From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Meditation for troubled times:   
      
      "Our Lord and our God, be it done unto us according to Thy will. "   
   Simple acceptance of God's will in whatever happens is the key to   
   abundant living. We must continue to pray. "Not my will but Thy will   
   be done." It may not turn out the way you want it to, but it will be   
   the best way in the long run, because it is God's way. If you decide   
   to accept whatever happens as God's will for yourself, whatever it may   
   be, your burdens will be lighter. Try to see in all things some   
   fulfillment of the Divine Intent.   
      I pray that I may see the working out of God's will in my life. I   
   pray that I may be content   
   with whatever He wills for me.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   July 12th – SS. John Jones and John Wall   
   (c. 1530-1598; 1620-1679)   
      
   These two friars were martyred in England (16th and 17th centuries)   
   for refusing to deny their faith.   
      
   JOHN Jones, known on the mission as John Buckley and having the names   
   in religion of Godfrey Maurice, came of a Catholic family of Clynog   
   Fawr in Caernarvonshire.  He became a Friar Minor of the Observance in   
   Rome, and in 1592 he was sent at his own request to the English   
   mission and lodged for a time in London.  He worked in various parts   
   of the country until 1596, when he was arrested on an order of the   
   priest-hunter Topcliffe, and subjected to cruel tortures.  He was kept   
   in prison for two years, during which time he contrived to reconcile   
   Bl. John Rigby, a layman who for a time conformed to Protestantism and   
   suffered death in 1600 for his repentance.  On July 3, 1598, Bl. John   
   was tried for having been ordained overseas and returned to the realm.   
   He protested that he had never been guilty of any treason, and asked   
   that his case should be referred to the conscience of the judges,   
   rather than to an ignorant jury.  Mr Justice Clinch pointed out to him   
   that his offence was treason by statute, whereto the prisoner replied,   
   "If this be a crime I must own myself guilty; for I am a priest and   
   came over into England to gain as many souls as I could to Christ ".   
      
   The place fixed for his execution was St. Thomas Waterings in the Old   
   Kent Road, the place where in days not then long past pilgrims to the   
   shrine of St. Thomas Becket had made their first halt and watered   
   their horses at a ford (Chaucer mentions it in the prologue to the   
   Canterbury Tales).  When the martyr had been dragged to this place on   
   a hurdle, the hangman was found to have forgotten the rope, and it   
   took an hour to fetch it; Bl. John passed the time in prayer and in   
   talking to the people, asserting that he had prayed daily for the   
   queen's welfare.   
      
   His head was displayed in Southwark and his members in the Lambeth and   
   Newington roads; two young men were committed to prison for trying to   
   rescue these relics, but where they failed others succeeded.   
      
   See Challoner, MMP., pp. 234-239;  Catholic Record Society   
   Publications, vol. v, pp. 362-375 ; The Rambler, January 1859,   
   pp.49-55; Mason, Certamen Seraphicum (1885 ed.), p. 17   
      
   Comment:   
   Every martyr knows how to save his/her life and yet refuses to do so.   
   A public repudiation of the faith would save any of them. But some   
   things are more precious than life itself. These martyrs prove that   
   their 20th-century countryman, C. S. Lewis, was correct in saying that   
   courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form (shape) of every   
   virtue at the testing point, that is, at the point of highest reality.   
      
   Quote:   
   "No one is a martyr for a conclusion; no one is a martyr for an   
   opinion. It is faith that makes martyrs" (Cardinal Newman, Discourses   
   to Mixed Congregations).   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   “It was his loving design, centered in Christ, to give history its   
   fulfilment by resuming everything in him, all that is in heaven, all   
   that is on earth, summed up in him”  (Eph. 1, 9-10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   [T]hose who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the   
   brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and   
   blameless life. They must completely remove from their lives the filth   
   and uncleanness of vice. Their upright lives must make them like the   
   salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind. The   
   brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world   
   that brings light to others. They must learn from their eminent   
   teacher, Jesus Christ, what he declared not only to his apostles and   
   disciples, but also to all the priests and clerics who were to succeed   
   them, when he said, "You are the salt of the earth. But what is salt   
   goes flat? How can you restore its flavor? Then it is good for nothing   
   but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."   
      
   Jesus also said: "You are the light of the world." Now a light does   
   not illumine itself, but instead it diffuses its rays and shines all   
   around upon everything that comes into its view. So it must be with   
   the glowing lives of upright and holy clerics. By the brightness of   
   their holiness they must bring light and serenity to all who gaze upon   
   them. They have been placed here to care for others. Their own lives   
   should be an example to others, showing how they must live in the   
   house of the Lord.   
   --Excerpt from a sermon of Saint John of Capistrano   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)