From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
    -- Proverbs 28:13-14 –-   
      
   13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper,   
       but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.   
   14 Blessed is the man who fears the Lord always;   
       but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.  RSVCE   
   -------------------------------------------   
   It is human nature to hide our sins or overlook our mistakes. But it   
   is hard to learn from a mistake you don't acknowledge making. And what   
   good is a mistake if it doesn't teach you something? To learn from an   
   error you need to admit it, confess it, analyze it, and make   
   adjustments so that it doesn't happen again. Everybody makes mistakes,   
   but only fools repeat them.   
      
   ===============   
   November 23rd - St. Clement I   
   (First century)   
      
   The earliest lists of the men who succeeded St. Peter as bishops of   
   Rome tell us that the first was named Linus; the second, Cletus; and   
   the third, Clement. Little is known for sure about Clement’s life and   
   death. Was the Clement that St. Paul refers to as assisting him the   
   future pope? Not likely. But St. Irenaeus (2nd century) says that St.   
   Clement was a friend of both SS. Peter and Paul.   
      
   If we do not know his dates, we know something of the man himself from   
   the letter he wrote to the Christians of Corinth, Greece, in the   
   period 95-100 A.D. It is not a long letter, but it gives precious   
   information about how Christians thought and acted in the later   
   apostolic age. (When Clement reigned as pope, St. John the Evangelist   
   was probably still alive.)   
      
   For one thing, St. Clement gives us valuable information about the   
   presence and death in Rome of Saints Peter and Paul. He calls these   
   apostles “the greatest and most holy pillars” of the Church, who were   
   “persecuted and fought to the death.” In the same period, he says,   
   many other Christians, a “multitude of the elect”, men and women   
   alike, were tortured and executed out of “jealousy”. This was the   
   Roman phase of the first Roman persecution, begun by Emperor Nero in   
   A.D. 65-67.   
      
   The New Testament does not specify how Jesus commanded the apostles to   
   continue a hierarchy in the church, but St. Clement describes the   
   apostolic practice. Our Lord, he says, sent the apostles out to preach   
   to the whole world with authority to name some of their disciples to   
   rule the churches that they founded. Then, following Christ’s   
   instructions, “they laid down a rule once for all to this effect: when   
   these men die, other approved men shall succeed to their sacred   
   ministry.” Therefore, it is wrong, he concludes, for a given church to   
   oust from office any man properly chosen for that office. (Here we   
   have an indication of the origin and importance of “apostolic   
   succession” that gives the Church the note of “apostolic”).   
      
   Clement also teaches, implicitly yet clearly, the doctrine of the   
   popes’ primacy over the whole Church. The purpose of his letter was to   
   warn the Corinthian Christians to settle their intramural bickerings.   
   If the Corinthians had thought Clement was thus intruding into their   
   local church affairs, they would surely have protested. Actually they   
   held his letter in almost as great reverence as they did the two   
   letters written to them by St. Paul.   
      
   I find it thrilling to read the writings of Clement and the other   
   early Church Fathers. They use the same scriptures we use. They teach   
   the same doctrines that we believe.   
      
   Thus at one point, St. Clement speaks of the doctrine of love that   
   Jesus taught and the New Testament authors passed on.   
      
   “Love unites us to God,” says St. Peter’s friend and third successor.   
   “Love covers a multitude of sins (I Peter, 4:8). Love endures all   
   things, is longsuffering in everything. There is nothing vulgar in   
   love, nothing haughty. Love makes no schism; love does not quarrel;   
   love does everything in unity (I Cor. 13,4-7). In love we’re all the   
   elect of God perfected; without love nothing is pleasing to God. In   
   love did the Master take hold of us. For the sake of the love which He   
   had for us did Jesus Christ our Lord, by the will of God, give His   
   blood for us, His flesh for our flesh, and His life for our lives.”   
      
   This was the faith of Pope St. Clement I. This is our faith. The   
   centuries change it not.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   I am not ignorant of what is said of my Lord in the Psalm: "You   
   destroy those who speak a lie." And again: "A lying mouth deals death   
   to the soul." And likewise the Lord says in the Gospel: "On the day of   
   judgment men shall render account for every idle word they utter."   
   --St. Patrick   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the   
   fellowship of his sufferings: being made conformable to his death, If   
   by any means I may attain to the resurrection which is from the dead.   
   [Philippians 3:10-11]  DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Short Prayers   
      
   Let not the partaking of Thy Body, O Lord Jesus Christ,   
   which I, all unworthy, presume to receive, turn to my judgment   
   and condemnation, but through Thy loving kindness may   
   it be to me a safeguard and remedy for soul and body.   
   Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.   
      
   Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof;   
   but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.   
      
   The cross is my sure salvation.   
   The cross I ever adore.   
   The cross of the Lord is with me.   
   The cross is my refuge.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)