2:11) How
wise is the man who knows these truths! Grant me heavenly wisdom, O
Lord, that above all else I may learn to search for and discover You;
to know and love You; and to see all things as they really are and as
You in Thy wisdom have ordered them. May I prudently avoid those who
flatter me, and deal patiently with those who oppose me. True wisdom
cannot be swayed by every wordy argument, (Eph.4:14) and pays no
regard to the cunning flatteries of evil men. Only thus shall we go
forward steadily on the road on which we have set out.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 27


<><><><>
An innumerable company of angels

An innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of the just;
--we dwell under their shadow; we are baptized into their fellowship;
we are allotted their guardianship;
we are remembered, as we trust, in their prayers.
We dwell in the very presence and court of God himself,
and of his eternal Son our Savior, who died for us, and rose again,
and now intercedes for us before the throne.
We have privileges surely far greater than Elisha's;
But of the same kind. Angels are among us,
and are powerful to do anything.
And they do wonders for the believing,
which the world knows nothing about.
According to our faith, so it is done unto us.
Only believe, and all things are ours. We shall have clear and
deeply-seeded convictions in our minds of the reality of the invisible world,
though we cannot communicate them to others,
or explain how we come to have them.
--St. John Henry Newman