From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Reflection   
      
      You cannot believe in God and keep your selfish ways. The old self   
   shrivels up and dies, and upon the re-born soul God's image becomes   
   stamped. The gradual elimination of selfishness in the growth of love   
   for God and your fellow human beings is the goal of life. At first,   
   you have only a faint likeness to the Divine, but the picture grows   
   and takes on more and more of the likeness of God until those who see   
   you can see in you some of the power of God's grace at work in a human   
   life. I pray that I may develop that faint likeness I have to the   
   Divine. I pray that others may see in me some of the power of God's   
   grace at work   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
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   August 7th – St. Sixtus II, Pope M, & Companions MM    
   (Also Known as Xystus)   
      
   Died August 6, 258; feast day formerly on August 6. Pope Sixtus II was   
   a Greek philosopher who embraced the Christian faith, served as a   
   deacon in Rome, reached this pinnacle of the church's offices on   
   August 30, 257, and lasted in it no more than a year, suffering a   
   brave martyr's death. His name is in the canon of the Roman Mass.   
      
   Although Sixtus II was convinced that anyone baptized by a heretic was   
   truly baptized, he nevertheless refused to excommunicate or otherwise   
   punish those theologians who disagreed with him. In his correspondence   
   with Saint Dionysius of Alexandria and Firmilian of Antioch, he upheld   
   the Roman position of their validity. Nevertheless, he resumed   
   relations with Saint Cyprian and the churches of Africa and Asia Minor   
   which had been ruptured by Pope Saint Stephen I, his predecessor. In   
   later centuries, the Church decreed that provided a heretic had   
   properly used the formulas of baptism, any person so baptized could   
   not be held to be outside the Christian faith. Why should a man who   
   had embraced the faith be considered a pagan simply because the one   
   who performed the rite of baptism was in error in his own beliefs?   
      
   In 253, Valerian, was the chief of the senate, was elected emperor. At   
   first he was more favorably disposed toward the Christians than any of   
   the emperors before him had been, except Philip; and his palace was   
   full of Christians. Thus, the church enjoyed 3½ years of peace.   
   Valerian fell under the influence of the Persian archmagician named   
   Macrianus, who persuaded the emperor that the Christians, as avowed   
   enemies of magic and the gods, obstructed the effects of the   
   sacrifices, and the prosperity of his empire.   
      
   According to Saint Cyprian who considered Sixtus an excellent prelate,   
   Valerian had set forth his first decree condemning Christianity in   
   April 257. Shortly, Saint Stephen I was martyred. This persecution   
   lasted 3½ years until he was taken prisoner by the Persians. Valerian   
   ordered that the farms and estates, the honors and the goods, the   
   freedom and even the lives of those who refused to renounce their   
   faith should be sacrificed. When the persecution intensified the   
   following year, Cyprian wrote to his fellow African bishops:   
      
   "Valerian has sent an order to the senate to the effect that bishops,   
   priests, and deacons should forthwith die [even if they are willing to   
   conform], but that senators, persons of quality, and Roman knights   
   should forfeit their honors, should have their estates forfeited, and   
   if they still refused to sacrifice, should lose their heads; that   
   matrons should have their goods seized, and be banished; that any of   
   Caesar's officers or domestics who already confessed the Christian   
   faith, or should now confess it, should forfeit their estates to the   
   exchequer, and should be sent in chains to work in Caesar's farms. To   
   this order the emperor subjoined a copy of the letters which he hath   
   dispatched to the presidents of the several provinces concerning us;   
   which letter I expect, and hope will soon be brought hither.   
      
   "Sixtus suffered in a cemetery on the 6th day of August, and with him   
   four deacons. The Roman officers are very keen on this persecution:   
   the people brought before them are certain to suffer and forfeit their   
   estates. Please notify my colleagues of these details so that our   
   brothers may be ready everywhere for their great conflict, that we all   
   may think of immortality rather than death and derive joy rather than   
   fear from this confession, in which the soldiers of Christ, as we   
   know, are not so much killed as crowned."   
      
   The pope took refuge in the catacombs of Praetextatus on the Appian   
   Way. There he was discovered preaching to his flock, seated in his   
   chair. According to some accounts he was still seated, when he was   
   beheaded. Others say that he was taken away for examination and   
   returned to the scene for execution. It is certain that he was   
   beheaded in the cemetery. The Roman Martyrology says that he was   
   martyred with his deacons (Felicissimus and Agapitus), subdeacons   
   (Januarius, Magnus, Stephen, and Vincent), and Quartus. (Quartus owes   
   his existence to a bad transcript in which "diaconus Quartus" (the   
   deacon, Quartus) was written in place of the original "diacones   
   quattuor" (four deacons).) It is likely that Sixtus suffered with all   
   seven of the deacons of Rome, the six mentioned today, and Saint   
   Lawrence; the four may not have been subdeacons.   
      
   Their bodies were carried across the Appian Way by their mourners, and   
   placed in the cemetery of Saint Callixtus. He was one of the most   
   highly esteemed martyrs of the early Roman church; however, the   
   sayings of a pagan moralist, named Sextus, were wrongly attributed to   
   Sixtus in the middle ages (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney,   
   Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth, White).   
      
   In art, Saint Sixtus is shown holding a money-bag, with his deacon   
   Saint Lawrence and Saint John the Baptist. At times he may be depicted   
   (1) ordaining Saint Lawrence [Fra Angelico]; (2) giving Lawrence a bag   
   of money to give to the poor; or (3) as he is greeted by Lawrence on   
   his way to martyrdom (Roeder).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   These symbolize (Proverbs 30:14) the greedy and usurers whose teeth   
   are swords and knifes which they use to devour the poor and steal   
   their meager possessions. All of them are children of this world who   
   consider the children of light to be stupid and believe themselves to   
   be the prudent ones. Their prudence is their death.   
   --Saint Anthony of Padua   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   But the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever: the thoughts of his   
   heart to all generations. To deliver their souls from death; and feed   
   them in famine.  (Ps. xxxii. 11,19)   
      
      
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   He did all things well.  [Mark 7:37 ]   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)