From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Resisting Temptation:   
      
      The beginning of all temptation lies in a wavering mind and little   
   trust in God, for as a rudderless ship is driven hither and yon by   
   waves, so a careless and irresolute man is tempted in many ways. Fire   
   tempers iron and temptation steels the just. Often we do not know what   
   we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are.   
      Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of   
   temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused   
   admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks.   
      Someone has said very aptly: “Resist the beginnings; remedies come   
   too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength.” First, a   
   mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by   
   pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted   
   in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays   
   in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the   
   strength of the enemy grows against him.   
   Imitation of Christ--a Kempis, Ch 13   
      
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   15 March – Saint Pope Zachary   
      
   (Died 752) – Papal Ascension 5 December 741- 752, abolitionist of   
   slavery, apostle of the poor, Diplomat, Administrator of great renown,   
   peace-maker. Born at Calabria, Italy of Greek ancestry and died on 22   
   March 752 of natural causes. He was the last Pope of the Byzantine   
   Papacy. Zachary built the original Church of Santa Maria sopra   
   Minerva, near the Pantheon and restored the decaying Lateran Palace,   
   moving the Relic of the head of Saint George to the Church of San   
   Giorgio al Velabro, he forbade the traffic of slaves in Rome,   
   negotiated peace with the Lombards and sanctioned Pepin the Short’s   
   usurpation of the Frankish throne from Childeric III. Zachary is   
   regarded as a capable administrator and a skilful and subtle diplomat   
   in a dangerous time. He is also known as Zacharias.   
      
    The Roman Martyrology states: – “At Rome, the birthday of St Zachary,   
   who governed the Church of God with great vigilance and was renowned   
   for his merits, rested in peace.”   
      
   Nothing is known of Zachary's early life, except that he was the son   
   of a Greek, Polychronius of Calabria. He was most probably a Deacon of   
   the Roman Church and as such, signed the Decrees of the Roman Council   
   of 732. He was selected to succeed Gregory III as Pope on 5 December   
   741.   
      
   His Pontificate was marked by charity for the Clergy and poor of Rome   
   but especially by vigorous diplomatic relations with the Lombards, the   
   Byzantine Empire and the Franks. Under Zachary’s predecessor, Gregory   
   III, the Papacy had continually suffered the depredations of the   
   Lombard King Liutprand. In line with his new political orientation,   
   Zachary repudiated the alliance of the Papacy with the Duke of Spoleto   
   against Liutprand and, instead, personally met with the King on two   
   occasions, persuading him to return the four Cities he had taken from   
   the Duchy of Rome and to desist from attacking Ravenna. Thus he   
   achieved peace with the Lombards.   
      
   In accord with his desire to maintain friendly relations with   
   Byzantium, Zachary immediately dispatched envoys to the Church of   
   Constantinople and to the iconoclastic Emperor Constantine of   
   Copronymos, to inform them of his election and to exhort the Emperor   
   to restore the use of sacred images. His envoys shrewdly withheld   
   their letters from the usurper Artabasdus, who at that time, had   
   seized Constantine’s throne while he campaigned against the Saracens.   
   They finally presented their letters in November 743, after the   
   rightful Emperor had regained his throne and he replied with a gift to   
   Rome of two large estates in South Italy.   
      
   Zachary’s close association with the Frankish Church began   
   immediately, as he received St Boniface’s renewed expressions of   
   loyalty and submission to the Chair of Peter and, confirmed for him,   
   the establishment of the Bishoprics of Würzburg, Buraburg and Erfurt.   
      
   Zachary corresponded with Archbishop Boniface of Mainz, counseling him   
   about dealing with disreputable prelates such as Milo, Bishop of Reims   
   and Trier. “As for Milo and his like, who are doing great injury to   
   the Church of God, preach in season and out of season, according to   
   the word of the Apostle, that they cease from their evil ways.”   
      
   He also confirmed Boniface as a Papal Legate to a Frankish Council in   
   742. Until his death Zachary corresponded with Boniface and the   
   Frankish Bishops and rulers, fostering ecclesiastical and moral   
   discipline and extending papal jurisdiction among the Franks.   
      
   Again in 745, Zachary held a Council at Rome, in which he confirmed   
   the condemnation for heresy, of Aldebert and Clement, previously   
   condemned by a Frankish Council under Boniface. When Pepin took the   
   throne, he inaugurated a new era in Church-State relations, when he   
   obtained the support of Zachary for the deposition of Childeric and   
   for his own Coronation (751).   
      
   History has remembered Zachary for his part in creating the   
   Carolingian-Papal alliance.   
   In his own time, he was noted for his Greek translation of the   
   Dialogues of Pope Gregory I the Great.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2021/03/15/   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If your enemies see that you grow courageous, and that you will   
   neither be seduced by flatteries nor disheartened by the pains and   
   trials of your journey, but rather are contented with them, they will   
   grow afraid of you.   
   --Blessed Henry Suso   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be   
   hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon   
   a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. (Mt.   
   5:14-15) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Man is destroyed by his own free choice   
      
   Man is destroyed by his own free choice: for out of love for some   
   worldly thing he throws himself into fire, is drowned in the sea and   
   gives himself into captivity. Let us suppose that someone's house or   
   field has caught fire. The person who wanted to save himself fled   
   without anything as soon as he noticed the fire, leaving everything in   
   it and concerned only with his own life. But someone else thought he   
   would take some of the goods with him, so he stayed behind to collect   
   them; and as he was taking them the fire, which had already   
   overwhelmed the house, caught him as well and burnt him. In this way,   
   through his attachment to some transient thing, he was destroyed in   
   the fire by his own free choice. Again, two men were shipwrecked. One   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)