{"id":142667,"date":"2024-12-04T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142667"},"modified":"2024-12-04T06:00:51","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T11:00:51","slug":"st-john-damascene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-john-damascene\/","title":{"rendered":"St John Damascene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dear Joan,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you for the lovely e-card. \u00a0I always knew you had true artistic talent, and every time you send me pieces of your work, my conviction is more soundly confirmed. \u00a0And if I were you, I wouldn\u2019t worry at all about your family situation; it is part of God\u2019s plan, never fear. That you are the only one of your siblings to continue practicing your faith, that your parents continue divorcing and remarrying in an alarming way \u2013 such painful phenomena will not and cannot thwart the power and the love of God, as long as you continue to put your faith in him. \u00a0As a matter of fact, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if those very afflictions become the occasion for your contribution to Christ\u2019s Kingdom. That\u2019s what happened to today\u2019s saint, you know (who also happened to be a great artist, through poetry and music were his fields of endeavor, not painting).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">St John Damascene grew up in the Caliphate of Damascus (in Palestine) in the eighth century. \u00a0As you remember from your history classes, this meant that Muslims \u2013 and not the Byzantine Emperor \u2013 ruled the cities where he was to live and work. \u00a0At that time, the Caliphs were more lenient with Christians than they would later become, and so they afforded followers of Christ freedom of belief, of worship, and even of movement. \u00a0Thus, John and his brother were peacefully brought up in their faith, and both joined the monastery of St Sabas near Jerusalem. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About that time, Emperor Leo III began his diabolical scheme to wrest total control of the Christian Church from the monks and patriarchs by condemning the use of icons (sacred images), claiming that they violated the first commandment (which included a clause about not worshipping \u201cgraven images\u201d). \u00a0Of course, this iconoclasm was heretical (images are fine and useful, as long as we remember that they are just images), and the Pope and other Bishops said so. But the Emperor deposed those bishops who opposed him, ransacked monasteries, and violently silenced his critics, creating a chaotic mess. St John, a gifted writer, and brilliant theologian, quickly perceived the heretical nature of Leo\u2019s claims and began a series of writings exposing it. \u00a0These writings, eloquent and accurate, were spread throughout the empire and shored up the faithful against the Emperor\u2019s ploys. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Furious, the Emperor tried to turn his wrath on John, his lone opponent. \u00a0But, because John was living under the Caliphate of Damascus, the Emperor had absolutely no authority to do anything to him at all. \u00a0He would have had to go to war with the Muslims (not a good idea at the time) in order to snatch away the dauntless defender of Christian truth. \u00a0So John continued writing and preaching, coming to the defense of the Apostolic faith until Leo died and the Empire was restored to order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certainly, it was a tragedy that the Christians of the Holy Land lost their autonomy and had their freedom curtailed by the Muslim conquerors, but our Lord turned the tragedy to his advantage. \u00a0I am confident that he will do the same for you. Just keep striving to please him in all you do, and he\u2019ll take care of the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your affectionate uncle, Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Joan, Thank you for the lovely e-card. \u00a0I always knew you had true artistic talent, and every time you send me pieces of your work, my conviction is more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - 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John Bartunek, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC"},"description":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college, he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1993. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. John Bartunek, LC.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/jbartunek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142667"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=142667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}