00 12/03/2013 14:39



Tuesday, March 12, Fourth Week of Lent

ST. MAXIMILIAN OF TEBESSA (Numidia [present Algeria], 274-295), Martyr
Son of a Roman commander in North Africa, he refused to join the army as required
when he turned 21, saying he could only be a soldier for Christ. For this he was beheaded.
A 'passion of Maximilian' from late antiquity recounts his purported trial but little else
is known of him. He has been called the patron saint of conscientious objectors to war.
Readings for Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/031212.cfm

More significant for the Church on this particular day is that March 12 is the 'birth in heaven' of Pope St. Gregory the Great who died in 604. After Vatican II, his feast day was moved from March 12 to September 3, the date of his priestly ordination, because March 12 always falls in the Lenten period.

ST. POPE GREGORY THE GREAT (Italy, ca 540-624)
Civilian Prefect of Rome, Monk and Abbot, Papal Deacon and Envoy, Pope (590-604), Doctor of the Church
In 2008, Benedict XVI devoted two Wednesday catecheses to his great predecessor
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080528...
Gregory's parents Gordian and Sylvia, Roman patricians of the Anicia clan and devout Christians, are both venerated as saints. A great-great-grand-uncle was Pope Felix III (483-492) and one of his immediate predecessors Agapetus (535-536) was also from his clan.

Gregory is generally considered to have established the medieval Papacy and propagated medieval spirituality as embodied in St. Benedict. He is well-known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as Pope [and probably not matched by any other Pope until Benedict XVI] but his most important works were written as Pope.

In The Rule for Pastors written at the start of his Pontificate, he described the ideal bishop as teacher and guide of his flock. In Book 2 of his Dialogs, he wrote about the 'Life and Miracles of St. Benedict of Nursia' who had died when Gregory was a child; the work became the primary historical source for Benedict's biography.

His homilies continue to be quoted today and some 860 of letters he wrote as Pope were conserved. Gregory started life in the footsteps of his father as a Roman administrator, becoming Prefect of Rome when he was 32.

After a few years, he left civilian life to become a monk, converting the family home into a monastery. After he was ordained, he was named one of the Pope's seven deacons for Rome, but in 679, Pelagius II named him his ambassador to the imperial court in Constantinople, which by then was the capital of the Roman Empire.

He served there for six years, then chose to return to his monastery where he became abbot. But in 590, he was elected Pope by acclamation to succeed Pelagius. At the time, the papacy had little influence outside Italy.

Gregory sought from the start to reaffirm the primacy of Rome as his predecessor Leo the Great had done. He considered evangelization of Europe's pagan lands a priority, and in this context, he sent a mission to England led by the future St. Augustine of Canterbury.

Gregory also required all his bishops to engage in systematic assistance to the poor, an activity which was responsible for reestablishing the prestige and influence of the papacy in Italy against the distant imperial rule in Constantinople.

His papacy was also characterized by his tireless efforts at peacemaking with pagan monarchs. He revitalized the liturgy, introducing the use of prayers in the Canon of the Mass that vary according to the liturgical season.

The so-called Tridentine Mass of 1570, adopted after the Council of Trent, in effect, simply formalized the rubrics of the Mass as it had been celebrated since the time of Pope Gregory, and 'Gregorian rite' is still interchangeably used as a term for the Tridentine Mass.

Around 800, when a system of notation was devised for the plainsong used in liturgy, it came to be called Gregorian chant although he had died two centuries earlier.

As Benedict XVI has pointed out, "Gregory remained a simple monk at heart.. and wanted to be simply servus servorum Dei, servant of the servants of God". He coined the phrase, which has become one of the 'titles' for the Supreme Pontiff. It manifested "his way of living and acting, convinced that a bishop should, above all, imitate the humility of God and follow Christ in this way".


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

- Missa pro eligendo Pontefice

- Start of the 2013 Conclave


One year ago today, Benedict XVI had no events scheduled.
Two years ago today...

The Western world woke up to the terrible news that a tsunami in northern Japan not only wiped out the affected land area but also flooded a nuclear power plant whose reactors were in imminent danger of meltdown. The nuclear crisis quickly overwhelmed the tsunami story, as tragic as that was in terms of human lives lost.

On Good Friday 2011, in answer to a question from a little Japanese girl on a television programme, Benedict XVI said:
I, too, wonder why. We don’t have answers, but we know that Jesus suffered like you, an innocent victim. God loves me, He is on my side, and one day I will realise that this suffering wasn’t meaningless. Rest assured, we are with you, with all Japanese children who are suffering. Let us pray together that light will come for you as soon as possible.



Pardon the indulgence... I promised myself I would use this banner for all my posts today...
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/03/2013 14:44]