Friday, January 18, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:
Disciple, Psalms 78:3-8, Hebrew 4:1-5, Mark 2:1-12, Saint Deicolus, Gaul, Catholic Catechism Chapter 2:3-II Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture
Good Day Bloggers! Happy New Year, Bonne Annee!
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. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will,
make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone 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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January 02, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
"Dear children, with much love and
patience I strive to make your hearts like unto mine. I strive, by my example,
to teach you humility, wisdom and love because I need you; I cannot do without
you my children. According to God's will I am choosing you, by His strength I am
strengthening you. Therefore, my children, do not be afraid to open your hearts
to me. I will give them to my Son and in return, He will give you the gift of
Divine peace. You will carry it to all those whom you meet, you will witness
God's love with your life and you will give the gift of my Son through
yourselves. Through reconciliation, fasting and prayer, I will lead you.
Immeasurable is my love. Do not be afraid. My children, pray for the shepherds.
May your lips be shut to every judgment, because do not forget that my Son has
chosen them and only He has the right to judge. Thank you."
December 25, 2012 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
Our Lady came with little Jesus in her arms and she did not give a message, but little Jesus began to speak and said : “I am your peace, live my commandments.” With a sign of the cross, Our Lady and little Jesus blessed us together.
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."
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Today's Word: disciple dis·ci·ple [dih-sahy-puh l]
Origin: before 900; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French < Latin discipulus, equivalent to dis- dis-1 + -cip ( ere ), combining form of capere to take + -ulus -ule; replacing Middle English deciple < Anglo-French de ( s ) ciple; replacing Old English discipul < Latin, as above
noun
1.Religion .
a. one of the 12 personal followers of Christ.
b. one of the 70 followers sent forth by Christ. Luke 10:1.
c. any other professed follower of Christ in His lifetime.
2. any follower of Christ.
3. ( initial capital letter ) a member of the Disciples of Christ.
4. a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower: a disciple of Freud.
verb (used with object)
5. Archaic. to convert into a disciple.
6. Obsolete . to teach; train.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 78:3-8
3 What we have heard and know, what our ancestors have told us4 we shall not conceal from their descendants, but will tell to a generation still to come: the praises of Yahweh, his power, the wonderful deeds he has done.
6 that a generation still to come might know it, children yet to be born. They should be sure to tell their own children,
7 and should put their trust in God, never forgetting God's great deeds, always keeping his commands,
8 and not, like their ancestors, be a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation weak of purpose, their spirit fickle towards God.
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Today's Epistle - Hebrews 4:1-5, 11
1 Let us beware, then: since the promise never lapses, none of you must think that he has come too late for the promise of entering his place of rest.2 We received the gospel exactly as they did; but hearing the message did them no good because they did not share the faith of those who did listen.
3 We, however, who have faith, are entering a place of rest, as in the text: And then in my anger I swore that they would never enter my place of rest. Now God's work was all finished at the beginning of the world;
4 as one text says, referring to the seventh day: And God rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing.
5 And, again, the passage above says: They will never reach my place of rest.
11 Let us, then, press forward to enter this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of refusal to believe and be lost.
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Today's Gospel Reading - Mark 2:1-12
When he returned to Capernaum, some time later word went round that he was in the house; and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the word to them when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men, but as they could not get the man to him through the crowd, they stripped the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'My child, your sins are forgiven.' Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves, 'How can this man talk like that? He is being blasphemous. Who but God can forgive sins?' And at once, Jesus, inwardly aware that this is what they were thinking, said to them, 'Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven" or to say, "Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk"? But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth' - he said to the paralytic -'I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.' And the man got up, and at once picked up his stretcher and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astonished and praised God saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'
Reflection
• In Mark 1, 1-15, Mark shows how the Good News of God should be prepared and spread. In Mark 1, 16-45, he indicates which is the objective of the Good News and which is the mission of the community. Now, in Mk 2, 1 to 3, 6 there is the effect of the proclamation of the Good News. A community faithful to the Gospel lives values which are in contrast with the interests of the society which surrounds it. This is why one of the effects of the proclamation of the Good News, is the conflict with those who defend the interests of society. Mark gathers together five conflicts which the proclamation of the Good News brought to Jesus.
• In Mark 1, 1-15, Mark shows how the Good News of God should be prepared and spread. In Mark 1, 16-45, he indicates which is the objective of the Good News and which is the mission of the community. Now, in Mk 2, 1 to 3, 6 there is the effect of the proclamation of the Good News. A community faithful to the Gospel lives values which are in contrast with the interests of the society which surrounds it. This is why one of the effects of the proclamation of the Good News, is the conflict with those who defend the interests of society. Mark gathers together five conflicts which the proclamation of the Good News brought to Jesus.
• In the year 70, the time when he wrote his Gospel, there were many conflicts in the life of the communities, but they did not always know how to behave before the accusations which they received from the Roman authorities and from the Jewish leaders. This series of five conflicts found in Mk 2, 1 to 3, 6 served as a guide to orientate the communities, those of the past as well as those of today. Because the conflict is not an incident of the road, even if it forms part of the journey.
• The following is the outline of the five conflicts which Mark presents in his Gospel:
Texts conflict:
1st conflict: Mk 2,1-12
2nd conflict: Mk 2,13-17
3rd conflict: Mk 2,18-22
4th conflict: Mk 2,23-28
5th conflict: Mk 3,1-6
Adversaries of Jesus:
Scribes
The Scribes of the Pharisees
The disciples of John and the Pharisees
The Pharisees
The Pharisees and the Herodians
Cause of the conflict:
Forgiveness of sins
To eat with sinners
The practice of fasting
Observance of Saturday
To cure on Saturday
•
The solidarity of the friends obtains for the paralytic the forgiveness
of sins. Jesus is returning to Capernaum. Many people gather before the
door of the house. He accepts everybody and begins to teach them. To
teach, to speak of God, was what Jesus did the most. A paralytic,
carried by four persons, arrived. Jesus is their only hope. They do not
doubt to go up and make an opening in the roof over the place where
Jesus was. It must have been a poor house, the roof, mud covered with
leaves. They lowered the stretcher with the man, before Jesus. Jesus,
seeing their faith, says to the paralytic: seeing their faith, says to
the paralytic: your sins are forgiven you. At that time people thought
that physical defects (paralytic) were a punishment from God for any sin
that had been committed. The Doctors of the Law taught that the person
remained impure and therefore, incapable of getting close to God. For
this reason, the sick, the poor, the paralytics, felt that they were
rejected by God! But Jesus did not think this way. Such a great faith,
was an evident sign of the fact that the paralytic was accepted by God.
And for this reason, he declares: “Your sins are forgiven you!” With
this affirmation Jesus denies that the paralysis was a punishment due to
the sin of the man.
• Jesus is accused of blasphemy by those who held power. The affirmation of Jesus was contrary to the catechism of the time. It was not in accordance with the idea that they had of God. And because of this they react against and accuse Jesus: he blasphemes! According to them only God could forgive sins. And only the priest could declare someone forgiven and purified. How could it be that Jesus, a man without studies, a lay person, a simple carpenter, could declare persons forgiven and purified of their sins? And there was also another reason which pushed them to criticize Jesus. They had thought: “If it is true what Jesus says, we will lose our power! We will lose our source of income”.
• By curing, Jesus shows that he also has the power to forgive sins. Jesus perceives the criticism. This is why he asks: “Which of these is easier to say to the paralytic: Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk!? It is easier to say: “Your sins are forgiven you”. Because nobody can verify if truly the sins have been forgiven or not. But if I tell him: “Get up and walk!”, there, all can see if I have or not the power to heal. And in order to show that he had the power to forgive sins, in the name of God, Jesus says to the paralytic: Get up, take up your stretcher and go off home! He cures the man! And thus, through a miracle he taught that the paralysis of the man was not a punishment from God, and he showed that the faith of the poor is a proof that God accepts them in his love.
• The message of the miracle and the reaction of people. The paralytic gets up, he takes his stretcher, and begins to walk, and all say: “We have never seen anything like this!” This miracle reveals three very important things: a) The sicknesses of persons are not a punishment for sins. b) Jesus opens a new way to reach God. What the system called impurity was no more an obstacle for persons to get close to God. c) The face of God revealed through the attitude of Jesus was different from the severe face of God revealed by the attitude of the Doctors.
• This reminds us of what a drug addict said once he had recovered and who is now a member of a community in Curitiba, Brazil: “I grew up in the Catholic religion. I abandoned it. My parents were good practicing Catholics and wanted us, their children to be like them. People were obliged always to go to Church, every Sunday and every feast day. And when one did not go, they would say: “God will punish you”. I went because this was imposed upon me, and when I became an adult, I no longer went to Mass. I did not like the God of my parents. I could not understand that God, the Creator of the world, could extend over me, a small child, threatening me with the punishment of hell. I liked much more the God of my uncle who never went to Church, but who every day, and I repeat, every day, bought twice as much bread than what he ate, in order to give to the poor!”.
Personal questions
• Do you like the God of the uncle or the God of the parents of the ex drug addict?
• Which is the face of God that others discover in my behaviour?
• Do you like the God of the uncle or the God of the parents of the ex drug addict?
• Which is the face of God that others discover in my behaviour?
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 Deicolus
Feast Day: January 18
Patron Saint: childhood illnesses
Saint Deicolus (Déicole, Dichuil, Deel, Deicola, Deicuil, Delle, Desle, Dichul, Dicuil) (c. 530 – January 18, 625) is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. He was an elder brother of Saint Gall. Born in Leinster, Deicolus studied at Bangor.
He was selected as one of the twelve disciples to accompany St. Columbanus in his missionary enterprise. After a short stay in England he journeyed to Gaul, in 576, and laboured with St. Columbanus in Austrasia and Burgundy.
At Luxeuil he was unwearied in his ministrations, and yet was always serene and even joyous.
When St. Columbanus was expelled by Theuderic II, in 610, St.
Deicolus, then eighty years of age, determined to follow his master, but
was forced, after a short time, to give up the journey, and settled in a
deserted place called Lutre, or Lure, in the Diocese of Besançon, to which he had been directed by a swineherd.
Until his death, he was thenceforth the apostle of this district,
where he was given a little church and a tract of land by Berthelde,
widow of Weifar, the lord of Lure. Soon a noble abbey was erected for
his many disciples, and the Rule of St. Columbanus was adopted. Numerous
miracles are recorded of St. Deicolus, including the suspension of his
cloak on a sunbeam and the taming of wild beasts.
Clothaire II, King of Burgundy, recognised the virtues of the saint and considerably enriched the Abbey of Lure,
also granting St. Deicolus the manor, woods, fisheries, etc., of the
town which had grown around the monastery. Feeling his end approaching,
St. Deicolus gave over the government of his abbey to Columbanus, one of
his young monks, and spent his remaining days in prayer and meditation.
Veneration
His feast is celebrated on 18 January. So revered was his memory that
his name (Dichuil), under the slightly disguised form of Deel and
Deela, is still borne by most of the children of the Lure district. His Acts were written by a monk of his own monastery in the tenth century.
His cultus was strong in the area of Lure well into the nineteenth
century, when children's clothes were washed in a spring associated with
St. Deicolus that was reputed to cure childhood illnesses.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.
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Today's Snippet I: Gaul
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| Gaul on the eve of the Gallic Wars. Roman ethnography divides Gaul into five parts: Gallia Cisalpina, Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Celtica and Gallia Belgica |
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of the Gaulish language (an early variety of Celtic) native to Gaul. According to the testimony of Julius Caesar, the Gaulish language proper was distinct from the Aquitanian language and the Belgic language.[1] Archaeologically, the Gauls were bearers of the La Tène culture, which extended across all of Gaul, as well as east to Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia and southwestern Germania.
During the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Gaul fell under Roman rule: Gallia Cisalpina was conquered in 203 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded by the Cimbri and the Teutons after 120 BC, who were in turn defeated by the Romans by 103 BC. Julius Caesar finally subdued the remaining parts of Gaul in his campaigns of 58 to 51 BC. Roman control of Gaul lasted for five centuries, until the last Roman rump state, the Domain of Soissons, fell to the Franks in AD 486. During this time, the Celtic culture had become amalgamated into a Gallo-Roman culture and the Gaulish language was likely extinct by the 6th century.
Origin of Name
The Greek and Latin names for Gaul are ultimately derived from the Celtic ethnic or tribal names *Kel-to and Gal(a)-to-.[2] Some modern linguists have suggested that the two variant Greek Keltoi and Galatai have a common origin.
Josephus claimed the Gauls were descended from Gomer, the grandson of Noah. Hellenistic etiology connects the name with Galatia
(first attested by Timaeus of Tauromenion in the 4th c. BC), and it was
suggested the association was inspired by the "milk-white" skin (γάλα, gala, "milk") of the Gauls (Greek: Γαλάται, Galatai, Galatae).
The English Gaul and French: Gaule, Gaulois are unrelated to Latin Gallia and Galli, despite superficial similarity. They are rather derived from the Germanic term walha, "foreigner, Romanized person", an exonym applied by Germanic speakers to Celts, likely via a Latinization of Frankish *Walholant "Gaul", literally "Land of the Foreigners/Romans", making it partially cognate with the names Wales and Wallachia), the usual word for the non-Germanic-speaking peoples (Celtic-speaking and Latin-speaking indiscriminately).[3] The Germanic w is regularly rendered as gu / g in French (cf. guerre = war, garder = ward), and the diphthong au is the regular outcome of al before a following consonant (cf. cheval ~ chevaux). Gaule or Gaulle can hardly be derived from Latin Gallia, since g would become j before a (cf. gamba > jambe), and the diphthong au would be unexplained; the regular outcome of Latin Gallia is Jaille in French which is found in several western placenames.[4][5]
The name Gaul is sometimes erroneously linked to the ethnic name Gael, which is derived from Old Irish Goidel (borrowed, in turn, in the 7th century AD from Primitive Welsh Guoidel—spelled Gwyddel in Middle Welsh and Modern Welsh—likely derived from a Brittonic root *Wēdelos meaning literally "forest person, wild man");[6] the names are, thus, unrelated. The Irish word gall,
on the other hand, did originally mean "a Gaul" i.e. an inhabitant of
Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to "foreigner", to describe the Vikings, and later still the Normans.[7] The words gael and gall are sometimes used together for contrast, for instance in the 12th century book Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib.
History
Pre-Roman Gaul
The early history of the Gauls is predominantly a work in
archaeology—there being little written information (save perhaps what
can be gleaned from coins) concerning the peoples that inhabited these
regions—and the relationships between their material culture, genetic relationships (the study of which has been aided, in recent years, through the field of archaeogenetics), and linguistic divisions rarely coincide.
The major source of materials on the Celts of Gaul was Poseidonios of Apamea, whose writings were quoted by Timagenes, Julius Caesar, the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus, and the Greek geographer Strabo.[8]
Many cultural traits of the early Celts seem to have been carried northwest up the Danube
Valley, although this issue is contested. It seems as if they derived
many of their skills (like metal-working), as well as certain facets of
their culture, from Balkan peoples. Some scholars think the Bronze Age Urnfield culture represents an origin for the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking peoples (see Proto-Celtic).
The Urnfield culture was preeminent in central Europe during the late
Bronze Age, from ca. 1200 BC until 700 BC. The spread of iron-working led to the development of the Hallstatt culture (ca. 700 to 500 BC) directly from the Urnfield. Proto-Celtic,
the latest common ancestor of all known Celtic languages, is considered
by some scholars to have been spoken at the time of the late Urnfield
or early Hallstatt cultures.
The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the La Tène culture,
which developed out of the Hallstatt culture without any definite
cultural break, under the impetus of considerable Mediterranean
influence from the Greek, Phoenician, and Etruscan civilizations. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC) in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, southwest Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Hungary. Farther north extended the contemporary pre-Roman Iron Age culture of northern Germany and Scandinavia.
By the 2nd century BC, France was called Gaul (Gallia Transalpina) by the Romans. In his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar distinguishes among three ethnic groups in Gaul: the Belgae in the north (roughly between Rhine and Seine), the Celts in the center and in Armorica, and the Aquitani in the southwest, the southeast being already colonized by the Romans. While some scholars believe the Belgae south of the Somme
were a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic
affiliations have not been definitively resolved. One of the reasons is
political interference upon the French historical interpretation during
the 19th century. French historians adopted fully the explanation of
Caesar who stated Gaul stretched from the Pyrenees up to the Rhine in the north. This fitted the French expansionist aspirations of the time under Napoleon III.
In the north of (modern) France, the Gaul-German language border was
situated somewhere between the Seine and the Somme. Northern Belgic
tribes like the Nervians, Atrebates or Morini appear to be Germanic tribes who migrated from the Germanic hinterland and adopted Celtic language and customs,
as all of the names of their leaders and towns are Celtic. In addition
to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia (present-day Marseille) along the Mediterranean coast.[9] Also, along the southeastern Mediterranean coast, the Ligures had merged with the Celts to form a Celto-Ligurian culture.
In the 2nd century BC, Mediterranean Gaul had an extensive urban
fabric and was prosperous, while the best known cities in northern Gaul
include the Biturigian capital of Avaricum (Bourges), Cenabum (Orléans), Autricum (Chartres) and the excavated site of Bibracte near Autun in Saône-et-Loire, along with a number of hillforts (or oppida)
used in times of war. The prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged
Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants of
Massilia, who were under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls. The
Romans intervened in Gaul in 125 BC, and by 121 BC they had conquered
the Mediterranean region called Provincia (later named Gallia Narbonensis). This conquest upset the ascendancy of the Gaulish Arverni tribe.
Conquest by Rome
The Roman proconsul and general Julius Caesar pushed his army into
Gaul in 58 BC, on the pretext of assisting Rome's Gaullish allies
against the migrating Helvetii. With the help of various Gallic tribes
(for example, the Aedui) he managed to conquer nearly all of Gaul. But
the Arverni tribe, under their Chieftain Vercingetorix,
still defied Roman rule. Julius Caesar was checked by Vercingetorix at a
siege of Gergorvia, a fortified town in the center of Gaul. Caesar's
alliances with many Gallic tribes broke. Even the Aedui, their most
faithful supporters, threw in their lot with the Arverni, but the ever
loyal Remi (best known for its cavalry) and Lingones sent troops to
support Caesar. The Germani of the Ubii also sent cavalry, which Caesar
equipped with Remi horses. Caesar captured Vercingetorix in the Battle of Alesia, which ended the majority of Gallic resistance to Rome.
As many as a million people (probably 1 in 5 of the Gauls) died, another million were enslaved, 300 tribes were subjugated and 800 cities were destroyed during the Gallic Wars. The entire population of the city of Avaricum (Bourges) (40,000 in all) were slaughtered.[10] During Julius Caesar's campaign against the Helvetii (present-day Switzerland) approximately 60% of the tribe was destroyed, and another 20% was taken into slavery.
Roman Gallia
The Gaulish culture then was massively submerged by Roman culture,
Latin was adopted by the Gauls; Gaul, or Gallia, was absorbed into the Roman Empire, all the administration changed, and Gauls eventually became Roman citizens.[11] From the third to 5th centuries, Gaul was exposed to raids by the Franks. The Gallic Empire, consisting of the provinces of Gaul, Britannia, and Hispania, including the peaceful Baetica in the south, broke away from Rome from 260 to 273.
Following the Frankish victory at the Battle of Soissons in 486 AD, Gaul (except for Septimania) came under the rule of the Merovingians, the first kings of France. Gallo-Roman culture, the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire, persisted particularly in the areas of Gallia Narbonensis that developed into Occitania, Gallia Cisalpina and to a lesser degree, Aquitania. The formerly Romanized north of Gaul, once it had been occupied by the Franks,
would develop into Merovingian culture instead. Roman life, centered on
the public events and cultural responsibilities of urban life in the res publica and the sometimes luxurious life of the self-sufficient rural villa system, took longer to collapse in the Gallo-Roman regions, where the Visigoths largely inherited the status quo in the early 5th century. Gallo-Roman language persisted in the northeast into the Silva Carbonaria
that formed an effective cultural barrier, with the Franks to the north
and east, and in the northwest to the lower valley of the Loire, where Gallo-Roman culture interfaced with Frankish culture in a city like Tours and in the person of that Gallo-Roman bishop confronted with Merovingian royals, Gregory of Tours.
The Druids
were not the only political force in Gaul, however, and the early
political system was complex, if ultimately fatal to the society as a
whole. The fundamental unit of Gallic politics was the tribe, which
itself consisted of one or more of what Caesar called pagi. Each
tribe had a council of elders, and initially a king. Later, the
executive was an annually-elected magistrate. Among the Aedui, a tribe
of Gaul, the executive held the title of Vergobret, a position much like a king, but his powers were held in check by rules laid down by the council.
The tribal groups, or pagi as the Romans called them (singular: pagus; the French word pays, "region", comes from this term), were organized into larger super-tribal groups the Romans called civitates. These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses, which would remain in place—with slight changes—until the French Revolution.
Although the tribes were moderately stable political entities, Gaul
as a whole tended to be politically divided, there being virtually no
unity among the various tribes. Only during particularly trying times,
such as the invasion of Caesar, could the Gauls unite under a single leader like Vercingetorix. Even then, however, the faction lines were clear.
The Romans divided Gaul broadly into Provincia (the conquered area around the Mediterranean), and the northern Gallia Comata ("free Gaul" or "long haired Gaul"). Caesar divided the people of Gaulia Comata into three broad groups: the Aquitani; Galli (who in their own language were called Celtae); and Belgae. In the modern sense, Gaulish tribes are defined linguistically, as speakers of dialects of the Gaulish language. While the Aquitani were probably Vascons, the Belgae would thus probably be counted among the Gaulish tribes, perhaps with Germanic elements.
Julius Caesar, in his book, Commentarii de Bello Gallico, comments:
| “ |
All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae
inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are
called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The Garonne River separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the River Marne and the River Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilisation and refinement of (our) Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germani, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valour, as they contend with the Germani in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the River Rhone; it is bounded by the Garonne River, the Atlantic Ocean, and the territories of the Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the River Rhine, and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rises from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the River Rhine; and look toward the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from the Garonne to the Pyrenees and to that part of the Atlantic (Bay of Biscay) which is near Spain: it looks between the setting of the sun, and the north star. |
” |
Religion
The Gauls practiced a form of animism,
ascribing human characteristics to lakes, streams, mountains, and other
natural features and granting them a quasi-divine status. Also, worship
of animals was not uncommon; the animal most sacred to the Gauls was
the boar, which can be found on many Gallic military standards, much like the Roman eagle.
Their system of gods and goddesses was loose, there being certain
deities which virtually every Gallic person worshiped, as well as tribal
and household gods. Many of the major gods were related to Greek gods;
the primary god worshiped at the time of the arrival of Caesar was Teutates, the Gallic equivalent of Mercury. The "father god" in Gallic worship was "Dis Pater" (cf. Dyaus Pitar), who could be assigned the Roman name "Saturn", but etymologically related to Jupiter (mythology). However there is no known unified theology, just a set of related and evolving traditions of worship.
Perhaps the most intriguing facet of Gallic religion is the practice of the Druids.
The druids presided over human or animal sacrifices that were made in
wooded groves or crude temples. They also appear to have held the
responsibility for preserving the annual agricultural calendar and
instigating seasonal festivals which corresponding to key points of the
lunar-solar calendar. The religious practices of druids were syncretic
and borrowed from earlier pagan traditions, with probably indo-European
roots. Julius Caesar mentions in his Gallic Wars that those Celts who
wanted to make a close study of druidism went to Britain to do so. In a
little over a century later, Gnaeus Julius Agricola mentions Roman
armies attacking a large druid sanctuary in Anglesey, also known as
Holyhead, Wales. There is no certainty concerning the origin of the
druids, but it is clear that they vehemently guarded the secrets of
their order and held sway over the people of Gaul. Indeed they claimed
the right to determine questions of war and peace, and thereby held an
"international" status. In addition, the Druids monitored the religion
of ordinary Gauls and were in charge of educating the aristocracy. They
also practiced a form of excommunication from the assembly of
worshipers, which in ancient Gaul meant a separation from secular
society as well. Thus the Druids were an important part of Gallic
society. The nearly complete and mysterious disappearance of the Celtic
language from most of the territorial lands of ancient Gaul, with the
exception of Brittany, France, can be attributed to the fact that Celtic
druids refused to allow the Celtic oral literature or traditional
wisdom to be committed to the written letter.
The Celts practiced headhunting as the head was believed to house a person's soul. Ancient Romans and Greeks recorded the Celts' habits of nailing heads of personal enemies to walls or dangling them from the necks of horses.[12]
References
- ^ "All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celtae, in our Galli, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws." Gallia
est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam
Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur.
Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos ab
Aquitanis Garumna flumen. (Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico 1.1, edited by T. Rice Holmes
"IVLI CAESARIS COMMENTARIORVM DE BELLO GALLICO". thelatinlibrary.com. (Latin) - ^ Birkhan 1997:48
- ^ Sjögren, Albert, "Le nom de "Gaule", in "Studia Neophilologica", Vol. 11 (1938/39) pp. 210-214.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (OUP 1966), p. 391.
- ^ Nouveau dictionnaire étymologique et historique (Larousse 1990), p. 336.
- ^ Koch, John, "Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia", ABC-CLIO, 2006, pp. 775-6
- ^ Linehan, Peter; Janet L. Nelson (2003). The Medieval World. 10. Routledge. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-415-30234-0.
- ^ Berresford Ellis, Peter (1998). The Celts: A History. Caroll & Graf. pp. 49–50. ISBN 0-7867-1211-2.
- ^ Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France by Michael Dietler, 2010, University of California Press, books.google.com
- ^ Julius Caesar The Conquest of Gaul
- ^ Helvetti
- ^ see e.g. Diodorus Siculus, 5.2
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One: Profession of Faith, Chapter 2:3II
Article 3-II
II. Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture
105
God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities,
which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been
written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."DV 11
"For Holy
Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and
canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with
all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the
Church herself."DV 11; cf. ⇒ Jn 20:31;
⇒ 2 Tim 3:16; ⇒ 2 Pt
1:19-21; ⇒ 3:15-16
106
God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. "To compose the sacred
books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task,
made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in
them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing
whatever he wanted written, and no more."DV 11
107
The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired
authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy
Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and
without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished
to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures."DV 11
108
Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book".
Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, "not a
written and mute word, but incarnate and living".St. Bernard, S. missus est hom. 4, 11: PL 183, 86 If the
Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the
living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open (our) minds to understand
the Scriptures."Lk 24:45
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