MARTYRS OF NORTH AMERICA
John 16,
Verse 33
I have told you this so that you might have PEACE in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
This was the labor of Christ to give us peace with God and to conquer the world of sin. We have peace in his love. In order to follow our Lord, me must not only receive and accept His love but pour that love out on others. We must not keep this love but in courage reach out to others knowing He has already conquered ahead of us. To be great we must be filled with a foundation of Love. Pray for this Nation that it may be dedicated to love of life, liberty and then the pursuit of happiness; thus, being a great Nation founded in love.
Martyrs in North America[1]
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."
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE-MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE
SPIRIT
CHAPTER ONE THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN
PERSON
Article 6
MORAL CONSCIENCE
1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which
he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling
him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at
the right moment.... For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God.... His
conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with
God whose voice echoes in his depths."
Every Wednesday is
Dedicated to St. Joseph
The Italian culture has
always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you could make
Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of pizza or
spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday evening Mass.
You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are adventurous, you
could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the evening a family
night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make the day special.
· Devotion to the 7 Joys and Sorrows of St.
Joseph
·
Do the St.
Joseph Universal Man Plan?
Why is St. Joseph the “Terror of Demons”?[2]
Though we know little about St. Joseph from the Gospels, what we read there demonstrates that his righteous character and behavior served as a defense for his beloved wife and foster Son. The Holy Family was a little city under perpetual siege by the Devil. But Joseph was chosen by God to guard the city walls.
When he first learned that Mary was carrying a Child who was not his own, he naturally concluded that she had committed adultery. But so great was his love for Mary and even for her unborn Child that his primary intention was to protect them. Rather than publicly exposing the situation—which would have led to terrible consequences for both mother and Child—he “resolved to send her away quietly” (see Mt 1:18—19).
When the angel revealed to him the truth of the situation and told him not to fear to take her as his wife, his great faith in God prompted him to do that immediately (Mt 1:20—5). Though he knew that such obedience would come with a great cost, his impulse, again, was to protect Mary and the Babe.
Yet once more, when the angel warned him to take his little Family and flee to Egypt because Herod planned to kill the Child, he obeyed right away, in the middle of the night. With extraordinary courage he left for a foreign land without preparations, without telling their extended family, without a job or home waiting for them, and despite numerous dangers on the highways because of robbers and worse (see Mt 1:13—15). His compelling desire was to defend them, and that desire led him to choose Nazareth as their home when they returned, to avoid the possible wrath of Herod’s son in Judea (Mt 1:19—22).
Our last glimpse of Joseph comes when Jesus was twelve years old, and he and Mary couldn’t find Him in Jerusalem. When they did, after three days of separation, Mary’s words reveal Joseph’s heart as well as her own when she said to the Boy, “Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously” (Lk 2:48).
I think we can conclude that whatever attacks the Devil may have attempted in the “hidden years” of the Holy Family at Nazareth, those attacks were unsuccessful in large part because of Joseph’s protection, who served as their divinely appointed defender.
After Joseph left this world for the next, he went on to take on the mantle of a defender, not just of the Holy Family, but of the extended family of Jesus and Mary—that is, the whole Church. He has in fact been declared “Patron of the Universal Church.” Many titles ascribed to him in the litany that bears his name remind us of this role: Guardian of Virgins, Pillar of Families, Patron of the Dying, Protector of Holy Church. But none among them is more fitting than the title that reveals his might as a spiritual warrior: Terror of Demons.
Joseph
may well have been a man of few words; Sacred Scripture has recorded nothing
from his lips. But this title suggests that when we call on him for rescue from
our diabolical adversaries, he need not even speak to them: His very presence
terrifies them and sends them fleeing. (More about Joseph’s role in the
apostolic exhortation of Pope St. John Paul II Redemptoris Custos: On the Person and Mission of St.
Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Conversion
of Sinners
·
Another pagan festival Pronouns Day St. Jogues
is turning over in HIS grave.
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: October
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
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