From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Never Tire of Trying   
      
      "Be assured that you can never be perfect in this world unless you   
   realize that it is impossible for you to be perfect here. Therefore,   
   your aim in life should be as follows.   
      Always try your best in doing what you have to do, so that you may   
   reach perfection. Never get tired of trying, because there is always   
   room for improvement."   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 33, 14   
      
   Prayer: How do I seek you, O Lord? For when I seek you, it is   
   happiness I seek. Let me seek you that my soul may live; as my body   
   lives by my soul, so my soul lives by you.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 10, 20   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   June 7th - St. Paul I, Bishop of Constantinople   
   350 or 351   
      
   PAUL was a native of Thessalonica, but from his boyhood he had been   
   secretary to Bishop Alexander by whom he was afterwards promoted to be   
   a deacon in the church of Constantinople. When the aged hierarch lay   
   on his death-bed--apparently in the year 336--he recommended St. Paul   
   as his successor and the electors endorsed his choice. Paul was   
   accordingly consecrated by several orthodox bishops, and practically   
   all that is known of himself and his life is the record of an   
   episcopate made stormy by the heretical Arians, who had supported the   
   candidature of an older deacon called Macedonius.   
      
   At their instigation the Emperor Constantius summoned a council of   
   Arian bishops, by whom Paul was deposed and banished. The vacant see   
   was bestowed, not upon Macedonius, but upon the neighbouring   
   metropolitan Eusebius of Nicomedia. St. Paul took shelter in the west,   
   and could not regain possession of the see until after the death of   
   his powerful antagonist, which, however, took place soon afterwards.   
   He was then reinstated amid popular rejoicings. The Arians, who still   
   refused to acknowledge him, set up a rival bishop in the person of   
   Macedonius, and soon the opposing factions came into open conflict and   
   the city became a prey to violence and tumult. Constantius therefore   
   ordered his general Hermogenes to eject Paul from Constantinople. But   
   the populace, infuriated at the prospect of losing their bishop, set   
   fire to the general's house, killed him, and dragged his body through   
   the streets. This outrage brought Constantius himself to   
   Constantinople. He pardoned the people, but he sent St. Paul into   
   exile. On the other hand he refused to confirm the election of   
   Macedonius which, like that of his rival, had taken place without the   
   imperial sanction.   
      
   We find St. Paul once more at Constantinople in 344, and Constantius   
   then consented to re-establish him for fear of incurring the hostility   
   of his brother Constans, who with Pope St. Julius I supported Paul.   
   But on the death of the Western emperor in 350 Constantius sent the   
   praetorian prefect Philip to Constantinople with instructions to expel   
   Paul and to install Macedonius in his place. Too astute to risk   
   incurring the fate of Hermogenes, Philip had recourse to a stratagem.   
   He invited St. Paul to meet him at the public baths of Zeuxippus and,   
   whilst the people, suspicious of his designs, were gathered outside,   
   he hustled Paul out of a side window and got him away by sea. The   
   unfortunate bishop was exiled to Singara, in Mesopotamia, and from   
   thence was removed to Emesa in Syria and finally to Cucusus in   
   Armenia.[*54 years later another bishop of Constantinople, St. John   
   Chrysostom, was banished to the same place.] There he was left for six   
   days and nights without food in a gloomy dungeon, and then strangled.   
   This, at any rate, was the account given by Philagrius, an official   
   who was stationed at Cucusus at the time.   
      
   The career of St. Paul I of Constantinople belongs to general   
   ecclesiastical history, and such works as Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire   
   des Conciles, L. Duchesne, History of the Early Church, and Fliche and   
   Martin, Histoire de l'Eglise, must be consulted to view the incidents   
   in their proper setting. Of St. Paul's private life as a man or as a   
   pastor of souls we know little or nothing, though there are two late   
   Greek biographies printed in Migne, PG (see BHG., nos. 1472, 1473).   
   The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. ii, have gathered up   
   such references as could be found in early Christian literature. They   
   give him, it may be noticed, the title Martyr, which is not explicitly   
   conferred in the Roman Martyrology; but in the Oriental churches he is   
   honoured as a martyr, his feast among the Greeks and Armenians being   
   kept on November 6, among the Copts on October 5. It is remarkable   
   that St. Paul is commemorated in the Hieronymianum, and his name has   
   passed from thence into the Félire of Oengus. See also DCB., vol. iv,   
   pp. 256-257; and also vol. iii, pp. 775-777, under Macedonius.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If they be faithful and seek no satisfaction in creatures, they pass   
   from pure suffering to the pure love of God. But the fortunate souls   
   who succeed thus far are very few.   
   --St. Paul of the Cross   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   He that is good, shall draw grace from the Lord: but he that trusteth   
   in his own devices, doth wickedly. Man shall not be strengthened by   
   wickedness: and the root of the just shall not be moved.  (Proverbs   
   12:2-3) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Prayer for Courage   
      
   Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous,   
   teach me to serve You as You deserve:   
   to give and not count the cost,   
   to fight and not heed the wound,   
   to toil and not seek rest,   
   to labor and not seek reward,   
   save that of feeling that I do Your will. - Amen.   
   --Saint Ignatius of Loyola   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)