MARTYRS OF NORTH AMERICA
Romans,
Chapter 8,
Verse 28
We know that all
things work for good for those who love
God, who are called according to his purpose.
The spirit filled life does not promise us success and
that everything will be rosy, but it does free us from the law of sin and
death. Paul tells us that there is a difference between Christian mentoring and
worldly mentoring.
Christians somehow even in the mist of challenges have
lives of liberty, hope and power because the Holy Spirit guides our lives. This
is the gift of the Father and the Son. Observe how the Holy Spirit navigates
life for us:
1.
He
intercedes and groans for us (Rom. 8:22)
2.
He
directs and testifies to us (John 16:13)
3.
He
empowers and anoints for service (Acts 1:8)
4.
He
searches and enables us to discern (Rom. 8:26)
5.
He
confirms, and bears witness with us (Rom. 8:14)
Today in the dioceses of the United
States the Church celebrates the optional memorial of Sts. Issac Jogues and
John de Brébeuf (priests and martyrs) and their companions (martyrs). They were
Jesuit missionaries who died as martyrs in North America where they preached
the Gospel.
·
Pray
to the Holy Spirit to renew the evangelization of distant countries as well as
the re-evangelization of our own nation.
·
More
Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in the previous nineteen
centuries combined. For example, pastors are being arrested and sometimes shot
in China and Cuba. Believers are forbidden to buy goods or own property in
Somalia. Christians who testify to their faith in Iran or Saudi Arabia may be
put to death for blasphemy. Mobs have wiped out whole villages of Christians in
Pakistan. Pray for courageous and zealous missionaries in these countries where
the Church is persecuted.
·
Support
the Indian Missions
in the USA.
·
Visit
the National
Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. This site
offers a wonderful gallery of pictures of the shrine.
·
Learn
more about each of the martyrs. You might also like to read this
definitive scholarly biography, Saint Among Savages: The Life of St. Isaac Jogues,
by Francis Talbot, S.J.
·
Learn
for Christmas the Indian Christmas Carol, the first American Christmas carol
John de Brébeuf wrote to teach the Christmas story to the Huron Indians.
1173 When the Church
keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual cycle, she
proclaims the Paschal mystery in those "who have suffered and have been
glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who draw
all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merits she begs for
God's favors."
I
tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after
that can do no more.
·
If
obedience doesn’t give you peace, it’s because you’re proud.
·
You’ve
been told to do something that seems difficult and useless. Do it. And you’ll
see that it’s easy and fruitful.
·
Right
now, when you are finding it hard to obey, remember your Lord, factus obediens
usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis— “obedient unto death, even to death on
the cross!”
·
Oh,
the power of obedience! The Lake of Genesareth had denied its fishes to Peter’s
nets. A whole night in vain. Then, obedient, he lowered his net again into the
water and they caught piscium multitudinem copiosam— “a great number of
fishes.” Believe me, the miracle is repeated every day.
·
How
well you understand obedience when you write: “Always to obey is to be a martyr
without dying!”
·
Temper
your will. Strengthen your will. With God’s grace, let it be like a sword of
steel. Only by being strong-willed can you know how not to be so in order to
obey.
After the love that unites us to
God, conjugal love is the “greatest form of friendship”. It is a union
possessing all the traits of a good friendship:
·
Concern
for the good of the other
·
Reciprocity
·
Intimacy
·
Warmth
·
Stability
and the resemblance born of a shared life.
Lovers do not see their
relationship as merely temporary. Those who marry do not expect their
excitement to fade. Those who witness the celebration of a loving union,
however, fragile, trust that it will pass the test of time. Children not only
want their parents to love one another, but also to be faithful and remain
together. These and similar signs show that it is in the very nature of
conjugal love to be definitive. The lasting union expressed by the marriage
vows is more than a formality or a traditional formula; it is rooted in the
natural inclinations of the human person. For believers, it is also a covenant
before God that calls for fidelity: “The Lord was witness to the covenant
between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though
she is your companion and your wife by covenant… Let none be faithless to the
wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord” (Mal 2:14-16). A love
that is weak or infirm, incapable of accepting marriage as a challenge to be
taken up and fought for, reborn, renewed and reinvented until death, cannot
sustain a great commitment. It will succumb to the culture of the ephemeral
that prevents a constant process of growth. Yet “promising love for ever is
possible when we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a
plan which sustains us and enables us to surrender our future entirely to the
one we love”. If this love is to overcome all trials and remain faithful in the
face of everything, it needs the gift of grace to strengthen and elevate it. In
the words of Saint Robert Bellarmine, “the fact that one man unites with one
woman in an indissoluble bond, and that they remain inseparable despite every
kind of difficulty, even when there is no longer hope for children, can only be
the sign of a great mystery”. Marriage is likewise a friendship marked by
passion, but a passion always directed to an ever more stable and intense
union. This is because “marriage was not instituted solely for the procreation
of children” but also that mutual love “might be properly expressed, that it
should grow and mature”. This unique friendship between a man and a woman
acquires an all-encompassing character only within the conjugal union.
Precisely as all-encompassing, this union is also exclusive, faithful and open
to new life. It shares everything in constant mutual respect.
"Read
these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things
that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a
father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will
only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so
you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in
the end you will be a more worthy soul."
108. You
were saying to him: 'you mustn't trust me. But I..., I do trust you, Jesus. I
abandon myself in your arms: there I leave all that is mine, my weaknesses!'
And I think it is a good prayer
Daily Devotions
[1] John Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership
Bible.
[3]Escrivá,
JosemarÃa. The Way
[4] Pope Francis, Encyclical on Love.
[5]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm
Comments
Post a Comment