Monday, December 10, 2012 - Litany Lane Blog:
Loyalty, Isaiah 35:1-10, Psalms 85:9-14, Luke 5:17-26, Saint Julia of Mérida, Lusitania Portugal
Good Day Bloggers! Happy Advent!Wishing everyone a Blessed Week!
Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013
P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. The "Armageddon" is a pagan belief inspired by the evil one to create chaos and doubt in God. Trust in God, for He creates, He does not destroy and only God knows the hour of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ's second Coming, another chance at eternal salvation. Think about how merciful God truly is as he keeps offering us second chances. He even gives the evil one a multitude of chances to atone. Simply be prepared by living everyday as a gift: Trust in God; Honor Jesus Mercy through the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist; and Utilize the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift knowledge and free will as well,
make the most of it. Life on earth is a stepping to our eternal home in
Heaven. Its your choice whether to rise towards eternal light or lost to
eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and
survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes
from this earth to Purgatory and/or Heaven is our Soul, our Spirit...it's God's perpetual
gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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December 2, 2012 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
Dear
children, with motherly love and motherly patience anew I call you to
live according to my Son, to spread His peace and His love, so that, as
my apostles, you may accept God's truth with all your heart and pray for
the Holy Spirit to guide you. Then you will be able to faithfully serve
my Son, and show His love to others with your life. According to the
love of my Son and my love, as a mother, I strive to bring all of my
strayed children into my motherly embrace and to show them the way of
faith. My children, help me in my motherly battle and pray with me that
sinners may become aware of their sins and repent sincerely. Pray also
for those whom my Son has chosen and consecrated in His name. Thank
you."
November 25, 2012 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
“Dear children! In this time of grace, I call all of you to renew
prayer. Open yourselves to Holy Confession so that each of you may
accept my call with the whole heart. I am with you and I protect you
from the ruin of sin, but you must open yourselves to the way of
conversion and holiness, that your heart may burn out of love for God.
Give Him time and He will give Himself to you and thus, in the will of
God you will discover the love and the joy of living. Thank you for
having responded to my call.” ~ Blessed
Virgin Mary
November 02, 2012 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
"Dear children, as a mother I implore you to persevere as my apostles. I am praying to my Son to give you Divine wisdom and strength. I am praying that you may discern everything around you according to God’s truth and to strongly resist everything that wants to distance you from my Son. I am praying that you may witness the love of the Heavenly Father according to my Son. My children, great grace has been given to you to be witnesses of God’s love. Do not take the given responsibility lightly. Do not sadden my motherly heart. As a mother I desire to rely on my children, on my apostles. Through fasting and prayer you are opening the way for me to pray to my Son for Him to be beside you and for His name to be holy through you. Pray for the shepherds because none of this would be possible without them. Thank you." ~ Blessed Virgin Mary
"Dear children, as a mother I implore you to persevere as my apostles. I am praying to my Son to give you Divine wisdom and strength. I am praying that you may discern everything around you according to God’s truth and to strongly resist everything that wants to distance you from my Son. I am praying that you may witness the love of the Heavenly Father according to my Son. My children, great grace has been given to you to be witnesses of God’s love. Do not take the given responsibility lightly. Do not sadden my motherly heart. As a mother I desire to rely on my children, on my apostles. Through fasting and prayer you are opening the way for me to pray to my Son for Him to be beside you and for His name to be holy through you. Pray for the shepherds because none of this would be possible without them. Thank you." ~ Blessed Virgin Mary
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Today's Word: loyalty loy·al·ty [loi-uh l-tee]
Origin: 1350–1400; Middle English loialte < Middle French. See loyal, -ty2
noun, plural loy·al·ties.
1. the state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitments or obligations.
2. faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc.
3. an example or instance of faithfulness, adherence, or the like: a man with fierce loyalties.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 85:9-14
9 His saving help is near for those who fear him, his glory will dwell in our land.10 Faithful Love and Loyalty join together, Saving Justice and Peace embrace.
11 Loyalty will spring up from the earth, and Justice will lean down from heaven.
12 Yahweh will himself give prosperity, and our soil will yield its harvest.
13 Justice will walk before him, treading out a path.
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Today's Epistle - Isaiah 35:1-10
1 Let the desert and the dry lands be glad, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom; like the asphodel,
2 let it burst into flower, let it rejoice and sing for joy. The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; then they will see the glory of Yahweh, the splendour of our God.
3 Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees
4 and say to the faint-hearted, 'Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God, vengeance is coming, divine retribution; he is coming to save you.'
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed,
6 then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy; for water will gush in the desert and streams in the wastelands,
7 the parched ground will become a marsh and the thirsty land springs of water; the lairs where the jackals used to live will become plots of reed and papyrus.
8 And through it will run a road for them and a highway which will be called the Sacred Way; the unclean will not be allowed to use it; He will be the one to use this road, the fool will not stray along it.
9 No lion will be there, no ferocious beast set foot on it, nothing of the sort be found; it will be used by the redeemed.
10 For those whom Yahweh has ransomed will return, they will come to Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with joy unending; rejoicing and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.
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Today's Gospel Reading - Luke 5: 17-26
Now it happened that he
was teaching one day, and Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who had
come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and from Jerusalem,
were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was there so that he
should heal. And now some men appeared, bringing on a bed a
paralysed man whom they were trying to bring in and lay down in front
of him. But as they could find no way of getting the man through the
crowd, they went up onto the top of the house and lowered him and his
stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in
front of Jesus. Seeing their faith he said, 'My friend, your sins are
forgiven you.' The scribes and the Pharisees began to think
this over. 'Who is this man, talking blasphemy? Who but God alone can
forgive sins?' But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply,
'What are these thoughts you have in your hearts? Which of these is
easier: to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Get up and
walk"? But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth
to forgive sins,' -- he said to the paralysed man-'I order you: get up,
and pick up your stretcher and go home.' And immediately before their
very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home
praising God. They were all astounded and praised God and were filled with awe, saying, 'We have seen strange things today.'
Reflection
• Sitting down, Jesus
taught. People liked to listen to him. Which was the theme of Jesus’
teaching? He always spoke about God, of his Father, but he spoke in a
new way, attractive, different from that of the Scribes and the
Pharisees (Mk 1, 22.27). Jesus represented God as the great Good News for human life; a God Father/Mother who loves and accepts persons, and a God who does not threaten and does not condemn.
• A paralyzed man is brought by four men. Jesus is for them their only hope. Seeing their faith, he tells the paralytic: Your sins are forgiven you! At that time, people believed that the physical defects (paralysis, etc.) were a punishment from God because of some sin committed. For this reason, the paralytics and many other disabled persons felt that they were rejected and excluded by God! Jesus teaches the contrary. Such a great faith of the paralytic was an evident sign of the fact that those who helped them were accepted by God. This is why Jesus declares: Your sins are forgiven you! That is: “God does not reject you!”
• The affirmation of Jesus did not coincide with the idea which the Doctors had of God. For this reason, they react: He is talking blasphemy! According to their teaching, only God could forgive sins. And only the priest could declare that a person was forgiven and purified. How could Jesus, in their eyes, a simple lay man, ever declare that the paralytic was forgiven and purified from his sins? And then, if a simple lay person could forgive sins, the doctors and the priests would have lost their functions! This is why they react and defend themselves.
• Jesus justifies his action: Which is easier to say: Your sins are forgiven or to say, Get up and walk?. Evidently, for a man it is easier to say: Your sins are forgiven”, because nobody can verify or prove this fact. But if one says: “Get up and walk”, in this case everybody can see if he has or not this power to cure. For this reason, to show that, in the name of God, he had the power to forgive sins, Jesus says to the paralytic: “Get up and walk!” He cures the man! He shows that the paralysis is not a punishment from God because of sin, and he shows that the faith of the poor is a proof of the fact that God accepts them in his love.
Personal questions
• Placing myself in the
position of those who helped the paralytic: Would I be capable to help a
sick person, take him up to the top of the house and do what the four
men did? Do I have such a great faith?
• Which is the image that I have of God in myself and which radiates on others? That of the doctors or that of Jesus? A God of compassion or of threat?
• Which is the image that I have of God in myself and which radiates on others? That of the doctors or that of Jesus? A God of compassion or of threat?
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane
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Saint of the Day: Saint Julia of Mérida
Feast Day: December10
Patron Saint: Mérida, Spain; Oviedo, Spain; runaways; torture victims; widows
Eulalia of Mérida was a young Roman Christian martyred in Emerita, the capital of Lusitania (modern Mérida in Spain), conventionally during the persecution under Diocletian and Maximian. Other views place her death at the time of Trajan Decius (AD 249-51).[2] There is debate whether Saint Eulalia of Barcelona, whose story is similar, is the same person.[3]
Hagiography
Eulalia was a devout Christian virgin, aged 12–14, whose mother sequestered her in the countryside in AD 304 because all citizens were required to avow faith in the Roman gods. Eulalia ran away to the law court of the governor Dacian at Emerita, professed herself a Christian, insulted the pagan gods and emperor Maximian, and challenged the authorities to martyr her. The judge's attempts at flattery and bribery failed. According to the Spanish-Roman poet Prudentius of the fifth century, who devoted book 3 of his Peristephanon ("About martyrs") to Eulalia, she said:- Isis Apollo Venus nihil est,
- Maximianus et ipse nihil:
- illa nihil, quia facta manu;
- hic, manuum quia facta colit
- (Isis, Apollo and Venus are naught,
- Nor is Maximian anything more;
- Nothing are they, for by hand they were wrought,
- He, for of hands he the work doth adore)
She was then stripped by the soldiers, tortured with hooks and torches, and burnt at the stake, suffocating from smoke inhalation. She taunted her torturers all the while,[4] and as she expired a dove flew out of her mouth. This frightened away the soldiers and allowed a miraculous snow to cover her nakedness, its whiteness indicating her sainthood.
A shrine over her tomb was soon erected. Veneration of Eulalia was already popular with Christians by AD 350;[2] Prudentius' poem increased her fame[5] and relics from her were distributed through Iberia. Bishop Fidelis of Mérida rebuilt a basilica in her honor around AD 560.[2][6] Her shrine was the most popular in Visigothic Spain.[5] In c. 780 her body was transferred to Oviedo by King Silo. It lies in a coffin of Arab silver donated by Alfonso VI in 1075. In 1639, she was made patron saint of Oviedo.[7] She appears in Thieleman J. van Braght, Martyrs Mirror: An account of Those who Suffered in the Fourth Century (1660).[8]
Julia of Mérida
Often linked with Eulalia is Saint Julia of Mérida, as in the double dedication to Saints Eulalia and Julia. Julia is also said to have been a young girl martyred at Mérida in 304, in the same persecution by Diocletian, and her feast day is also celebrated on 10 December.[9]References
- Patron Saints Index
- ^ a b c Collins, Roger (March 1, 1998). Spain: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 199. ISBN 0-19-285300-7.
- ^ Haliczer, Stephen (2002). Between exaltation and infamy: Female mystics in the Golden Age of Spain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 236. ISBN 0-19-514863-0.
- ^ Eulalia signifies "well-spoken", an attribute of orators.
- ^ a b Dietz, Maribel (July 30, 2005). Wondering Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediterranean World, 300-800. University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State Press. p. 258. ISBN 0-271-02677-4.
- ^ Dietz, op. cit. pg 171
- ^ Sculpture of SANTA EULALIA DE MÉRIDA from Oviedo.es website (Spanish)
- ^ Martyrs Mirror excerpt
- ^ http://saints.sqpn.com/saintjc3.htm
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Today's Snippet I: Lusitania, Portugal
Lusitania (Portuguese: Lusitânia, Spanish: Lusitania) or Hispania Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain (the present autonomous community of Extremadura and a small part of the province of Salamanca).
It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people (an Indo-European people). Its capital was Emerita Augusta (currently Mérida, Spain), and it was initially part of the Roman Republic province of Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own in the Roman Empire. Romans first came to the territory around the mid 2nd century BC.[1] A war with Lusitanian tribes followed, from 155 to 139 BC. In 27 BC, the province was created.[2]
Origin of the name
The etymology of the origin of the Lusitani who gave the province their name, is unclear. The name may be of Celtic origin: Lus and Tanus, "tribe of Lusus", connecting the name with the personal Celtic name Luso and with the god Lugh.[3]
Early modern scholars derived the name from Lucis, an ancient people mentioned in Avienus' Ora Maritima and Tan, from Celtic Tan (Stan), or Tain, meaning a region or implying a country of waters, a root word that formerly meant a prince or sovereign governor of a region.[4][5][6] The name has been connected with the personal Celtic name Luso and with the god Lugh.[7]
Ancient Romans, such as Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 3.5) and Varro (cited by Pliny), speculated that the name Lusitania was of Roman origin, as when Pliny says lusum enim liberi patris aut lyssam cum eo bacchantium nomen dedisse lusitaniae et pana praefectum eius universae: that Lusitania takes its name from the lusus associated with Bacchus and the lyssa of his Bacchantes, and that Pan is its governor. Lusus is usually translated as "game" or "play", while lyssa is a borrowing from the Greek
λυσσα, "frenzy" or "rage", and sometimes rage personified; for later
poets, Lusus and Lyssa become flesh-and-blood companions of Bacchus. Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas, which portrays Lusus as the founder of Lusitania, extends these ideas, which have no connection with modern etymology.
In his work, "Geography", the classical geographer Strabo
suggests a change had occurred in the use of the name "Lusitanian". He
mentions a group who had once been called "Lusitanians" living north of
the Douro river but were called in his day "Callacans".[8]
Lusitanians
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| The Trajan Alcántara Bridge. |
The Lusitani, who were Indo-European speakers, established themselves in the region in the 6th century BC, but historians and archeologists are still undecided about their ethnogenesis.
Some modern authors consider them to be an indigenous people who were
Celticized culturally and possibly also through intermarriage.
The archeologist Scarlat Lambrino defended the position that the
Lusitanians were a tribal group of Celtic origin related to the Lusones (a tribe that inhabited the east of Iberia). Some have claimed that both tribes came from the Swiss mountains. Others argue that the evidence points to the Lusitanians being a native
Iberian tribe, resulting from intermarriage between different local
tribes.
The first area colonized by the Lusitani was probably the Douro valley and the region of Beira Alta (present day Portugal); in Beira, they stayed until they defeated the Celtici and other tribes, then they expanded to cover a territory that reached Estremadura before the arrival of the Romans.
War against Rome
The Lusitani are mentioned for the first time in Livy (218 BC) and are described as fighting for the Carthaginians; they are reported as fighting against Rome in 194 BC, sometimes allied with Celtiberian tribes.
In 179 BC, the praetor Lucius Postumius Albinus celebrated a triumph
over the Lusitani, but in 155 BC, on the command of Punicus (Πουνίκου,
perhaps a Carthaginian) first and Cesarus (Καίσαρος) after, the Lusitani
reached Gibraltar. Here they were defeated by the praetor Lucius Mummius.
From 152 BC onwards, the Roman Republic had difficulties in
recruiting soldiers for the wars in Hispania, deemed particularly
brutal. In 150 BC, Servius Sulpicius Galba
organised a false armistice. While the Lusitani celebrated this new
alliance, he massacred them, selling the survivors as slaves; this
caused a new rebellion led by Viriathus,
who was soon killed by traitors paid by the Romans in 139 BC, after
having led a successful guerrilla campaign against Rome and their local
allies. Two years after, in 137 BC Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus led a successful campaign against the Lusitani, reaching as far north as the Minho river.
Romans scored other victories with proconsul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus and Gaius Marius (elected in 113 BC), but still the Lusitani resisted with a long guerilla war; they later joined Sertorius' (a renegade Roman General) troops (around 80 BC) and were finally defeated by Augustus (around 28-24 BC).
Roman province
With Lusitania (and Asturia and Gallaecia), Rome had completed the conquest of the Iberian peninsula, which was then divided by Augustus (25–20 BC or 16-13 BC[1]) into the eastern and northern Hispania Tarraconensis, the southwestern Hispania Baetica and the western Provincia Lusitana.
Originally,
Lusitania included the territories of Asturia and
Gallaecia, but these were later ceded to the jurisdiction of the new Provincia Tarraconensis and the former remained as Provincia Lusitania et Vettones. Its northern border was along the Douro river, while on its eastern side its border passed through Salmantica (Salamanca)and Caesarobriga (Talavera de la Reina) to the Anas (Guadiana) river.
Between 28-24 BC Augustus' military campaigns pacified all Hispania under Roman rule, with the foundation of Roman cities like Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and Bracara Augusta (Braga) to the north, and to the south Emerita Augusta (Mérida) (settled with the emeriti of the Legio V Alaudae and Legio X Gemina legions).
Between the time of Augustus and Claudius, the province was divided into three conventus iuridicus,
territorial units presided by capital cities with a court of justice
and joint roman/indigenous people assemblies (conventus), that counseled
the Governor:
The conventus ruled of a total of 46 populis, 5 being roman colonies (Emerita Augusta (Mérida, Spain), Pax Iulia (Beja), Scalabis (Santarém), Norba Caesarina and Metellinum). Felicitas Iulia Olisipo (Lisbon) was a roman law municipality) and 3 other towns had the old Latin status (Ebora (Évora), Myrtilis Iulia (Mértola) and Salacia (Alcácer do Sal). The other 37 were of stipendiarii class, among which Aeminium (Coimbra), Balsa (Tavira), or Mirobriga (Santiago do Cacém). Other cities include Ossonoba (Faro), Cetobriga (Tróia, Setúbal), Collippo (Leiria) or Arabriga (Alenquer).
Division under Diocletian
Under Diocletian, Lusitania kept its borders and was ruled by a praeses, later by a consularis; finally, in 298 AD, it was united with the other provinces to form the Diocesis Hispaniarum ("Diocese of the Hispanias").
Portuguese use of the name
As with the Roman names of many European countries, Lusitania was and is often used as an alternative name for Portugal, especially in formal and literary or poetic contexts. The 16th century colony, which would develop into Brazil, was named Nova Lusitânia ("New Lusitania"). In common use are such terms as Lusophone, meaning Portuguese-speaking, and Lusitanic, referring to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries — once Portugal's colonies and presently independent countries still sharing some common heritage.
References
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