From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
     How Truth Instructs us in Silence:  (III)   
      
   Therefore, let not Moses speak to me, but You, O Lord my God, the   
   Everlasting Truth, lest I die and bear no fruit if I am but warned in   
   word, and not kindled at heart; lest it turn to my condemnation, if I   
   hear Your word, but do not obey it; know it, but do not love it;   
   believe it, but do not keep it. Therefore, Speak, Lord, for Your   
   servant is listening. `You have the words of eternal life.'(John 6:68)   
   Speak to me, Lord, and comfort my soul: order my life to Your praise,   
   glory, and eternal honour.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 2   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   June 14th - St. Methodius   
   Born in Syracuse, Sicily; died in Constantinople on June 14, 847.   
      
   Although he was born in a time when many in the Eastern Church were   
   iconoclasts, Methodius courageously defended the attempt of Christian   
   artists to inspire the faithful by means of beautiful icons. The saint   
   was educated in Syracuse. Then he went to Constantinople intending to   
   be a courtier of the emperor, but a holy monk so much impressed him   
   that he decided to retire from the world. He built a monastery on the   
   Greek island of Chios (Khios), intending to stay there for the rest of   
   his life. But the patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Nicephorus,   
   wanted Methodius by his side. Both men boldly stood up against the   
   destroyers of icons, but Nicephorus was deposed and sent into exile by   
   Emperor Leo the Armenian.   
      
   Methodius, too, was forced to flee. He was sent to Rome to report to   
   Pope Saint Paschal I on the destruction of sacred images. In 821, when   
   Michael the Stammerer was enthroned, Methodius returned to   
   Constantinople with a letter from Pope Paschal demanding the   
   reinstatement of Nicephorus. Instead the emperor condemned Methodius   
   as a seditionist and ordered that he be scourged and exiled.   
      
   For seven years he was kept in a tomb or mausoleum with three thieves.   
   One died and his corpse was left to rot in the dungeon alongside the   
   three living prisoners. When Methodius was released, we are told that   
   he looked like a skeleton, but his spirit was unbroken. He resumed his   
   opposition to iconoclasm under Emperor Theophilus, and was called   
   before the emperor. Blamed for his past activities and for the letter   
   that he supposedly incited the pope to write, he replied boldly, "If   
   an image is so worthless in your eyes, how is it that when you condemn   
   the images of Christ you do not condemn the veneration paid to   
   representations of yourself? Far from doing so, you are continually   
   causing them to be multiplied."   
      
   There was a respite for a time when Theophilus died in 842 and his   
   widow Theodora took control of the empire as regent for her small son,   
   Michael III. Happily, she supported those who defended icons and   
   repealed all decrees against images. Within 30 days exiled clergy were   
   recalled and images restored to the churches amid rejoicing. In 843,   
   Methodius became patriarch of Constantinople, replacing the iconoclast   
   John the Grammarian.   
      
   He had five more years to live. Speedily he summoned a synod in   
   Constantinople that endorsed the decrees of the Second Council of   
   Nicaea declaring icons lawful in the church. An annual 'feast of   
   Orthodoxy,' still observed in the Byzantine Church on the first Sunday   
   of Lent, was instituted to mark this victory for reason and devotion.   
   The patriarch also translated the relics of his predecessor,   
   Nicephorus, to Constantinople. Unfortunately, this period of   
   reconciliation was marred by a quarrel with some of his most ardent   
   supporters--the monks of Saint Theodore Studites--over some of the   
   abbot's writings. The saint died of dropsy. His immediate successor,   
   Saint Ignatius, instituted an annual celebration of Methodius's feast.   
      
   Saint Methodius was said to have been a prolific writer, especially of   
   hymns, though few of his writings still exist. Notable among his   
   extant works is a life of Saint Theophanes. He also authored   
   penitential canons, sermons, and an encomium of Saint Dionysius the   
   Areopagite, which some think incorporates the work of Hilduin that he   
   may have seen during his time in Rome (Attwater, Benedictines,   
   Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth, Walsh).   
      
   In art, Saint Methodius is a Greek patriarch holding two candlesticks,   
   one three-branched, one two-branched, or holding a picture of the Last   
   Judgement (Roeder).   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   The more we see of failure in obedience, the stronger should be our   
   suspicion of temptation and illusion.  For when God sends His   
   inspirations to a heart, the first grace He sheds upon it is that of   
   obedience.   
   --St. Teresa   
      
   Bible Quote   
   Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: let his praise be in the church of   
   the saints.  (Psalms 149:1)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   An invocation of the Holy Ghost:   
      
   Come, O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and   
   kindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit   
   and they shall be created and Thou shalt renew the face of   
   the earth. Amen.   
      
   Let us pray:   
      
   O God, Who taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of   
   the Holy Ghost, grant that, by the gift of the same Spirit, we   
   may be always truly wise, and ever rejoice in His   
   consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)