From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Lord, from Thee flows true and continual kindness.   
      
       Thou didst cast us off, and justly so, but in Thy mercy Thou didst   
   forgive us. Thou wert at odds with us, but Thou didst reconcile us.   
   Thou didst set a curse upon us, but Thou didst bless us. Thou didst   
   banish us from the garden, but Thou didst call us back again. Thou   
   tooketh away the fig leaves that had been an unsuitable garment, but   
   Thou clothed us in a cloak of great value. Thou didst fling wide the   
   prison gates, but Thou didst give the condemned a pardon. Thou didst   
   sprinkle clean water on us, and Thou didst wash away the dirt.   
   --Gregory of Nyssa, Doctor & Confessor:   
      
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   March 9th – St. Gregory of Nyssa   
      
    10 January (Eastern calendar)   
       14 October (Coptic calendar)   
       22 November (Coptic calendar)   
      
   Gregory of Nyssa, his brother Basil the Great (14 June), and Basil's   
   best friend Gregory of Nazianzus (9 May), are known collectively as   
   the Cappadocian Fathers. They were a major force in the triumph of the   
   Athanasian position at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Gregory   
   of Nyssa tends to be overshadowed by the other two.   
      
   Gregory of Nyssa was born in Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia   
   (central Turkey) in about 334, the younger brother of Basil the Great   
   and of Macrina (19 July), and of several other distinguished persons.   
   As a youth, he was at best a lukewarm Christian. However, when he was   
   twenty, some of the relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (10 March)   
   were transferred to a chapel near his home, and their presence made a   
   deep impression on him, confronting him with the fact that to   
   acknowledge God at all is to acknowledge His right to demand a total   
   commitment. Gregory became an active and fervent Christian. He   
   considered the priesthood, decided it was not for him, became a   
   professional orator like his father, married, and settled down to the   
   life of a Christian layman. However, his brother Basil and his friend   
   Gregory of Nazianzus persuaded him to reconsider, and he became a   
   priest in about 362. (This did not affect his marriage.)   
      
   His brother Basil, who had become archbishop of Caesarea in 370, was   
   engaged in a struggle with the Arian Emperor Valens, who was trying to   
   stamp out belief in the deity of Christ. Basil desperately needed the   
   votes and support of Athanasian bishops, and he maneuvered his friend   
   Gregory into the bishopric of Sasima, and (in about 371) his brother   
   Gregory into the bishopric of Nyssa, a small town about ten miles from   
   Caesarea. Neither one wanted to be a bishop, neither was suited to be   
   a bishop, and both were furious with Basil.) Gregory did not get along   
   well with his flock, was falsely accused of embezzling church funds,   
   fled the scene in about 376, and did not return until after the death   
   of Valens about two years later.   
      
   In 379, Basil died, having lived to see the death of Valens and the   
   end of the persecution. Shortly thereafter, Macrina died. Gregory was   
   with her in the last few days of her life. Afterwards, he took to   
   writing sermons and treatises on theology and philosophy. His   
   philosophy was a form of Christian Platonism. In his approach to the   
   Scriptures, he was heavily influenced by Origen, and his writings on   
   the Trinity and the Incarnation build on and develop insights found in   
   germ in the writings of his brother Basil. But he is chiefly   
   remembered as a writer on the spiritual life, on the contemplation of   
   God, not only in private prayer and meditation, but in corporate   
   worship and in the sacramental life of the Church.   
      
   His treatise “On The Making of Man” deals with God as Creator, and   
   with the world as a good thing, as something that God takes delight   
   in, and that ought to delight us. His Great Catechism is esteemed as a   
   work of systematic theology. His “Commentary on the Song of Songs” is   
   a work of contemplative, devotional, mystical theology.   
      
   In his book “The Life of Moses” the reader who is expecting a   
   straightforward biography will be startled—not necessarily   
   disappointed. An example of his treatment is the following:   
      
   In Numbers 13 and 14 we read that when Moses had led the Israelites   
   out of Egypt and to the borders of Canaan, he sent twelve spies into   
   the land to look it over. They returned to report two things: (1) The   
   inhabitants of the land were fierce warriors and would prove a   
   formidable enemy. (2) The land was a good land, with fertile soil and   
   an abundance of natural resources. As proof, they brought back a   
   cluster of grapes so large that they hung it from a wooden pole that   
   two men carried horizontally between them. Ten of the spies said that   
   the enemy was too strong to be defeated, and that the Israelites ought   
   to turn back, but the remaining two, Joshua and Caleb, urged the   
   people to remember that the LORD was with them, and had shown Himself   
   mighty to save. The people listened to the ten and prepared to turn   
   back. At this the LORD was angry and said, "Very well, you shall   
   wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the men of this   
   generation have died, except for Joshua and Caleb. Only then shall the   
   next generation go in to possess the homeland that I promised to   
   Abraham for his descendants." ….   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   I ought to imagine to myself that there are no others in the world but   
   God and myself.   
   –- Saint Alphonsus Liguori   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Give in to God, then; resist the devil, and he will run away from   
   you.  The nearer you go to God, the nearer God will come to you.   
   Clean your hands, you sinners, and clear your minds, you waverers.   
   Appreciate your wretchedness, and weep for it in misery.  Your   
   laughter must be turned to grief, your happiness to gloom.  Humble   
   yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up."  James 4:7-9:   
      
      
      
   Almighty God, who hast revealed to Thy Church Thine eternal Being of   
   glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons:   
   Give us grace that, like Thy bishop Gregory of Nyssa, we may continue   
   steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship   
   of Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who livest and reignest now and   
   for ever.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Reflection on Fasting   
      
   "And the Saviour also, when He manifested Himself to the world in the   
   Jordan, began at this point. For after His baptism the Spirit led Him into   
   the wilderness and He fasted for forty days and forty nights. Likewise all   
   who set out to follow in His footsteps make the beginning of their struggle   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)