Talk about family pressure, I do not know what it would be like to be the black sheep in this family. Leander was the older brother of three other saints: Isidore of Seville, Saint Fulgentius of Ecija, and Saint Florentina of Cartagena. Most observations seem to put this to extremely pious parents. I'm sure that makes a big difference but in the end we parents know that it is up to each individual to take what they have been given and do something with it. Same for our salvation. Our Father gives us a good foundation and it is up to us to do something with it. The parables of the talents comes to mind here; if we bury it out of fear, especially the fear of not measuring up, then Jesus is very clear about what happens to us! For us in the West, Leander worked for unity introduced the Nicene Creed into the Liturgy which may not seem like much but shouts another sign of our unity as we gather around the table. Leander intercede on our behalf to make us one! However, concerning the triple immersion of baptism, no truer reply can be made than what you yourselves feel, that in one faith, a different custom is in no way harmful to the Holy Church. But as we are immersed for the third time, we signify the sacraments of the burial that lasted three days, so that, while the infant is lifted out of the water for the third time, the resurrection of a three-day period is expressed. But if perhaps someone should also think that it happens for the sake of the veneration of the supreme Trinity, no objection is made to this, immersing in the water just once for baptism. For since there is one substance in three substances, it can in no way be reprehensible for an infant to be immersed either three times or once, when there is both a trinity of persons in three immersions, and the singularity of the divine can be signified in one. But if until now, an infant was immersed three times in baptism by heretics, I do not think that this should be done among you, in case they divide the divine while counting the immersions, boasting that they have defeated your custom, doing what they used to do.
-- Letter of Gregory the Great to Leander
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Truth to Ponder
I decided to spend a year thinking about the Faith celebrated in the sanctoral calendar. There are also just some events, Scriptural, and other quotes that strike me on random days; or randomly on days, as the case may be. Saint's Days by Month
All
Days by Entry
July 2018
|