Out of sight, out of mind

[rich]

Out of sight, out of mind

Christ is gone away; he is not seen; we never saw him, we only
read and hear of him. It is an old saying, "Out of sight, out of
mind." Be sure, so it will be, so it must be with us, as regards our
blessed Savior, unless we make continual efforts all through the day
to think of him, his love, his precepts, his gifts, and his promises.
We must recall to mind what we read in the gospels and in holy books
about him; we must bring before us what we have heard in church; we
must pray God to enable us to do so, to bless the doing so, and to
make us do so in a simple-minded, sincere, and reverential spirit. In
a word, we must meditate, for all this is meditation; and this even
the most unlearned person can do, and will do, if he has a will to do
it.
--John Henry Newman

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October 7th - Pope St. Mark

Constantine the Great's letter, which summoned a conference of bishops
for the investigation of the Donatist dispute, is directed to Pope
Miltiades and one Mark (Eusebius, Church History X.5). This Mark was
evidently a member of the Roman clergy, either priest or first deacon,
and is perhaps identical with the pope. The date of Mark's election
(18 Jan., 336) is given in the Liberian Catalogue of popes (Duchesne,
“Liber Pontificalis”, I, 9), and is historically certain; so is the
day of his death (7 Oct.), which is specified in the same way in the
“Depositio episcoporum” of Philocalus's “Chronography”, the first
edition of which appeared also in 336.

After the death of Pope Sylvester, Mark was raised to the Roman
episcopal chair as his successor. The “Liber Pontificalis” says that
he was a Roman, and that his father's name was Priscus. Concerning an
interposition of the pope in the Arian troubles, which were then so
actively affecting the Church in the East, nothing has been handed
down. An alleged letter of his to St. Athanasius is a later forgery.

Two constitutions are attributed to Mark by the author of the “Liber
Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 20). According to the one, he invested
the Bishop of Ostia with the pallium, (The white wool of the symbolic
pallium is worn across the shoulders, to symbolize the lost sheep
recovered by the Good Shepherd of Christ’s parable) and ordained that
this bishop was to consecrate the Bishop of Rome. It is certain that,
towards the end of the fourth century, the Bishop of Ostia did bestow
the episcopal consecration upon the newly-elected pope; Augustine
expressly bears witness to this (Breviarium Collationis, III, 16). It
is indeed possible that Mark had confirmed this privilege by a
constitution, which does not preclude the fact that the Bishop of
Ostia before this time usually consecrated the new pope.

As for the bestowal of the pallium, the account cannot be established
from sources of the fourth century, since the oldest memorials which
show this badge, belong to the fifth and sixth centuries, and the
oldest written mention of a pope bestowing the pallium dates from the
sixth century (cf. Grisar, “Das römische Pallium und die altesten
liturgischen Schärpen”, in “Festschrift des deutschen Campo Santo in
Rom”, Freiburg im Br., 1897, 83-114).


Saint Quote:
At the resurrection the substance of our bodies, however
disintegrated, will be united. We must not fear that the omnipotence
of God cannot recall all the particles that have been consumed by fire
or by beast, or dissolved into dust and ashes, or decomposed into
water, or evaporated into air.
--St. Augustine, The City of God

Bible Quote:
Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God. But exhort one
another every day, whilst it is called to day, that none of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers
of Christ: yet so, if we hold the beginning of his substance firm unto
the end. [Hebrews 3:12-14] DRB


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A prayer-hymn for virtue:
A tone of pride or petulance repressed,
A selfish inclination firmly fought,
A shadow of annoyance set at naught,
A murmur of disquietude suppressed.
A peace in pressure possessed,
A reconcilement generously sought,
A purpose put aside -- a banished thought,
A word of self-explaining unexpressed.
Trifles they seem, these petty soul restraints,
Yet they who prove them such must need possess,
A constancy and courage grand and bold.
They are the trifles that have made the Saints;
Give me to practice them in humbleness,
And nobler power than mine doth no one hold.