Rash Judgments

Rash Judgments

“How displeasing to God are rash judgments! The judgments of the
children of men are rash because they usurp the office of Our Lord,
the just Judge. They are rash because the principal malice of sin
depends on the intention and the counsel of the heart, and these are
hidden things not known to human judges. They are rash because every
person has things that could be judged, and, indeed, on which one
should judge oneself. On the cross our Savior could not entirely
excuse the sin of those who crucified him, but he extenuated the
malice by pleading their ignorance. When we cannot excuse a sin, let
us at least make it worthy of compassion by attributing the most
favorable cause we can to it, such as ignorance or weakness. We can
never pass judgment on our neighbor.”
--Saint Francis de Sales

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9 January – St Peter of Sebaste

Bishop of Sebaste in Lesser Armenia. Born in c 340 in Caesarea,
Cappadocia and died in 391 in Sebaste, Lesser Armenia, of natural
causes. He was the younger brother of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of
Nyssa, the famous Christian Hermit Naucratius and Macrina the Younger,
all Saints. He is also known as Peter of Sebasteia, as well as a close
friend and colleague of St Gregory of Nazianzen, another Doctor of the
Church.

Any sibling who has ever idolised their older siblings, followed in
their footsteps, or felt himself living in their shadow, can certainly
relate to Peter of Sebaste, who was the youngest child of a true
theological powerhouse of a family.

Peter lived in the second half of the fourth century and was born
around the year 340. He was the youngest of ten children and lost his
father in his cradle, some think before he was born. His older
siblings were two of the Cappadocian Fathers—Basil of Caesarea, that
is St Basil the Great and St Gregory of Nyssa—and the great female
monk and desert mother, St Macrina the Younger. Macrina took the young
Peter under her spiritual wing and trained him in the religious life
of asceticism.

Peter was a brilliant young student and, after a childhood spent
studying the liberal arts, he turned all of his intellectual strength
towards theological studies, focusing particularly on studying the
Sacred Scriptures.

Basil was appointed the Bishop of Caesarea in 370 and, shortly after,
ordained his younger brother, Peter, as a Priest. Soon after ordaining
Peter, Basil took him into his Episcopal court as an advisor and
confidante. Peter withdrew soon after from court and became, like
Macrina, a solitary ascetic.

Peter helped Macrina and their mother start a monastic community of
women and started a monastery community of men as well but,
unfortunately, he was forced back into the public square when he was
appointed the Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia.

As Bishop, Peter’s activities were not well-recorded but in his life
and Episcopal administration, he displayed the same characteristics as
Basil. Linked together in the closest manner with his brothers, he
followed their writings with the greatest interest. At his advice
Gregory of Nyssa wrote his great work, Against Eunomius, in defence of
Basil’s similarly named book answering the polemical work of Eunomius.
It was also at his desire, that Gregory wrote the Treatise on the Work
of the Six Days, to defend Basil’s similar treatise against false
interpretations and to complete it. Another work of Gregory’s, On the
Endowment of Man, was also written at Peter’s suggestion and sent to
the latter with an appropriate preface as an Easter gift in 397.

“A letter, which St Peter wrote and which is prefixed to St Gregory of
Nyssa’s books against Eunomius, has entitled him to a rank among the
ecclesiastical writers and is a standing proof, that though he had
confined himself to sacred studies, yet by good conversation and
reading and by the dint of genius and an excellent understanding, he
was inferior to none but his incomparable brother Basil and his
colleague and friend, St Gregory of Nazianzen, in solid eloquence.

In 381, he attended the general council held at Constantinople and
joined the other Bishops in condemning the Macedonian heretics. Not
only his brother, St Gregory of Nyssa but also Theodoret and all
antiquity, bear testimony to his extraordinary sanctity, prudence and
zeal.” (From the life of his sister St Macrina, composed by their
brother St Gregory of Nyssa).
His death happened in summer, about the year 391 and his brother of
Nyssa mentions, that his memory was honoured at Sebaste (probably the
very year after his death) by an anniversary solemnity, with several
martyrs of that city. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology, on the
9th of January.

https://anastpaul.com/2021/01/09/


Saint Quote:
If you have the courage to imitate Mary Magdalene in her sins, have
the courage to imitate her penance!
--St. Padre Pio

Bible Quote:
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and
His love is perfected in us.  (1 John 4-12)


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Crudelis Herodes, Deum Regem
Hymn for The Epiphany
By Coelius Sedulius (Died c 450)
Poet
Unknown translator

Why impious Herod, vainly fear
That Christ the Saviour cometh here?
He takes no earthly realms away
Who gives the crown that lasts for aye.

To greet His birth, the Wise Men went,
Led by the star before them sent;
Called on by light, towards Light they pressed,
And by their gifts their God confessed.

In holy Jordan’s purest wave
The heavenly Lamb vouchsafed to lave;
That He, to whom was sin unknown,
Might cleanse His people from their own.

New miracle of power divine!
The water reddens into wine:
He spake the word and poured the wave
In other streams than nature gave.

All glory, Lord, to Thee we pay
For Thine Epiphany today.
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete.

Coelius Sedulius (Died c 450), recounting Christ’s life from His Birth
to His Resurrection.
Its 23 stanzas each begin with a consecutive letter of the Latin
alphabet, making the poem an abecedarius.
It is one of the oldest parts of the Roman Catholic liturgy, with two
Hymns formed from the first seven and four later verses.
There have been monastic translations into English and later
translations into many other languages.