From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
    -- Hebrews 10:23-25 –    
      
    Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he   
   who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stir up one   
   another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as   
   is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as   
   you see the Day drawing near.  RSVCE   
   =====================   
   If we are going to benefit one another, as befits those who are heirs   
   together of God's Kingdom, we must keep in touch with one another.   
   What better way to do this than in the content of worship? Some   
   Christians give up meeting together. They did so in the days when the   
   letter of Hebrews was written, as well as now. This is wrong and   
   sinful since it is based on an arrogance that assumes that we do not   
   need each other, that we can do very well by ourselves. We do need   
   each other. God did not call us to stand alone when he made us   
   Christians. He called us into community, the fellowship of the Church.   
   If our times today are bad, we need each other all the more.   
      
      
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   August 13th - Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus   
   (d. 235)   
      
   Two men died for the faith after harsh treatment and exhaustion in the   
   mines of Sardinia. One had been pope for five years, the other an   
   antipope for 18. They died reconciled.   
      
   Pontian. Pontian was a Roman who served as pope from 230 to 235.   
   During his reign he held a synod which confirmed the excommunication   
   of the great theologian Origen in Alexandria. Pontian was banished to   
   exile by the Roman emperor in 235, and resigned so that a successor   
   could be elected in Rome. He was sent to the "unhealthy" island of   
   Sardinia, where he died of harsh treatment in 235. With him was   
   Hippolytus (see below) with whom he was reconciled. The bodies of both   
   martyrs were brought back to Rome and buried with solemn rites as   
   martyrs.   
      
   Hippolytus. As a presbyter in Rome, Hippolytus (the name means "a   
   horse turned loose") was at first "holier than the Church." He   
   censured the pope for not coming down hard enough on a certain   
   heresy-calling him a tool in the hands of one Callistus, a deacon-and   
   coming close to advocating the opposite heresy himself. When Callistus   
   was elected pope, Hippolytus accused him of being too lenient with   
   penitents, and had himself elected antipope by a group of followers.   
   He felt that the Church must be composed of pure souls   
   uncompromisingly separated from the world, and evidently thought that   
   his group fitted the description. He remained in schism through the   
   reigns of three popes. In 235 he was also banished to the island of   
   Sardinia. Shortly before or after this event, he was reconciled to the   
   Church, and died with Pope Pontian in exile.   
      
   Hippolytus was a rigorist, a vehement and intransigent man for whom   
   even orthodox doctrine and practice were not purified enough. He is,   
   nevertheless, the most important theologian and prolific religious   
   writer before the age of Constantine. His writings are the fullest   
   source of our knowledge of the Roman liturgy and the structure of the   
   Church in the second and third centuries. His works include many   
   Scripture commentaries, polemics against heresies and a history of the   
   world. A marble statue, dating from the third century, representing   
   the saint sitting in a chair, was found in 1551. On one side is   
   inscribed his table for computing the date of Easter, on the other a   
   list of how the system works out until the year 224. Pope John XXIII   
   installed the statue in the Vatican library.   
      
   Comment:   
      
   Hippolytus was a strong defender of orthodoxy, and admitted his   
   excesses by his humble reconciliation. He was not a formal heretic,   
   but an overzealous disciplinarian. What he could not learn in his   
   prime as a reformer and purist, he learned in the pain and desolation   
   of imprisonment. It was a fitting symbolic event that Pope Pontian   
   shared his martyrdom.   
      
   Quote:   
   "Christ, like a skillful physician, understands the weakness of men.   
   He loves to teach the ignorant and the erring he turns again to his   
   own true way. He is easily found by those who live by faith; and to   
   those of pure eye and holy heart, who desire to knock at the door, he   
   opens immediately. He does not disdain the barbarian, nor does he set   
   the eunuch aside as no man. He does not hate the female on account of   
   the woman's act of disobedience in the beginning, nor does he reject   
   the male on account of the man's transgression. But he seeks all, and   
   desires to save all, wishing to make all the children of God, and   
   calling all the saints unto one perfect man" (Hippolytus, Treatise on   
   Christ and Antichrist).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a   
   reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful   
   things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.   
   -- Saint Basil the Great   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Gladness and hope in the Lord   
      
   When the Lord gave Zion back her captives, we became like dreamers.   
   Our mouths were filled with gladness and our voices cried in exultation.   
   Among the Gentiles they were saying,   
    “By his deeds the Lord has shown himself great”.   
   The Lord’s deeds showed forth his greatness,   
    and filled us with rejoicing.   
      
   Give us back our captives, O Lord,   
    as you renew the dry streams in the desolate South.   
   Those who sow in tears will rejoice at the harvest.   
      
   They wept as they went, went with seed for the sowing;   
   but with joy they will come, come bearing the sheaves.   
      
   Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,   
    as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,   
    world without end.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)