Hail thee, festival day!
Hail thee, festival day!
Blest day that art hallowed for ever;
Day whereon Christ arose,
Breaking the kingdom of death.
Lo, the fair beauty of earth,
From the death of the winter arising!
Ev'ry good gift of the year
Now with its Master returns:
Hail thee, festival day!
Blest day that art hallowed for ever;
Day whereon Christ arose,
Breaking the kingdom of death.
He who was nailed to the cross
Is Lord and the ruler of all men;
All things created on earth
Sing to the glory of God:
Hail thee, festival day!
Blest day that art hallowed for ever;
Day whereon Christ arose,
Breaking the kingdom of death.
God the All-Father, the Lord,
Who rulest the earth and the heavens,
Guard us from harm without,
Cleanse us from evil within:
Hail thee, festival day!
Blest day that art hallowed for ever;
Day whereon Christ arose,
Breaking the kingdom of death.
Jesus the health of the world,
Enlighten our minds, thou Redeemer,
Son of the Father supreme,
Only begotten of God:
Hail thee, festival day!
Blest day that art hallowed for ever;
Day whereon Christ arose,
Breaking the kingdom of death.
Melody: Salve Festa Dies; Music: R. Vaughan Williams, 1872-1958; Text: Venantius Honorius Fortunatus, 530-609; Translator: Maurice F. Bell, 1862-1947; © Oxford University Press. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
WOMEN: Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans who tried to rescue France
The Maid of Orleans who tried to rescue France
After being captured by the English, Joan of Arc suffered more from being denied the sacraments than from physical privations
By THE CATHOLIC HERALD on Wednesday, 25 May 2011
A statue of Joan of Arc in Paris (Photo: Press Association)
Joan of Arc (c 1412-31) is one of the patron saints of
Joan was born into a peasant family at Domrémy, on the borders of
If it seems strange that the Almighty should have favoured one Catholic country over another, the French, at least, have never experienced the least difficulty in believing it.
In 1429 Joan finally succeeded, against all the odds, in obtaining an audience with the Dauphin Charles. Still more extraordinarily, she was given permission to join the French army.
When she appeared in Orléans, under siege by the English, she immediately began to inspire the dispirited French troops with her bravery under fire. Within nine days of her arrival the town had been liberated, and Joan knelt down and prayed for the souls of her fallen enemies.
Further successes followed, and on July 17 1429 Joan stood by Charles VII when he was crowned at
Joan was held under appalling conditions at
Accused of witchcraft and heresy by Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais and a pawn of the English, Joan defended herself with great spirit and shrewdness.
Condemned to be burned, she briefly wavered before recanting her recantation and dying bravely at
That she is celebrated throughout
When Joan was burned, Cardinal Beaufort, in charge of the arrangements and anxious to foil relic hunters, had ordered that her ashes be cast into the
Joan's statue now stands nearby, with her gaze seemingly just avoiding the pompous sepulchre of her ancient adversary. Now that is a conquest indeed.
HUNGARY: Pro-Life provisions in New Constitution
Pro-Life provisions in Hungarian Constitution shock EU
Co-authored with Colin Mason
May 9, 2011 (pop.org) - In a move that has shocked the European Union and drawn heavy fire from pro-choice and homosexual activist groups around the world, Hungary approved a new constitution that bans gay marriage, and protects human life from the moment of conception.
Approved on April 18th, the document also makes across-the-board changes to the Hungarian political structure, including financial reforms intended to address the country's ballooning deficits. According to Hungarian officials, this constitution is designed to be the final step in moving the former Soviet bloc country away from the old communist ways of doing things.
"We've just participated in a historical moment," parliamentary speaker Laszlo Kover said to the Associated Press. "The new constitution is built upon our past and traditions, but seeks and contains answers to current problems while keeping an eye on the future."
Questions have been raised about some of the constitution's provisions. Some have criticized a provision that allows the dissolution of parliament if a budget is not passed on time, but in an era of ballooning deficits, this may be just what is needed to achieve fiscal restraint. (Certainly the U.S. Congress would be forced to seriously address our own fiscal problems if their failure to do so would put them immediately before the electorate in a special election!)
Carlos Beltramo, the Population Research Institute's correspondent in Spain, says that the new constitution also gives the government a tighter grip on the mass media and reduces the power of the Constitutional Court, Hungary's equivalent to the Supreme Court. These aspects of the new constitution, he notes, may raise legitimate concerns about possible infringements on civil liberties and create other problems down the road.
What is drawing the most attention from the media, however, is the fear-mongering of pro-choice and pro-homosexual groups, whose only reason for bashing the new constitution is that it protects life and marriage.
The Hungarian LGBT Alliance, for example, urged the president "not to sign the new Constitution into law, and to give a new opportunity to the Parliament to adopt a truly modern, European constitution ... instead of a political pamphlet motivated by homophobic prejudices."
Human Rights Watch, which has become stridently pro-abortion over the past few years, has leveled criticism against the new constitution as well, fretting that (among other things) its pro-life clauses might "lead to efforts to overturn Hungary's abortion law and result in restrictions on abortion that would put a number of fundamental rights for women at stake."
We at PRI sincerely hope that the worst fears of this pro-abortion organization are realized, and that the new constitution will provide the legal basis for restricting, if not banning entirely, abortions in dying Hungary. We concur with Beltramo that, while the new constitution may not be perfect, it is "the best on the European continent right now."
As far as the constitution's other issues are concerned, Beltramo holds that, since Hungary is now recognizing basic rights like the right to life and the right to marriage, that they "can handle these other matters over time and without jeopardizing fundamental democratic principles."
Which is why we at PRI applaud Hungary's efforts. While the new constitution may not be perfect, the fundamentals of a free and just society — the right to life and the protection of marriage — are now in place.
We now hope and pray that they continue to build upon these principles and create a society where all Hungarians are welcomed into the world and raised in natural families.
Reprinted with permission from Pop.org.
MISSION: Catholic charities must evangelize
Vatican Cardinal warns of 'silent apostasy'; says Catholic charities must evangelize
ROME, May 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an address to the General Assembly of Caritas International today, Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican dicastery dealing with the church's charitable institutions, stressed that the main mission of all Church groups, charitable groups included, was to bring people to Christ. "Today, dear Friends, the tragedy of modern mankind is not lacking clothing and housing. The most tragic hunger and the most terrible anguish is not lack of food," he said. "It's much more about the absence of God and the lack of true love, the love that was revealed to us on the Cross."
Cardinal Robert Sarah
The assembly comes at a time of major restructuring for Catholic charities which especially in the West have been beset by loss of Catholic identity. Funding of questionable groups by the charitable arms of the Canadian, American, British, French and Austrian Catholic Bishops conferences have had many Catholics calling for change. While Bishops in these nations have been working toward reform, the Vatican is working to reform the umbrella group for them all - Caritas Internationalis. LifeSiteNews reported in February that the General Secretary of Caritas was not permitted to stand for a second term in office due to concerns about 'Catholic identity' among other issues.
Cardinal Sarah added, "Regarding coordination with the charitable organisations of the Church … it is not merely philanthropic and humanitarian assistance aimed at relieving a certain kind of distress, but also and above all it entails giving back to human persons all their dignity as children of God, and promoting an anthropology that also encompasses the religious dimension of human persons, namely their encounter with God."
Cardinal Sarah quoted both Popes John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI decrying the "religious indifference, secularisation and atheism" of the West.
"Together with enormous material, scientific and technological progress, the West is now experiencing a serious moral regression and a gradual "silent apostasy", he said.
"Undoubtedly, since the beginning of his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI has considered this 'religious indifference' and 'silent apostasy' as the major challenge the Church has to take up today in her relations with the modern world. Therefore, he is more determined than ever to make our minds more aware and our faith more visible and more active, in order to show the world that the Church's mission is deeply rooted in faith in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
While some in Catholic development agencies have argued for a hands-off approach of fostering good works undertaken even by agencies at odds with the Catholic Church to end the structures of poverty and oppression, the Cardinal took a different approach. "I believe it is important to understand that our charitable organisations are located within the Church and not alongside her," he said. "A Caritas that wasn't an ecclesial expression would have no meaning or existence. The Church cannot be considered as a partner of Catholic organisations. They are the organisations that take part in her mission."
A recent debate over whether or not groups in the developing world should have the approval of local bishops prior to their receiving funding from Catholic charities in the West seems also to have been answered by the Cardinal. "So it is necessary that charitable organisations are really able to work in full communion and deep connection with the local bishop," he said, "and in accordance with pastoral guidelines, in order to be fully integrated within the mission of the Church. "
See the full address here
ROME, May 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic aid umbrella organisation, Caritas Internationalis, continues to feel the heat from the Vatican for what many have identified as its shift away from its roots in authentic Catholic moral and social teaching, and towards a leftist political advocacy model. In his address to the 19th General Assembly of Caritas, Peter Cardinal Turkson, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, warned the Caritas officials again that their duty is to conform their activities to Catholic teaching. Quoting Pope Benedict's encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est, Cardinal Turkson warned in his opening remarks, "There may well be danger of 'a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests'." The shift in direction of Catholic charitable organisations from concrete physical and spiritual works of mercy, to "advocacy", Cardinal Turkson said, is one of the main challenges facing Caritas and its member groups. In doing charitable work, he said, "No one is allowed …to appropriate the Church's authority for his opinion." Quoting Pope Benedict again, he said, charitable advocacy in a Catholic context "is not a means of changing the world ideologically." In the doing of charitable works, he said, real love, not mere professionalism, is required, and this love cannot preclude the possibility of true evangelisation. The cardinal warned against "excessive professionalism," and identified as one of the principal "challenges" to address, "proselytism in two senses: one, an abuse of the gratuitous charity we are called to offer; the other, an excessive caution about proselytism which would block legitimate and necessary evangelization." "The power of the Gospel calls us to be professional in every action, but it also expects us to be motivated by faith and values when we offer this service in the name of Jesus and of His Church." "Legitimate evangelization is not to be caricatured as proselytism," he said. "The task before us is to re-establish the 'link between evangelization and charity. The Church's charity is not directed solely at social progress, but wants to draw man toward God, the source of all good'." Cardinal Turkson pointed to Pope Benedict's definition of the first goal of Christian charity as the effort to meet the concrete material and spiritual needs of others: "Christian charity is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison, etc." Cardinal Turkson reiterated Pope Benedict's statement that Caritas would from now on be more closely monitored by ecclesiastical authorities: "The very legitimate activity of Caritas Internationalis in terms of advocacy unfolds within the policies and directives of the Holy See, at the international level, and of the local Episcopal Conference and local Bishops, on the national level." There have been many complaints in recent years about Catholic charities closely associating with and funding ideologically and politically leftist groups holding views strongly at odds with fundamental Catholic beliefs.Catholic charitable works cannot preclude evangelisation: top Vatican Justice and Peace official
Baby born after being saved from coerced abortion through texting
Baby Manuel was born on May 10.
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, June 1, 2011 (OperationRescue.org) - A teen mother, who was saved from a coerced abortion last October after a sidewalk counselor texted her while she was inside the clinic, has given birth to a beautiful, healthy boy named Manuel.
The little boy was born on May 10 weighing 7 pounds. The following week, his mother proudly graduated from high school.
Tara Shaver, a former intern for Operation Rescue, was sidewalk counseling outside Planned Parenthood in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when she received a call from a woman who told her that her grandson's girlfriend was being forced to get an abortion that she did not want. The woman told Tara that her grandson, the baby's father, also wanted to keep the baby. They were desperate, because the girl was only 17 and her mother was insisting on the abortion against the girl's will. The grandmother gave Tara the teen's cell phone number.
Tara began a text-message conversation with the teen, who we will call "Jane," while she was inside the abortion clinic. Jane was six weeks pregnant and was interested in seeing an ultrasound of her baby, but still did not want to go through with the abortion. She told Tara that her mom would not allow her to leave the clinic.
Tara continued to encourage her and even texted Jane a photo of a pre-born baby at six weeks, the same age as her baby. Texting kept their conversation private where a phone call would have alerted the mother or the abortion clinic staff to Tara's efforts to help Jane.
Finally, Jane came out of Planned Parenthood and spoke with Tara, and before long, Jane's father came to the clinic to pick her up and take her safely home.
Tara's last text to Jane that day was a loving word of encouragement.
"We are so proud of u! You are my hero, your baby is so proud too!"
Tara continued to follow up with her new friend, and shared in her joy at the birth of her baby and her accomplishment of graduating with her class.
"Coerced abortions are a very real and understated problem in our country. Jane is a hero for having the courage to stand up for her baby even though the deck was stacked against her. We congratulate her on the birth of her precious son, Manuel, and on her graduation," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.
"But Jane could not have done it without Tara's love and support. She is also a hero too, for thinking 'outside the box' and using texting to save Manuel's life and protect Jane from the emotional trauma of a coerced abortion," Newman added. "Tara took time to follow up with Jane, and make sure she had the help and support she needed. We are very proud of Tara and all she and her husband, Bud, are accomplishing on the pro-life mission field of Albuquerque."
This article reprinted with permission from OperationRescue.org.
CHINA
Forced abortions in China: you (and the UN) are funding them
by Reggie Littlejohn*
The president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers appeals for a stop to funding by international organisations that support forced abortions and sterilisations in China.
Rome (AsiaNews) – Population control officials continue to practice forced abortions and sterilisations as well as selective female foeticide and infanticide. This way, every country is involved in this huge slaughter, described as a "hundred times worse than the Tiananmen massacre, which occurred out in the open and was over in one day" by Chai Ling, a former Tiananmen leader. AsiaNews reprints the appeal made by Reggie Littlejohn, president of the Women's Rights Without Frontiers, an organisation opposed to forced abortions and sexual slavery in China.
Forced abortions in China: you (and the UN) are funding them
by Reggie Littlejohn*
The president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers appeals for a stop to funding by international organisations that support forced abortions and sterilisations in China.
Rome (AsiaNews) – Population control officials continue to practice forced abortions and sterilisations as well as selective female foeticide and infanticide. This way, every country is involved in this huge slaughter, described as a "hundred times worse than the Tiananmen massacre, which occurred out in the open and was over in one day" by Chai Ling, a former Tiananmen leader. AsiaNews reprints the appeal made by Reggie Littlejohn, president of the Women's Rights Without Frontiers, an organisation opposed to forced abortions and sexual slavery in China.You are funding forced abortions in China. So am I. Not only elective abortions. Forced abortions. It doesn't matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue. No one can support forced abortion, because it is not a choice.
What do I mean by "forced abortions?" Here's a short video about a young, Chinese woman who was dragged off the street, strapped to a table and forced to abort at seven months. You can read many more accounts of forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide under China's brutal One Child Policy here.
According to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China report, released on October 10, 2010, violators of China's One Child Policy continue to be victims of "forced sterilization, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and other abuses."
The One Child Policy has also led to many other serious human rights violations. I'll name just three:
1. Gendercide. Because of the traditional preference for boys, girls are disproportionately subject to abortion, abandonment and infanticide.
2. Sexual Slavery. Because of the selective elimination of baby girls, there are now an estimated 37 million more males than females living in China today. This severe gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery from nations surrounding China.
3. Female Suicide. According to the World Health Organization, China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world. Approximately 500 Chinese women end their lives each day. Could this extraordinary suicide rate be related to the trauma of enduring a forced abortion or forced sterilization?
How does this affect us? We are helping finance the infrastructure used in coercive family planning in China. The international community funds UNFPA (United Nations Family Planning Fund), as well as IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) and Marie Stopes International. These organizations are operative "abortion providers" in China. In 2001, the US cut funding to UNFPA because an investigation, headed by then Secretary of State Colin Powell, found that UNFPA was complicit in the coercive implementation of China's One Child Policy. In 2008, the US State Department reaffirmed that determination, and yet we restored funding in 2009. UNFPA is also funded by many other nations.
In addition, the IPPF and Marie Stopes are working hand in hand with the Chinese Communist population control machine, which has been notorious in its excesses. The IPPF website openly declares, "The China Family Planning Association (CFPA) plays a very important role in China's family planning programme. It supports the present family planning policy of the government . . .". Meanwhile, the website for Marie Stopes International, lists as "major partners" the Family Planning Commissions of several provinces in China.
Just last week, US citizens voted to cut UNFPA funding under the new YOUCUTprogram. Because of this vote, Rep. Renee Ellmers will introduce legislation to cut UNFPA, saving $400 million over the next ten years. The bill still needs to pass through committee, and be passed by the House to become effective, so you still have time to contact your representative about it.
An admirer of American democracy once observed, "America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." May we not lose our goodness, and hence our greatness as a nation by funding forced abortions in China.
To sign Women's Rights Without Frontiers' international petition against forced abortion and sexual slavery in China, click here.
To watch a four-minute video, "Stop Forced Abortion in China!", click here.
* Reggie Littlejohn is President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers. As an expert on China's One Child Policy for Human Rights Without Frontiers and China Aid, she has delivered an address at the European Parliament in Brussels and the British Parliament in London, briefed the White House and testified before Congress. She has spoken at the Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, George Washington University, and The Heritage Foundation.
A graduate of Yale Law School, Ms Littlejohn has represented Chinese refugees in their political asylum cases in the United States.
IRELAND & ENGLAND
Friends at long last
The visit of Queen Elizabeth was a watershed moment in the turbulent history of Great Britain and Ireland.
Perspective may not be everything, it may not even be true. But whether it is true or false it can be a very powerful determinant on how we live and on how we shape our nations and our societies. Perspectives are not easy to create or manipulate. They are often the result of the law of unintended consequences. The strategies we employ to bring about changes of perspective either in nations or among nations go wrong so often that we might feel there is no point in trying.
The seismic change in perspective which came about in the world view of the Irish people in the aftermath of the 1916 rebellion was something not even the wildest dreams of the romantic leaders of that rebellion could have imagined. Its leaders, when they were taken off as prisoners after a few bloody days of resistance, had to suffer the taunts, jeers and pelting of the citizens of Dublin who lined the streets to see them go on their sorry way.
However, within little more than two years, in August 1918, Sinn Fein, the political party identified with those rebels, swept to victory and proceeded to mastermind a bloody war against the British Crown. Within less than six more years the Irish Free State became a reality and with it came a totally new perspective and a new identity for the Irish people. This perspective has persisted ever since in its dogged – sometimes mild, sometimes lethal – anti-British way. Well, until last month.
Even in its milder manifestations this perspective was a prison for the Irish people which crippled their true identity. To be Irish was not enough. To be Irish you had to be not British. It is of course, a well documented condition – the post-colonial mentality, marked in this case by what we generally call Anglophobia. In many ways it was a condition which existed side by side with very close social and economic bonds between the two islands. The Irish constitute Britain's biggest ethnic group and vice-versa. Britain is Ireland's biggest trading partner and Ireland is Britain's fifth largest export market. But it was still a debilitating and regrettable state.
Then, on May 15 the Irish Times announced in a banner headline "The Week that Anglophobia Died".
What happened? Over four days, from May 17 to May 20, the reigning British monarch visited the Irish Republic. Ireland is a small country – with a population of just over four million in that part which constitutes the Republic of Ireland. Yet it was speculated in the British press, before the visit, that this was the single most important state visit in the entire 59-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. In its aftermath many now believe that this long wished for and well executed event will prove to be a watershed in international relations in a small corner of the world.
The week after this visit the President of the United States also visited the Irish Republic. As has happened with every President who has set foot on Irish soil he received a rapturous welcome. But despite the disparity of power wielded by these two heads of state – one being the most powerful man in the world, the other an archaic relic of an imperial past – there is no doubt as to which visit was of greater significance.
The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese – who did so much to bring this event about over her two terms in office – described it as "an extraordinary moment in Irish history, a phenomenal sign of the success of the peace process and absolutely the right moment for us to welcome on to Irish soil Her Majesty the Queen."
A media take on the overall impact of the two visits in The Irish Times rated the visit of the Queen as the winner "by a historic mile". "The Queen's visit was dripping not just with symbolism but with deep historical significance: the lowering of her head to remember fallen Irish patriots at the Garden of Remembrance; laying a wreath at Islandbridge in memory of the Irishmen who fought in the first World War; a Sinn Féin councillor in Cashel shaking her hand – a first for any member of that party." President Obama's visit was folksy and a very joyous occasion – and not without significance for him electorally, nor economically for a financially devastated Ireland. But it was not of the same order of significance.
It was all enough to make the most ardent advocates of republicanism rethink – or at least modify - their views about monarchies. This 85-year-old Queen was able to bring about a change in the attitudes and disposition of a few million people in a way that the numerous visits of British prime ministers to Ireland over the past few decades had not done. Even a mature political society is governed by laws which are not written in books.
Columnist Fintan O'Toole said that the British Queen helped "to free us from the crippling insecurities of false choices. Before, the choice was to hate England or to be a West Brit. Now there is the healthy option of simply getting on with the neighbours."
But the British and Irish are more than just neighbours. The French are neighbours, too. O'Toole continues: "The death of Anglophobia is a useful part of the redefinition of what it means to be Irish. That new identity has to be positive rather than negative. But it also has to find a way to include Britishness. Those on the island who value the British part of their identity have to know that, for everyone else, British is not a dirty word. After this week, it isn't."
The Queen herself, in her exemplary and dignified – I suppose one should say majestic – address at the State Dinner provided the keynote of the whole event when she said: "Indeed, so much of this visit reminds us of the complexity of our history, its many layers and traditions, but also the importance of forbearance and conciliation. Of being able to bow to the past, but not be bound by it."
For generations, this was only a dream. Now the dream has become a reality.
Michael Kirke is a freelance writer in Dublin. He blogs at Garvan Hill.
Want to read more articles by Michael Kirke? Click on the links below
- Does teaching need to be this hard? | 19 April 2011
- Nothing could be better | 1 April 2011
- Christianity is so yesterday, says UK high court | 2 March 2011
- History lessons from Hollywood | 22 February 2011
- Time for the good news on poverty | 1 February 2011
MOSES: Model for Prayer
Moses: model for intercessory prayer 
June 01, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI pointed to Moses as a model for intercessory prayer, as he continued his series of talks on prayer at his public audience on June 1.
Moses, the Pontiff said, became "the bearer of the divine words and commands for his people." At the same time, he also prayed for the people of Israel, the Pope added.
The importance of intercessory prayer is abundantly evident, the Pope continued, when the people of Israel set up an idol, and Moses pleads with God for mercy upon them. "The intercessor does not make excuses for the sin of his people and does not list the presumed merits of either himself or his people," the Holy Father noted. "He appeals to God's generosity."
In passing, Pope Benedict observed that the impulse of the Hebrews to build idols reflects "a constant temptation on the path of faith: avoiding the divine mystery by building a comprehensible god that corresponds to our own preconceptions and plans."
Moses, who had "a concrete experience of the God of salvation," recognized the gravity of his people's offense. Yet his love for his own people is poured out in his appeal to God. Thus the Pope explained his intercessory prayer: "Moses, the intercessor, is the man between two loves that, in prayer, are superimposed in one single desire for the good."
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Martyrdom of Saint Justin (June 1)
From the Acts of the martyrdom of Saint Justin and his companion saints (2nd century)
I have accepted the true doctrines of the Christians
The saints were seized and brought before the prefect of Rome, whose name was Rusticus. As they stood before the judgment seat, Rusticus the prefect said to Justin: "Above all, have faith in the gods and obey the emperors." Justin said: "We cannot be accused or condemned for obeying the commands of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
Rusticus said: "What system of teaching do you profess?" Justin said: "I have tried to learn about every system, but I have accepted the true doctrines of the Christians, though these are not approved by those who are held fast by error."
The prefect Rusticus said: "Are those doctrines approved by you, wretch that you are?" Justin said: "Yes, for I follow them with their correct teaching."
The prefect Rusticus said: "What sort of teaching is that?" Justin said: "Worship the God of the Christians. We hold him to be from the beginning the one creator and maker of the whole creation, of things seen and things unseen. We worship also the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He was foretold by the prophets as the future herald of salvation for the human race and the teacher of distinguished disciples. For myself, since I am a human being, I consider that what I say is insignificant in comparison with his infinite godhead. I acknowledge the existence of a prophetic power, for the one I have just spoken of as the Son of God was the subject of prophecy. I know that the prophets were inspired from above when they spoke of his coming among men."
Rusticus said: "You are a Christian, then?" Justin said: "Yes, I am a Christian." The prefect said to Justin: "You are called a learned man and think that you know what is true teaching. Listen: if you were scourged and beheaded, are you convinced that you would go up to heaven?" Justin said: "I hope that I shall enter God's house if I suffer that way. For I know that God's favor is stored up until the end of the whole world for all who have lived good lives."
The prefect Rusticus said: "Do you have an idea that you will go up to heaven to receive some suitable rewards?" Justin said: "It is not an idea that I have; it is something I know well and hold to be most certain."
The prefect Rusticus said: "Now let us come to the point at issue, which is necessary and urgent. Gather round then and with one accord offer sacrifice to the gods." Justin said: "No one who is right thinking stoops from true worship to false worship."
The prefect Rusticus said: "If you do not do as you are commanded you will be tortured without mercy." Justin said: "We hope to suffer torment for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so be saved. For this will bring us salvation and confidence as we stand before the more terrible and universal judgment-seat of our Lord and Savior."
In the same way the other martyrs also said: "Do what you will. We are Christians; we do not offer sacrifice to idols."
The prefect Rusticus pronounced sentence, saying: "Let those who have refused to sacrifice to the gods and to obey the command of the emperor be scourged and led away to suffer capital punishment according to the ruling of the laws." Glorifying God, the holy martyrs went out to the accustomed place. They were beheaded, and so fulfilled their witness of martyrdom in confessing their faith in their Savior.
RESPONSORY Acts 20:21, 24; Romans 1:16
I have preached faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and now I fear no danger.
– I do not count my life more precious than my work, which is to finish my course, the task of preaching and proclaiming the good news of God's grace, alleluia.
I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is God's power at work, bringing salvation to all who believe in it, Jew first and then Greek.
– I do not count my life more precious than my work, which is to finish my course, the task of preaching and proclaiming the good news of God's grace, alleluia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
