Our imperfect love reaches out for His perfect love
Love me.
Words we hear, words we say, words we think all the time. Love me. We want to be loved. We imagine love is something amazing and special, something that will protect us to the best of its ability, something that will be there for us no matter what, something we can count on, something special, something that makes us unique. How often does love let us down? How often do we have expectations of love that fall apart? How often do we feel secure in that love and it lets us down. People are hurt by love all the time. People give their all and end up broken hearted. Why does that happen? Is it love letting people down or rather people letting love down?
Seriously. Love is something so amazing. Most parents have it for children and yet even parents have let love down.
The concept of love is a real one, one that we fantasize about, one that we apsire to or not. People write about it, read about it, make movies about it, dream of it, and love is always something really special- that special one either we're looking for it or we're wanting to be special to someone or both. Love. We want loving parents, loving friends, loving partners, loving children, we want this and yet inevitably love gets twisted. We equate love with trust and then we feel betrayed when the trust is broken. We want to find love and be loved and we can only find real true love in one place and it's not in another human being who can twist love into something that resembles love but misses the mark.
Ever wonder how so many people can love their pets? Pets are more trustworthy than humans aren't they? They seldom betray the love we give them and when they do it's excuseable because they are only animals and they don't know any better- humans are supposed to know better.
God wants to be loved and He knew as sinners it was beyond us to love Him with that perfect love so He sent His Son, He sent perfect love to us to reveal Himself to us and give us a chance to accept that love, to embrace that perfect love into our lives, to cling to that perfect love so that perfect love can be our perfect love for Him because we can't love Him perfectly on our own.
Ex. {20:6} And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Deut. {5:10} And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Prov. {8:17} I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
John {8:42} Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of
myself, but he sent me.
John {10:17} Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
John {14:15} If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John {14:23} Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto
him, and make our abode with him. {14:24} He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. {14:25} These things have I spoken unto you, being [yet] present with you. {14:26} But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. {14:27} Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. {14:28} Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come [again] unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. {14:29} And now I have told you before it
come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. {14:30} Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. {14:31} But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
If we love Jesus we will keep His words which are God's words. The Comforter- the Holy Ghost is given to us to teach us everything, to bring things to our remembrance, everything Jesus has said. It's important we read the Bible, that we read all of what Jesus has said.
Love. Our imperfect love reaches out for His perfect love.
Please Lord.
By Your mercy, by Your grace, by Your love.
Amen.
6/19/11
I hope you're not tired of prophecy because there is a long way to go yet. There is so much involved in all this. We don't want to get it wrong though. We don't want to imagine things or make up pieces to fit our own suppositions. The Bible speaks. The Bible gives us clues and such clues that enable us to piece things together.
Do you remember when Jesus talked of speaking in parables?
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Prophecy is meant to be understood- why else would it be given? Many prophets throughout the Old Testament would prophesize and then within the time allotted their prophecy would come to pass. This happened over and over again. God used His prophets to warn people, to encourage people to have faith. Prophets served God's purpose. We can't forget that prophecies are a reality with God, not fables as so many would love to believe. Shove away the prophecies that are too hard to comprehend, that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Hide those things we can't readily understand spoken in plain language. We can't do that. We have to understand that God has a purpose in all He does. Making prophecies hard for us to decipher is for a reason. The prophecies we are studying in Daniel right now reach all the way to the end of time. As long as we are alive and the end has not come this prophecy applies to us.
Like it or not, we are a part of this prophecy. People from the moment it was given were living in prophetic time. Watching things take place, seeing them unfold. Nebuchadnezzar had been told His kingdom would fall and it fell. The Medes and Persians fell. The Greeks fell. Rome was diminished and divided but still exists. Political kingdoms warred and had for many, many years warred against each other fighting, conquering and being conquered. What came into play in the last kingdom prophesized as it was being divided was a new force at play, a different force, a man-like force. Is this to say men were NOT behind the force of those other horns that came up first? They were, but, and this is something we have to really considered- they were not using any religious power to gain their conquered kingdoms, a religious power such as this one did not exist. This religious power was NOT the common pagan priest, not a soothsayer, not a magician that men were making a part of their entourage. This was a NEW power that hadn't existed before and the power came into being under our SAVIOR. This power became a counterfeit to our Savior's truth. This power put on a form of godliness. This power took the things of God and warped them from their pure simple truths into something to serve man, not God. And as they became corrupt, claiming God as their High Authority, they put themselves in league with the warring factions. They submitted to the kings and rulers, bowing to them, and agreeing to pervert their truths in order to gain power, to gain prestige, to gain acceptance, to stop their persecution. These men became as guilty as the Pharisees themselves that Jesus condemned. As they perverted Christianity into their own selfish ideas they aligned themselves with others and used their influence to rid themselves of their worst distracters desiring to make themselves more powerful and their enemies less powerful, destroying them if possible to further their own ambitions.
I need to jump back to history again here and bring up a few bits and pieces of the rising Papacy of the day as recorded as put forth from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
PLEASE read them if you can, it's NOT easy to read history if you've no inclination to do so but to catch these points here means bringing to life the reality of the time. The rising of that Little Horn displacing other Horns through its MOUTH, its EYES, not through its beasts strength, not through military power.
*
POPE St. Agapetus I
(Also AGAPITUS.)
Reigned 535-536. Date of birth uncertain; died 22 April, 536... Meanwhile Belisarius, after the very easy conquest of Sicily, was preparing for an invasion of Italy. The Gothic king, Theodehad, as a last resort, begged the aged pontiff to proceed to Constantinople and bring his personal influence to bear on the Emperor Justinian.
Pasted from <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01202c.htm>
POPE St. Silverius
(Reigned 536-37).
The Empress Theodora, who favoured the Monophysites sought to bring about the election as pope of the Roman deacon Vigilius who was then at Constantinople and had given her the desired guarantees as to the Monophysites. However, Theodatus, King of the Ostrogoths, who wished to prevent the election of a pope connected with Constantinople, forestalled her, and by his influence the subdeacon Silverius was chosen.
However, the pope committed himself to nothing and Theodora now resolved to overthrow him and to gain the papal see for Vigilius. Troublous times befell Rome during the struggle that broke out in Italy between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines after the death of Amalasuntha, daughter of Theodoric the Great. The Ostrogothic king, Vitiges, who ascended the throne in August, 536, besieged the city. The churches over the catacombs outside of the city were devastated, the graves of the martyrs in the catacombs themselves were broken open and desecrated. In December, 536, the Byzantine general Belisarius garrisoned Rome and was received by the pope in a friendly and courteous manner. Theodora sought to use Belisarius for the carrying out of her plan to depose Silverius and to put in his place the Roman deacon Vigilius, formerly apocrisary at Constantinople, who had now gone to Italy. Antonina, wife of Belisarius, influenced her husband to act as Theodora desired. By means of a forged letter the pope was accused of a treasonable agreement with the Gothic king who was besieging Rome. It was asserted that Silverius had offered the king to leave one of the city gates secretly open so as to permit the Goths to enter. Silverius was consequently arrested in March, 537, roughly stripped of his episcopal dress, given the clothing of a monk and carried off to exile in the East. Vigilius was consecrated Bishop of Rome in his stead.
Silverius was taken to Lycia where he was went to reside at Patara. The Bishop of Patara very soon discovered that the exiled pope was innocent. He journeyed to Constantinople and was able to lay before the Emperor Justinian such proofs of the innocence of the exile that the emperor wrote to Belisarius commanding a new investigation of the matter. Should it turn out that the letter concerning the alleged plot in favour of the Goths was forged, Silverius should be placed once more in possession of the papal see. At the same time the emperor allowed Silverius to return to Italy, and the latter soon entered the country, apparently at Naples. However, Vigilius arranged to take charge of his unlawfully deposed predecessor. He evidently acted in agreement with the Empress Theodora and was aided by Antonina, the wife of Belisarius. Silverius was taken to the Island of Palmaria in the Tyrrhenian Sea and kept their in close confinement. Here he died in consequence of the privations and harsh treatment he endured. The year of his death is unknown, but he probably did not live long after reaching Palmaria. He was buried on the island, according to the testimony of the "Liber pontificalis" on 20 June; his remains were never taken from Palmaria. According to the same witness he was invoked after death by the believers who visited his grave. In later times he was venerated as a saint. The earliest proof of this is given by a list of saints of the eleventh century (Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, 1893, 169). The "Martyrologium" of Peter de Natalibus of the fourteenth century also contains his feast, which is recorded in the present Roman Martyrology on 20 June.
POPE Vigilius
Vigilius is said to have agreed to the plans of the intriguing empress who promised him the Papal See and a large sum of money (700 pounds of gold). After Agapetus's death on 22 April, 536, Vigilius return to Rome equipped with letters from the imperial Court and with money. Meanwhile Silverius had been made pope through the influence of the King of the Goths. Soon after this the Byzantine commander Belisarius garrisoned the city of Rome, which was, however, besieged again by the Goths. Vigilius gave Belisarius the letters from the Court of Constantinople, which recommended Vigilius himself for the Papal See. False accusations now led Belisarius to depose Silverius. Owing to the pressure exerted by the Byzantine commander, Vigilius was elected pope in place of Silverius and consecrated and enthroned on 29 March, 537. Vigilius brought it about that the unjustly deposed Silverius was put into his keeping where the late pope soon died from the harsh treatment he received. After the death of this predecessor Vigilius was recognized as pope by all the Roman clergy.
Vigilius refused to acknowledge the imperial edict and was called to Constantinople by Justinian, in order to settle the matter there with a synod. According to the Liber pontificalis on 20 November, while the pope was celebrating the feast of St. Cecilia in the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, and before the service was fully ended, he was ordered by the imperial official Anthimus to start at once on the journey to Constantinople. The pope was taken immediately to a ship that waited in the Tiber, in order to be carried to the eastern capital, while a part of the populace cursed the pope and threw stones at the ship. Rome was now besieged by the Goths under Totila and the inhabitants fell into the greatest misery. Vigilius sent ships with grain to Rome but these were captured by the enemy. If the story related by the Liber pontificalis is essentially correct, the pope probably left Rome on 22 November, 545. He remained for a long time in Sicily, and reached Constantinople about the end of 546 or in January, 547.
Thus at the end of a sorrowful residence of eight years at Constantinople the pope was able, after coming to an understanding with the emperor, to start on his return to Rome in the spring of 555
Pasted from <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15427b.htm>
*
Reading those few bits of historic information we can see how the Pope's entered into alliances with the military powers- the emperors, the empresses, the kings, the queens, the generals- rather than fight in the sense of retaining a pure alliance to God- they chose compromise with the world, they chose mammon, they chose the broad path and we know where that leads. It'd be great to be able to say this changed- but the Little Horn only continued to fit more and more into the prophetic picture as the Papal System.
More tomorrow by the grace of God.
May we pray with a sincere heart for His guidance in all things, in all truth. We need His guiding love, we need the Holy Spirit desperately so that we are not deceived as all but the very elect will be. Only through the righteousness of our Savior will we be saved by His grace.
In His amazing love!
Amen.
Words we hear, words we say, words we think all the time. Love me. We want to be loved. We imagine love is something amazing and special, something that will protect us to the best of its ability, something that will be there for us no matter what, something we can count on, something special, something that makes us unique. How often does love let us down? How often do we have expectations of love that fall apart? How often do we feel secure in that love and it lets us down. People are hurt by love all the time. People give their all and end up broken hearted. Why does that happen? Is it love letting people down or rather people letting love down?
Seriously. Love is something so amazing. Most parents have it for children and yet even parents have let love down.
The concept of love is a real one, one that we fantasize about, one that we apsire to or not. People write about it, read about it, make movies about it, dream of it, and love is always something really special- that special one either we're looking for it or we're wanting to be special to someone or both. Love. We want loving parents, loving friends, loving partners, loving children, we want this and yet inevitably love gets twisted. We equate love with trust and then we feel betrayed when the trust is broken. We want to find love and be loved and we can only find real true love in one place and it's not in another human being who can twist love into something that resembles love but misses the mark.
Ever wonder how so many people can love their pets? Pets are more trustworthy than humans aren't they? They seldom betray the love we give them and when they do it's excuseable because they are only animals and they don't know any better- humans are supposed to know better.
God wants to be loved and He knew as sinners it was beyond us to love Him with that perfect love so He sent His Son, He sent perfect love to us to reveal Himself to us and give us a chance to accept that love, to embrace that perfect love into our lives, to cling to that perfect love so that perfect love can be our perfect love for Him because we can't love Him perfectly on our own.
Ex. {20:6} And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Deut. {5:10} And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Prov. {8:17} I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
John {8:42} Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of
myself, but he sent me.
John {10:17} Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
John {14:15} If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John {14:23} Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto
him, and make our abode with him. {14:24} He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. {14:25} These things have I spoken unto you, being [yet] present with you. {14:26} But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. {14:27} Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. {14:28} Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come [again] unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. {14:29} And now I have told you before it
come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. {14:30} Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. {14:31} But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
If we love Jesus we will keep His words which are God's words. The Comforter- the Holy Ghost is given to us to teach us everything, to bring things to our remembrance, everything Jesus has said. It's important we read the Bible, that we read all of what Jesus has said.
Love. Our imperfect love reaches out for His perfect love.
Please Lord.
By Your mercy, by Your grace, by Your love.
Amen.
6/19/11
I hope you're not tired of prophecy because there is a long way to go yet. There is so much involved in all this. We don't want to get it wrong though. We don't want to imagine things or make up pieces to fit our own suppositions. The Bible speaks. The Bible gives us clues and such clues that enable us to piece things together.
Do you remember when Jesus talked of speaking in parables?
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Prophecy is meant to be understood- why else would it be given? Many prophets throughout the Old Testament would prophesize and then within the time allotted their prophecy would come to pass. This happened over and over again. God used His prophets to warn people, to encourage people to have faith. Prophets served God's purpose. We can't forget that prophecies are a reality with God, not fables as so many would love to believe. Shove away the prophecies that are too hard to comprehend, that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Hide those things we can't readily understand spoken in plain language. We can't do that. We have to understand that God has a purpose in all He does. Making prophecies hard for us to decipher is for a reason. The prophecies we are studying in Daniel right now reach all the way to the end of time. As long as we are alive and the end has not come this prophecy applies to us.
Like it or not, we are a part of this prophecy. People from the moment it was given were living in prophetic time. Watching things take place, seeing them unfold. Nebuchadnezzar had been told His kingdom would fall and it fell. The Medes and Persians fell. The Greeks fell. Rome was diminished and divided but still exists. Political kingdoms warred and had for many, many years warred against each other fighting, conquering and being conquered. What came into play in the last kingdom prophesized as it was being divided was a new force at play, a different force, a man-like force. Is this to say men were NOT behind the force of those other horns that came up first? They were, but, and this is something we have to really considered- they were not using any religious power to gain their conquered kingdoms, a religious power such as this one did not exist. This religious power was NOT the common pagan priest, not a soothsayer, not a magician that men were making a part of their entourage. This was a NEW power that hadn't existed before and the power came into being under our SAVIOR. This power became a counterfeit to our Savior's truth. This power put on a form of godliness. This power took the things of God and warped them from their pure simple truths into something to serve man, not God. And as they became corrupt, claiming God as their High Authority, they put themselves in league with the warring factions. They submitted to the kings and rulers, bowing to them, and agreeing to pervert their truths in order to gain power, to gain prestige, to gain acceptance, to stop their persecution. These men became as guilty as the Pharisees themselves that Jesus condemned. As they perverted Christianity into their own selfish ideas they aligned themselves with others and used their influence to rid themselves of their worst distracters desiring to make themselves more powerful and their enemies less powerful, destroying them if possible to further their own ambitions.
I need to jump back to history again here and bring up a few bits and pieces of the rising Papacy of the day as recorded as put forth from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
PLEASE read them if you can, it's NOT easy to read history if you've no inclination to do so but to catch these points here means bringing to life the reality of the time. The rising of that Little Horn displacing other Horns through its MOUTH, its EYES, not through its beasts strength, not through military power.
*
POPE St. Agapetus I
(Also AGAPITUS.)
Reigned 535-536. Date of birth uncertain; died 22 April, 536... Meanwhile Belisarius, after the very easy conquest of Sicily, was preparing for an invasion of Italy. The Gothic king, Theodehad, as a last resort, begged the aged pontiff to proceed to Constantinople and bring his personal influence to bear on the Emperor Justinian.
Pasted from <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01202c.htm>
POPE St. Silverius
(Reigned 536-37).
The Empress Theodora, who favoured the Monophysites sought to bring about the election as pope of the Roman deacon Vigilius who was then at Constantinople and had given her the desired guarantees as to the Monophysites. However, Theodatus, King of the Ostrogoths, who wished to prevent the election of a pope connected with Constantinople, forestalled her, and by his influence the subdeacon Silverius was chosen.
However, the pope committed himself to nothing and Theodora now resolved to overthrow him and to gain the papal see for Vigilius. Troublous times befell Rome during the struggle that broke out in Italy between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines after the death of Amalasuntha, daughter of Theodoric the Great. The Ostrogothic king, Vitiges, who ascended the throne in August, 536, besieged the city. The churches over the catacombs outside of the city were devastated, the graves of the martyrs in the catacombs themselves were broken open and desecrated. In December, 536, the Byzantine general Belisarius garrisoned Rome and was received by the pope in a friendly and courteous manner. Theodora sought to use Belisarius for the carrying out of her plan to depose Silverius and to put in his place the Roman deacon Vigilius, formerly apocrisary at Constantinople, who had now gone to Italy. Antonina, wife of Belisarius, influenced her husband to act as Theodora desired. By means of a forged letter the pope was accused of a treasonable agreement with the Gothic king who was besieging Rome. It was asserted that Silverius had offered the king to leave one of the city gates secretly open so as to permit the Goths to enter. Silverius was consequently arrested in March, 537, roughly stripped of his episcopal dress, given the clothing of a monk and carried off to exile in the East. Vigilius was consecrated Bishop of Rome in his stead.
Silverius was taken to Lycia where he was went to reside at Patara. The Bishop of Patara very soon discovered that the exiled pope was innocent. He journeyed to Constantinople and was able to lay before the Emperor Justinian such proofs of the innocence of the exile that the emperor wrote to Belisarius commanding a new investigation of the matter. Should it turn out that the letter concerning the alleged plot in favour of the Goths was forged, Silverius should be placed once more in possession of the papal see. At the same time the emperor allowed Silverius to return to Italy, and the latter soon entered the country, apparently at Naples. However, Vigilius arranged to take charge of his unlawfully deposed predecessor. He evidently acted in agreement with the Empress Theodora and was aided by Antonina, the wife of Belisarius. Silverius was taken to the Island of Palmaria in the Tyrrhenian Sea and kept their in close confinement. Here he died in consequence of the privations and harsh treatment he endured. The year of his death is unknown, but he probably did not live long after reaching Palmaria. He was buried on the island, according to the testimony of the "Liber pontificalis" on 20 June; his remains were never taken from Palmaria. According to the same witness he was invoked after death by the believers who visited his grave. In later times he was venerated as a saint. The earliest proof of this is given by a list of saints of the eleventh century (Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, 1893, 169). The "Martyrologium" of Peter de Natalibus of the fourteenth century also contains his feast, which is recorded in the present Roman Martyrology on 20 June.
POPE Vigilius
Vigilius is said to have agreed to the plans of the intriguing empress who promised him the Papal See and a large sum of money (700 pounds of gold). After Agapetus's death on 22 April, 536, Vigilius return to Rome equipped with letters from the imperial Court and with money. Meanwhile Silverius had been made pope through the influence of the King of the Goths. Soon after this the Byzantine commander Belisarius garrisoned the city of Rome, which was, however, besieged again by the Goths. Vigilius gave Belisarius the letters from the Court of Constantinople, which recommended Vigilius himself for the Papal See. False accusations now led Belisarius to depose Silverius. Owing to the pressure exerted by the Byzantine commander, Vigilius was elected pope in place of Silverius and consecrated and enthroned on 29 March, 537. Vigilius brought it about that the unjustly deposed Silverius was put into his keeping where the late pope soon died from the harsh treatment he received. After the death of this predecessor Vigilius was recognized as pope by all the Roman clergy.
Vigilius refused to acknowledge the imperial edict and was called to Constantinople by Justinian, in order to settle the matter there with a synod. According to the Liber pontificalis on 20 November, while the pope was celebrating the feast of St. Cecilia in the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, and before the service was fully ended, he was ordered by the imperial official Anthimus to start at once on the journey to Constantinople. The pope was taken immediately to a ship that waited in the Tiber, in order to be carried to the eastern capital, while a part of the populace cursed the pope and threw stones at the ship. Rome was now besieged by the Goths under Totila and the inhabitants fell into the greatest misery. Vigilius sent ships with grain to Rome but these were captured by the enemy. If the story related by the Liber pontificalis is essentially correct, the pope probably left Rome on 22 November, 545. He remained for a long time in Sicily, and reached Constantinople about the end of 546 or in January, 547.
Thus at the end of a sorrowful residence of eight years at Constantinople the pope was able, after coming to an understanding with the emperor, to start on his return to Rome in the spring of 555
Pasted from <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15427b.htm>
*
Reading those few bits of historic information we can see how the Pope's entered into alliances with the military powers- the emperors, the empresses, the kings, the queens, the generals- rather than fight in the sense of retaining a pure alliance to God- they chose compromise with the world, they chose mammon, they chose the broad path and we know where that leads. It'd be great to be able to say this changed- but the Little Horn only continued to fit more and more into the prophetic picture as the Papal System.
More tomorrow by the grace of God.
May we pray with a sincere heart for His guidance in all things, in all truth. We need His guiding love, we need the Holy Spirit desperately so that we are not deceived as all but the very elect will be. Only through the righteousness of our Savior will we be saved by His grace.
In His amazing love!
Amen.
