From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   August 28th - Ss. Alexander, John III & Paul IV, Patriarchs Of   
   Constantinople   
      
   Alexander of Byzantium was already seventy-three years old when he was   
   elected   
   to the episcopal throne of Constantinople, and he filled the office for   
   twenty-three years in the troubled days of the heresiarch Anus. Soon after   
   his   
   election the Emperor Constantine ordered a conference between the Christian   
   theologians and a number of pagan philosophers, and the discussion was   
   thrown   
   into confusion by all the philosophers trying to talk at the same time. On   
   St   
   Alexander's suggestion they then chose the most learned among them to voice   
   their views, and while one of them was speaking Alexander suddenly   
   exclaimed,   
   "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to be silent!" Whereupon, it is   
   said, the unfortunate man found his tongue was paralyzed and his mouth   
   unable to   
   utter a word until Alexander gave him leave, and by this manifestation of   
   divine   
   power the Christian cause made more impression than by the most solid   
   arguments.   
      
   In 336 Anus arrived in triumph at Constantinople, with an order from the   
   emperor   
   that St Alexander should receive him into communion. It is said that   
   Alexander   
   shut himself in church and prayed, with St James of Nisibis, that God would   
   remove either himself or Anus. In any case, on the night before the day   
   appointed for his solemn reception, Anus suddenly died. It was natural that   
   many   
   Christians should look on this as a divine intervention at the intercession   
   of   
   St Alexander, and this view is expressed by the Roman Martyrology, which   
   refers   
   to him as, "a glorious old man, on account of whose prayers Anus, condemned   
   by   
   the judgement of God, brake in the middle and his bowels poured out".   
      
   The Byzantine Catholics join in one commemoration with St Alexander two   
   other   
   holy archbishops of Constantinople, John III and Paul IV, called "the   
   Young".   
   John was born near Antioch, and had been a lawyer before he was ordained. He   
   was   
   sent as patriarchal legate from Antioch to Constantinople, where his   
   learning   
   caused him to be known as "the Scholastic"; he had already made a collection   
   of   
   canons of ecclesiastical law, which recommended him to the Emperor Justinian   
   I,   
   and in the year 565 he was made patriarch of the imperial city. While he   
   held   
   that office he revised and enlarged his collection of canons, which was the   
   first to be made systematically; this work grew eventually into the   
   compendium   
   of Eastern church law called the Nomokanon. St. John the Scholastic died in   
   577.   
      
   St Paul the Young was a native of Salamis who became patriarch of   
   Constantinople   
   in 780, during the last months of the Emperor Leo IV. Directly the Empress   
   Irene   
   became regent he advocated the restoration of holy images and their   
   veneration;   
   in 784 he withdrew to the monastery of Florus, avowedly as an act of penance   
   for   
   his compromises and lack of boldness during the iconoclast regime. Until his   
   death shortly afterwards he encouraged the assembling of a council for the   
   condemnation of Iconoclasm; it eventually met in the year 787.   
      
   The not entirely concordant stories of St Athanasius and the church   
   historians   
   concerning St Alexander will be found sufficiently illustrated in the Acta   
   Sanctorum, August, vol. vi. Cf. also DCB., s. nn.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Great art Thou, O Lord, and highly to be praised; great is Thy power, yea,   
   and   
   Thy wisdom is infinite. And man would praise Thee, because he is one of Thy   
   creatures; yea, man, though he bears about with him his mortality, the proof   
   of   
   his sin, the proof that Thou, O God, dost resist the proud, yet would man   
   praise   
   Thee, because he is one of Thy creatures. Thou dost prompt us thereto,   
   making it   
   a joy to praise Thee; for Thou hast created us unto Thyself, and our heart   
   finds   
   no rest until it rests in Thee. Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand   
   which   
   comes first, to call upon Thee, or to praise Thee, and which comes first, to   
   know Thee or to call upon Thee.   
   -The Confessions of St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Not for the world do I pray, but for those whom Thou, Father, hast given Me,   
   because they are Thine.  (John 17:9   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Augustine's Great Canticle of Love   
      
   My love of you, God, is not some vague feeling;   
   It is positive and certain.   
   Your word struck into my heart   
   and from that moment I loved you.   
   Besides this, all about me,   
   heaven and earth and all that they contain   
   proclaim that I should love you.   
   But what do I love when I love you?   
   Not material beauty of a temporal order;   
   not the brilliance of earthly light;   
   not the sweet melody of harmony and song;   
   not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices;   
   not manna or honey;   
   and not limbs the body delights to embrace.   
   It is not these that I love when I love my God.   
   And yet, when I love him,   
   it is true that I love a light of a certain kind,   
   a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace;   
   but they are the kind that I love in my inner self,   
   when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space;   
   when it listens to sound that never dies away;   
   when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind;   
   when it tastes food that is never consumed by the eating;   
   when it clings to an embrace from which   
   it is not severed by fulfillment of desire.   
   This is what I love when I love my God.   
   -Confessions 10, 6-8   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)