From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Hungry for God   
      
      "Additionally, I sought for something to love, for I was in love   
   with love. There was a hunger within me from a lack of inner food,   
   which is none other than yourself, my God. Yet that hunger did not   
   make me hungry.   
      I had no desire for incorruptible food. This was not because I was   
   already filled with it but because the more I was empty of it the more   
   it was loathsome to me."   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 3, 1   
      
   Prayer: O God, be my inheritance; I love you totally. With all my   
   heart, with all my mind I love you.   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 334, 3   
      
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   May 9th – St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop and Theologian   
      
   There is a traditional list of eight great Doctors (Teachers,   
   Theologians) of the ancient Church. It lists four Western (Latin)   
   Doctors--Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome of Strido, and   
   Gregory the Great (Pope Gregory I)0151--and four Eastern (Greek)   
   Doctors -- Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom of Antioch and   
   Constantinople, Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus (also called   
   Gregory Nazianzen). Incidentally, this list is constantly referred to,   
   but I have no idea when or where or by whom it was drawn up. Does it   
   get any respect from Eastern Christians? Information, please.   
      
   Gregory of Nazianzus, his friend Basil the Great, and Basil's brother   
   Gregory of Nyssa, are jointly known as the Cappadocian Fathers   
   (Cappadocia is a region in what is now Central Turkey).   
      
   Gregory lived in a turbulent time. In 312, Constantine, having won a   
   battle that made him Emperor of the West, issued a decree that made it   
   no longer a crime to be a Christian. In 325 he summoned a council of   
   Bishops at Nicea, across the straits from Byzantium (Constantinople,   
   Istanbul), to settle the dispute between those (led by Athanasius) who   
   taught that the Logos (the "Word" of John 1:1, who "was made flesh and   
   dwelt among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth) was completely God,   
   in the same sense in which the Father is God, and those (led by Arius)   
   who taught that the Logos is a being created by God the Father. The   
   bishops assembled at Nicea declared that the view of Athanasius was   
   that which they had received from their predecessors as the true Faith   
   handed down from the Apostles. (The Athanasian view is held today by   
   Roman Catholics, East Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterian and   
   Reformed, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, and most other   
   Protestant groups. The Arian view is held by the Watchtower Society,   
   also called Jehovah's Witnesses, and by a few other groups, including   
   some conservative Unitarians.)   
      
   The Arians did not accept defeat quietly. They created a sufficient   
   disturbance so that Constantine, at first inclined to support the   
   decision of the Council, decided that peace could best be obtained by   
   adopting a Creed which simply evaded the issue. After his death in   
   336, he was succeeded by various of his relatives, some of whom sided   
   with the Athanasians and some with the Arians, and one of whom (Julian   
   the Apostate, Emperor 361-363) attempted to restore paganism as the   
   religion of the Empire. The situation was complicated by the fact that   
   missionaries to the Goths were first sent out in large numbers during   
   the reign of an Arian Emperor, with the result that the Goths were   
   converted to Arian Christianity. Since the professional Army was   
   composed chiefly of Goth mercenaries, and the Army held the balance of   
   power, this was a real problem.   
      
   Gregory of Nazianzus was born about 330. He went to school in Athens   
   with his friend Basil, and with the aforesaid Julian. He and Basil   
   compiled an anthology, called the PHILOKALIA, of the works of the   
   great (but somewhat erratic) Alexandrian theologian, philosopher, and   
   scholar of the previous century, Origen. Later, he went home to assist   
   his father, a bishop, in his struggles against Arianism. Meanwhile,   
   his friend Basil had become Archbishop of (Cappadocian) Caesarea.   
   Faced with a rival Arian bishop at Tyana, he undertook to consolidate   
   his position by maneuvering Gregory into the position of Bishop of   
   Sasima, an unhealthy settlement on the border between the two   
   jurisdictions. Gregory called Sasima "a detestable little place   
   without water or grass or any mark of civilization." He felt "like a   
   bone flung to dogs." He refused to reside at Sasima. Basil accused him   
   of shirking his duty. He accused Basil of making him a pawn in   
   ecclesiastical politics. Their friendship suffered a severe breach,   
   which took some time to heal. Gregory suffered a breakdown and retired   
   to recuperate.   
      
   In 379, after the death of the Arian Emperor Valens, Gregory was asked   
   to go to Constantinople to preach there. For thirty years, the city   
   had been controlled by Arians or pagans, and the orthodox did not even   
   have a church there. Gregory went. He converted his own house there   
   into a church and held services in it. There he preached the Five   
   Theological Orations for which he is best known, a series of five   
   sermons on the Trinity and in defense of the deity of Christ. People   
   flocked to hear him preach, and the city was largely won over to the   
   Athanasian (Trinitarian, catholic, orthodox) position by his powers of   
   persuasion. The following year, he was consecrated bishop of   
   Constantinople. He presided at the Council of Constantinople in 381,   
   which confirmed the Athanasian position of the earlier Council of   
   Nicea in 325. Having accomplished what he believed to be his mission   
   at Constantinople, and heartily sick of ecclesiastical politics,   
   Gregory resigned and retired to his home town of Nazianzus, where he   
   died in 389.   
      
   His Five Theological Orations are available in several series of works   
   of the Ancient Fathers. The best-known recent biography of him is   
   Gregory of Nazianzus, Rhetor and Philosopher (Oxford U Press, 1969),   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs   
   of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: 'But as many as   
   received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God....'   
   Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles,   
   martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord.   
   And let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience   
   under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also   
   share their crowns of glory.   
   -- Saint John of Damascus   
      
   Reflection. “We must overcome our enemies,” said Saint Gregory, “by   
   gentleness, and win them over by forbearance. Let them be punished by   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)