Christendom, the barbarians, and Pope St. Gregory the Great

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J.M.J

The first question asked in our class discussions was "What is Christendom?"  Is it just the Christian world? Is it just the hierarchy?  What is it?  It is really easily defined, actually.  Christendom is when the Church, the political parts of the empire, and the social parts of the empire were joined together.  During this time is also when the papacy begin to gain political power which lasted to 1870.  

During this time you also had groups such as the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Franks, and I could go on and on.  These groups were considered the barbarians, or non-Romans.  These groups would go into the cities in the Roman empire and pillage for goods and even sometimes kill the citizens.  In fact, this is where the word "vandalize" comes from!

So what about the papacy during this time of vandalization and even murder?  The "stand-out" figure in the papacy during this time was Pope St. Gregory the Great.  He was the first pope to have true political power and the first one to make the Bishop of Rome a head of state in a sense.  Gregory the Great also somewhat helped form the papacy into what it is today.  He said that the popes were servants of the servants of God, or in other words, the popes serve the people of God (the Church).  He also began the practice of private penance in place of the way it was previously done, which was in public.  So, truly, Pope Gregory was definitely deserving of the title of Great!

Also covered in this chapter was St. Benedict and the monks, especially the Irish monks.  Have you ever given thought to what Christianity would be like if we had never had the monasteries?  To be honest, it wouldn't even be close to what we have today.  The monks, especially the Irish, were missionaries to so many places that had pagan worship.  They were scribes and able to copy the Scriptures down for churches to use.  And they created a way of life that we all sometimes strive for.  

The Benedictines especially gave us a Rule to live by--Balance, Moderation, & Reason.  If we have these things in our life, we will be even closer to God.  We live and work in a secular world that causes us to be out of balance and to constantly be competing with each other in materialistic things.  This, in turn, causes us to lose reason in our lives.  So what would life be like if we were able to balance everything, have everything in moderation, and to know the reason for living?  It would be wonderful!  

Some great points were made in today's discussion.  Often we are told to give 10% to God.  Roughly 10% of our time each week would be about 17 hours.  It was mentioned that most of us probably don't give anywhere near this much to God.  But what if we did?  Think about how much better your life is when you spend even just one hour in prayer?  I don't know about you but I know that I feel so much better when I have spent some time in prayer.  Today's gospel tells us that God is Love.  So why don't we try to strive for that, too?  Why don't we give to God before we do anything else?  The reason for life is God and Love.  So here's my challenge to ALL of us this week.   Try to spend some time with God--at home, at Mass, ANYWHERE! If you drive a lot, why not pray while you're driving?  If you work at a desk and you have a little free time, get on the Internet and go to a website like EWTN and read the daily readings or read some prayers.  Another couple of great websites for those of you who work at a desk and at a place that doesn't mind you having religious things on your computer and such are 2 Hearts Network, which has Catholic wallpaper for your computer, and Virtual Rosary, which is a website where you can download the rosary to your computer desktop.  Those are some easy ways to spend more time with God.

I hope you all enjoy reading this blog and that you get something out of it each week.  Have a blessed week, and I'll see you Sunday!