Conserve
Goodness
保持良好
Bǎochí liánghǎo
善を守る
Zen o mamoru
ps97
bonitas universalem
conservationem generabilium
Let the earth rejoice in conservative reform.
Conservation protects productive value as the norm.
Clouds and darkness surround the power of the storm.
Light and energy still shine above the darkest forms.
Celestial fire shines, hides or crackles at different times.
Illumination is the source for sight in the respective climes.
Lightning lights the world with jolts.
The earth sees forms with the electrical bolts.
Mountains melt from sight in a downpour that approaches omnipresence.
Wetness in the atmospheric reality is allowed near the essence of real presence.
The heavens declare the righteousness of divine glory.
People see the God of nature's story.
The worship of false belief is detrimental to faith.
Reason is required to keep reality straight.
The capital and the cities of faith rejoice
when justice in judgment is given voice.
The power of love shines above the earth.
The God who created reality helps us to see mental and material worth.
Divine design loves those who value goodness
for the correction of criminal behavior to redeem human fullness.
Joyful gladness springs for the true hearted.
The light of love shines for those who are not heartless.
The Most High God was not acceptable to polytheistic belief.
It declared allegiance to authority higher than the imperial chief.
Christ had been since before the beginning and will be beyond the end of time.
He was the incarnation of the divine Son in man until his body was crucified.
He rose again on the third day until he ascended to the Empyrean to reside.
Jesus made the Father's name known to the faithful.
He showed love that those who believed would feel grateful.
Rejoice in the faith that will achieve rightness.
Give thanks to the Lord who heals blindness.
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97 Dominus regnavit
Dominance is king
1 The Lord is King;
let the earth rejoice;
let the multitude of the isles be glad.
2 Clouds and darkness are round about him,
righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne.
3 A fire goes before him
and burns up his enemies on every side.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees it and is afraid.
5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
7 Confounded be all who worship carved images
and delight in false gods!
Bow down before him, all you gods.
8 Zion hears and is glad, and the cities of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you are the Lord,
most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil;
he preserves the lives of his saints
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light has sprung up for the righteous,
and joyful gladness for those who are truehearted.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy Name.
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Acts of the Apostles
Chapter 16
The sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles records the second missionary journey of Paul with Silas and Timothy. His first mission had been with Barnabas from 47-48 CE. This journey is dated in 49.
Lydia and her household had been converted while they were in Phillipi, a Roman colony in Macedonia. A slave girl who made money for her owners with fortune telling had been yelling that Paul and his companions were slaves proclaiming the salvation of the Most High God. Paul commanded her to stop in the name of Jesus Christ.
Acts 16:19-21
When the owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, 'These men are disturbing our city. They are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.'
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Claudius was emperor when Paul and his entourage went to Phillipi.
Claudius was born on 1 August 10 BCE at Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France). He had two older siblings, Germanicus and Livilla. His mother, Antonia, may have had two other children who died young.
His maternal grandparents were Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, Augustus' sister. This made him the great-great grandnephew of Gaius Julius Caesar. His paternal grandparents were Livia, Augustus' third wife, and Tiberius Claudius Nero.
He was named princeps by the Praetorian guard, Gratus, when his nephew, the emperor Caligula, was assassinated. He ruled from 41-54.
He emphasized his his place within the Julio-Claudian family. He adopted the name "Caesar" as a cognomen. The name still carried great weight with the populace. He dropped the name "Nero."
While Claudius had never been formally adopted either by Augustus or his successors, he was the grandson of Augustus' sister Octavia. He felt that he had the right of family. He also adopted the name "Augustus" as the two previous emperors had done at their accessions. He kept the honorific "Germanicus" to display the connection with his heroic brother.
Since Claudius was the first Emperor proclaimed on the initiative of the Praetorian Guard instead of the Senate, his repute suffered at the hands of commentators such as Seneca. He was the first Emperor who resorted to monetary recognition as a means to secure army loyalty. He rewarded the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard that had elevated him with 15,000 sesterces.
He dispatched a force of 40,000 troops and several war elephants across the English Channel in 43. The Romans had soon conquered a stronghold at modern day Colchester. They eventually succeeded in capturing the Catuvellauni tribal leader Caratacus.
Claudius conducted a census in 48 that found 5,984,072 Roman citizens. Adult males with Roman citizenship were counted. Women, children, slaves and free adult males without Roman citizenship were not counted. This was an increase of around a million since the census conducted at Augustus' death.
He had helped increase this number through the foundation of Roman colonies that were granted blanket citizenship. These colonies were often made out of existing communities, especially those with elites who could rally the populace to the Roman cause. Several colonies were placed in new provinces or on the border of the Empire to secure Roman holdings as quickly as possible.
Macedonia had been fully annexed by the Romans in 148 BCE. It was not one of the new colonies established by Claudius.
The people of Rome were tolerant of most religious expressions. That tolerance was largely limited to religions that were polytheistic. The Roman authorities didn't care who you worshiped as long as you included the emperor and didn't create problems with other religious systems.
Christians and Jews were monotheistic. They refused to worship the emperor or acknowledge him as any kind of deity.
Claudius banished all Jews from the city of Rome in 49. This was the year that the Roman owners of the fortune teller announced that Paul and company were slaves of the Most High God in the Roman colony of Phillipi was in itself a public declaration that the belief was not viewed as acceptable to Roman custom.
Early Church in Rome
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The Most High God was not acceptable to polytheistic belief.
It declared allegiance to authority higher than the imperial chief.
====================
Rev. 22:12-13
'I am coming soon. My reward is with me to repay according to everyone's work. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'
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He had been since before the beginning and will be beyond the end of time.
He was the incarnation of the divine Son in man until his body was crucified.
He rose again on the third day until he ascended to the Empyrean to reside.
====================
John 17:25-26
Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you. These know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them. I will make it known so the love which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
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Jesus made the Father's name known to the faithful.
He showed love that those who believed would feel grateful.
====================
The Martyrs of Lyons
2 June 177
There were missionary centers at Lyons and Vienne in Gaul which had drawn many Christians from Asia and Greece. Persecution began in 177.
Christians were excluded from the public baths, the market place and from social events in public life at first. They were subject to attack when they appeared in public. There were Christian homes that were vandalized.
The government became involved at this point. They began to take Christians into custody for interrogation. Some slaves from Christian households were tortured to obtain confessions. They were induced to say that Christians practiced cannibalism and incest.
These charges were used to arouse the city against the Christians. Enmity was directed particularly against Pothinus, the aged bishop of Lyons; Sanctus, a deacon; Attalus; Maturus, a recent convert; and Blandina, a slave.
Pothinus was beaten then released to die of his wounds a few days later. Sanctus was tormented with red-hot irons. Blandina was tortured all day long. She would say nothing except, "I am a Christian, and nothing vile is done among us." The survivors were put to death in the public arena.
This story of martyrdom was set in a time of transition in Roman culture. Rome was being gradually guided to monotheism from polytheistic belief.
The Gauls had sacked Rome 387 years before the first year of Christ Jesus. Rome had become a republic. They had rejected the monarchy of the Estonians. They were not well organized for defense.
The Roman Republic began its takeover of Celtic Gaul in 121 when it conquered and annexed the southern reaches of the area. Julius Caesar significantly advanced the task by defeating the Celtic tribes in the Gallic Wars of 58-51.
Rome would not accept Christian monotheism until some time after Constantine established Constantinople as the new Rome in 330.
Roman culture was still polytheistic in the 2d century. The republic had become an empire. Commodus was the Roman emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 to his father's death in 180.
Marcus Aurelius was the first emperor since Vespasian (r.69-79) to have a legitimate biological son.
He was the fifth in the line of the so-called Five Good Emperors. Each of these had adopted his successor. Adoption for succession had been started as a policy to select the emperor when Julius Caesar had adopted Octavian and added him to his will.
The family line of succession was difficult to maintain in the competitiveness between the Patricians.
It seems to have been the firm intention of Marcus Aurelius that Commodus should be his heir. Marcus granted Commodus the rank of Imperator on 27 November 176.
He became consul for the first time on 1 January 177. This made him the youngest consul in Roman history up to that time at the age of 15.
The title Augustus was given to his son in the middle of 177. This gave his son the same status as his own. They shared power formally.
It was at about this time that the Christians were reportedly martyred in Lyon. Lyon was a Roman city in Gaul. It was called Lugdunum. It was established by a former officer of Julius Caesar.
The colony was located at a strategic point. It was situated to launch the invasion of Germania for conquest.
It grew into a city with a large population and public constructs. It became the capital of Roman Gaul.
Aqueducts were likely built between 20 and 10. A large number of monuments were also built during the same period. The oldest theater in the three Gauls had about 4500 seats. It was opened in Lyon between 16 and 14 by decree of Augustus. This theater was later expanded under Hadrian to include around 10,700 seats.
The Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls was inaugurated in 19 CE. It was later enlarged circa 130–136. The altar of the federal sanctuary of the three Gauls was renovated during the same period.
The site of the present basilica was on the top of Fourvière hill. It was the heart of the Roman city during the apogee of its power. The forum, a temple, probably the Curia and the Basilica were located there.
A circus was built during the 2d century. The location is uncertain. This monument was mostly known through a mosaic which depicted it. Antoninus Pius created an Odeon of 3000 seats about 160. An odeon was a 'singing place' for musical competition.
The legate of Roman Gaul resided in Lugdunum and managed its three constituent provinces; Gallia Belgica, Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Lugdunensis.
The priesthood of the Imperial cult was the highest federal administrative office to which the Gallic Roman citizens could be elected. The election was held in Lyon in a temple of which we do not have any archaeological traces. The priests were elected by their cities. They held a worship throughout the year of which the highlight was a ceremony in August.
Delegates from all Gaul came to worship the emperor during this ceremony. The meetings were not regarded as sacramental. People were appointed from this meeting in order to form the Council of Three Gauls.
The Romans of Lyon supported the victims of the Great Fire of Rome under Nero in 64 by sending the sum of four million sesterces. They were victims of another fire the following year. Nero sent the same amount to rebuild the city. This fire was known only by a text by Seneca. It has never been corroborated by archaeological evidence of a fire.
Vindex, the legate of Lugundum revolted against Nero with part of Gaul in 68. The people of Vienne besieged Lyon during the conflict, but had to leave the battlefield after Vindex was defeated.
Galba (r. 68-69) was the new emperor briefly. He punished the people of Lugdunum for supporting Nero. Lugdunum found favor with another emperor, Vitellius (r.69). He chastised the people of Vienne in the political upheavals during the Year of the Four Emperors.
Christianity was brought to Lugdunum by the Greeks from Asia Minor who had settled there in large numbers. The Christian community sent a letter to the Christians in Asia Minor in early June 177 CE.
The letter gave the names of 48 of their number who had suffered martyrdom in the Croix-Rousse amphitheatre. Pothinus, first Bishop of Lyon, was among them. The church was to recover quickly. Ireneus, the successor of Pothinus, became the first great Christian theologian.
The two Augusti celebrated a joint triumph on 23 December of the same year. Commodus was given tribunician power. This gave him authority equivalent to that of a tribune of the plebs or the military.
Lectionary Martyrs of Lyon
wiki Commodus
wiki Roman Gaul
wiki History of Lyon
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