From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   John points to the Redeemer   
      
   "John did not baptize with the Spirit but with water, since he was   
   unable to take away the sins of those being baptized. He washed their   
   bodies with water but not their hearts with pardon. Why did one whose   
   baptism did not forgive sins baptize, except that he was observing his   
   vocation as forerunner? He whose birth foreshadowed greater birth, by   
   his baptizing foreshadowed the Lord who would truly baptize. He whose   
   preaching made him the forerunner of Christ, by baptizing also became   
   his forerunner, using a symbol of the future sacrament. With these   
   other mysteries he makes known the mystery of our Redeemer, declaring   
   that he has stood among people and not been known. The Lord appeared   
   in a human body: he came as God in flesh, visible in his body,   
   invisible in his majesty."   
    by Gregory the Great (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 4)   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   20 January – St Pope Fabian   
      
   (c 200 – c 250)   
   Martyr, Peacemaker, Evangeliser, Confessor, Administrator and   
   Reformer, Apostle of Charity – the Bishop of Rome from 10 January 236   
   to his death in 250, succeeding Anterus. He is famous for the   
   miraculous nature of his election, in which a dove is said to have   
   descended on his head to mark him as the Holy Spirit’s unexpected   
   choice to become the next pope. He was succeeded by Cornelius.   
      
   According to the Liber Pontificalis, Fabian was a noble Roman by birth   
   and his father’s name was Fabius. Nothing more is known about his   
   background. The legend concerning the circumstances of his election is   
   preserved by the fourth-century writer Eusebius of Caesarea (Church   
   History, VI. 29).   
      
   After the short reign of Pope Anterus, Fabian had come to Rome from   
   the countryside when the new papal election began. “Although present,”   
   says Eusebius, Fabian “was in the mind of none.” While the names of   
   several illustrious and noble churchmen were being considered over the   
   course of 13 days, a dove suddenly descended upon the head of Fabian.   
   To the assembled electors, this strange sight recalled the gospel   
   scene of the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus at the time of his   
   baptism by John the Baptist. The congregation took this as a sign that   
   he was marked out for this dignity and Fabian was at once proclaimed   
   bishop by acclamation.   
      
   During Fabian’s reign of 14 years, there was a lull in the storm of   
   persecution which had resulted in the exile of both Anterus’   
   predecessor Pontian and the antipope (and later saint) Hippolytus.   
   Fabian had enough influence at court to effect the return of the   
   bodies of both of these martyrs from Sardinia, where they had died at   
   hard labour in the mines. The report that he baptised the emperor   
   Philip the Arab and his son, however, is probably a legend, although   
   he did seem to enjoy some connections at court, since the bodies of   
   Pontian and Hippolytus could not have been exhumed without the   
   emperor’s approval.   
      
   According to the sixth-century historian Gregory of Tours, Fabian sent   
   out the “apostles to the Gauls” to Christianise Gaul in A.D. 245.   
   Fabian sent seven bishops from Rome to Gaul to preach the Gospel.  He   
   also condemned Privatus, the originator of a new heresy in Africa.   
      
   The Liber Pontificalis says that Fabian divided the Christian   
   communities of Rome into seven districts, each supervised by a deacon.   
   Eusebius (VI §43) adds that he appointed seven subdeacons to help   
   collect the acta of the martyrs—the reports of the court proceedings   
   on the occasion of their trials. There is also a tradition that he   
   instituted the four minor clerical orders – porter, lector, exorcist   
   and acolyte.   
      
   His deeds are thus described in the Liber Pontificalis:   
   “He divided the regiones into deaconships and made seven   
   sub-deaconships which seven secretaries oversaw, so that they brought   
   together the deeds of the martyrs faithfully made whole and he brought   
   forth many works in the cemeteries.”   
      
   The Liberian Catalogue of the popes also reports that Fabian initiated   
   considerable work on the catacombs, where honoured Christians were   
   buried and where he also caused the body of Pope Pontian to be   
   entombed at the catacomb of Saint Callixtus.   
      
   With the advent of Emperor Decius, the Roman government’s tolerant   
   policy toward Christianity temporarily ended. Decius ordered leading   
   Christians to demonstrate their loyalty to Rome by offering incense to   
   the cult images of deities which represented the Roman state. This was   
   unacceptable to many Christians, who, while no longer holding most of   
   the laws of the Old Testament to apply to them, took the commandment   
   against idolatry with deadly seriousness. Fabian was thus one of the   
   earliest victims of Decius, dying as a martyr on 20 January 250, at   
   the beginning of the Decian persecution, probably in prison rather   
   than by execution.   
      
   Fabian was buried in the catacomb of Callixtus in Rome. The Greek   
   inscription on his tomb has survived, and bears the words:   
   Fabian, Bishop, Martyr.   
      
   His remains were later re-interred at San Sebastian’s Outside the   
   Walls, (appropriately, for these two Martyrs share today as their   
   Memorial) by Pope Clement XI where the Albani Chapel is dedicated in   
   his honour.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2019/01/20/   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The devil strains every nerve to secure the souls which belong to   
   Christ. We should not grudge our toil in wrestling them from Satan and   
   giving them back to God.   
   --St. Sebastian   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that   
   binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is   
   the goal of your calling by God. There is one Lord, one faith, one   
   baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and   
   within all.  [Ephesians 4:3-6 ]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   CHRIST OUR MORNING STAR   
      
       O Christ, our Morning Star,   
       Splendour of Light Eternal,   
       shining with the glory of the rainbow,   
       come and waken us   
       from the greyness of our apathy,   
       and renew in us your gift of hope.   
       Amen.   
   (By Bede the Venerable.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)