From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Lord fills all things with blessing from above   
      
   "So that by every means the Lord might be known to be God by nature,   
   he multiplies what is little, and he looks up to heaven as though   
   asking for the blessing from above. Now he does this out of the divine   
   economy, for our sakes. For he himself is the one who fills all   
   things, the true blessing from above and from the Father. But, so that   
   we might learn that when we are in charge of the table and are   
   preparing to break the loaves, we ought to bring them to God with   
   hands upraised and bring down upon them the blessing from above, he   
   became for us the beginning and pattern and way."   
   --Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)(excerpt from FRAGMENT 177)   
      
   ===============   
   December 4th - St. John Damascene   
   (C.645-C.750)   
      
   John Damascene (or John of Damascus) was the last of the great Eastern   
   Fathers of the Church. Unlike most of the others, he lived not in the   
   Eastern Roman Empire, but under the Muslim caliph of Damascus. This   
   had its advantages, however, as we shall see.   
      
   Once the Mohammedans had conquered Palestine and its environs, they   
   were shrewd enough to tolerate their Jewish and Christian subjects.   
   Indeed, they even employed them in high positions. Thus, St. John’s   
   father, John al-Mansur of Damascus, was head of the caliph’s internal   
   revenue service.   
      
   The father saw that his son was given the best possible education,   
   secular and religious. When the Muslims brought in as a captive   
   Cosmas, a brilliant and congenial Sicilian monk, John Senior engaged   
   him as John Junior’s tutor. Cosmas also taught, at the same time,   
   another Cosmas, who seems to have been the John Senior’s adopted son.   
   (This Cosmas would end up a bishop, and also a saint.)   
      
   Even though St. John studied theology, he did not originally intend to   
   enter the religious life. He succeeded his father in the revenue   
   service, and won a fine reputation for his Christian witness in the   
   Muslim court, especially for his humility. However, around 700 perhaps   
   because the new caliph was less well-disposed to Christians, John   
   resigned his state position and became a monk in the monastery of St.   
   Sabas near Jerusalem. Cosmas the younger joined him there. Both monks   
   spent their spare time writing books and composing hymns.   
      
   Now, some of the older ascetics at St. Sabas thought that book-writing   
   and hymnody were worldly practices. John’s spiritual director told him   
   that he should be mourning his sins, not indulging in song. He   
   therefore punished him, whereupon the saint at once stopped his   
   writing and composing. But Our Lady, according to the legend, came to   
   the spiritual director in a dream that same night and told him to let   
   the monks from Damascus pen and harmonize as they chose.   
      
   Father John went on to become one of the two best hymnodists among the   
   Greek Fathers. He was also a brilliant preacher, winning the popular   
   nickname “Chrysorrhoas” (“Golden Speaker”). But he would be remembered   
   chiefly for his theological writing. His main work he called “The   
   Source of Knowledge”. It was basically a summary of Christian faith   
   according to the Creed of Nicaea. As a theologian he was not an   
   innovator, nor was he acquainted with the writings of the Western   
   Fathers, but his writing was clear, balanced, reliable.   
      
   St. John also wrote smaller works on many religious subjects   
   (including one about the superstition of dragons and fairies!).   
      
   He was most noted, however, for three discourses against iconoclasm.   
   Iconclasm (imagebreaking) was a contemporary error promoted for   
   political reasons by the Eastern Roman emperors. It rejected as   
   “idolatry” the traditional Christian use of icons and statues of   
   Christ and the saints. John vigorously attacked the heresy as out of   
   kilter with Christian doctrine and practice. It is permissible, he   
   said, to make and use images of Christ and the saints, and even angels   
   (for they, too, have sometimes appeared in human bodies). The first   
   commandment, he said, forbids adoration of anyone but God, but it does   
   not forbid veneration. Images instruct, remind us of God’s blessings,   
   stimulate piety, and serve as a link and channel of grace between the   
   holy person represented and the faithful on Earth.   
      
   Several emperors struck out hard at those who denounced their   
   iconoclasms, even to the shedding of blood. But St. John they could   
   not police, for he was not under the jurisdiction of Christian   
   Constantinople but of Muslim Damascus. In 787 a more orthodox ruler   
   convoked the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea. Here the right of   
   Christians to venerate images was formally defined.   
      
   By that time St. John Damascene was already called to his reward. But   
   if today we make use of icons, holy pictures and holy statues in our   
   churches and homes, we owe our freedom largely to the learned monk at   
   St. Sabas who valiantly defended the right of Christians to this   
   ancient and loving practice.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God created man to be straightforward, but he has entangled himself   
   with an infinity of questions.   
   -- Saint John of Damascus   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   21 so that my hand shall ever abide with him,   
       my arm also shall strengthen him.   
   22 The enemy shall not outwit him,   
       the wicked shall not humble him.   
   23 I will crush his foes before him   
       and strike down those who hate him. [Psalm 89:21-23] RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Eternal Father, I offer Thee   
      
   Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most Precious Blood of Thy Divine   
   Son, Jesus Christ, in union with the Masses said throughout the world   
   today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere,   
   for sinners in the Universal Church, for those in my own home and   
   within my family. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)