From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Teaching of Truth   (2)   
      
   Those to whom the Eternal Word speaks are delivered    
   from uncertainty. From one Word proceed all things (John 1:3)   
   and all things tell of Him; it is He, the Author of all things,   
   who speaks to us (John 8:25). Without Him no one can    
   understand or judge aright. But the man to whom all    
   things are one, who refers everything to One, and who   
   sees everything as in One, is enabled to remain steadfast   
   in heart, and abide at peace with God.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 3   
      
   ==============   
   April 28th - Saint Peter Chanel, Protomartyr of Oceania   
      
   (1803-1841)   
      
   “He loves us. He does what he teaches. He forgives his enemies. His   
   teaching is good.”   
   -- one of Saint Peter's catechumens, explaining why he believed   
   Peter's teachings   
      
    Saint Peter’s witness—lived in word and action—was a powerful force   
   of love and conversion during his brief 38 years. His faith and   
   confidence in the face of threats and persecution earned him the   
   martyr’s crown.   
      
   Peter was born in 1803 in Belley, France, the fifth child of his   
   family. At birth, Peter’s parents consecrated him to the Blessed   
   Virgin, a devotion he never forgot. With his brothers and sisters, the   
   Chanel children were raised to be pious, to pray, and to serve the   
   Lord by serving one another. The family was a model of Christian   
   faith, and Peter and his siblings were recognized for their holiness   
   and charity from a young age.   
      
   When Peter was 11 years old, his local parish priest—recognizing his   
   potential—arranged for him to attend school in the town of Cras, where   
   he lived with his aunt. There, he began to serve Mass, learning Latin,   
   and accompanied the priest on his daily visits to the sick and dying.   
   Through this time, while he yearned to return home to his family, he   
   offered prayers to the Blessed Mother, who, by his words, “saved his   
   future vocation.” At 16, he entered the diocesan seminary, where his   
   fellow seminarians described him as: "He had a heart of gold with the   
   simple faith of a child, and he led the life of an angel."   
      
   Saint Peter was ordained in 1827, at the age of 24, and assigned to   
   the parish of Amberieu. However, his health began to decline, and   
   after only one year, he was reassigned the diocese of Crozet in the   
   mountains of Switzerland, where the climate might better suit him. The   
   parish there was in need of great reform, which Peter undertook with   
   vigor. He visited and assisted the poor, and saw to the instruction of   
   the neglected children of the parish, enlisting the assistance of his   
   younger sister, Mary Frances.   
      
   While serving in Switzerland, Peter learned of the newly founded   
   missionary Society of Mary, established at Lyons. Having always felt   
   drawn to missionary work, and feeling the call of the Lord, Peter left   
   his parish and petitioned the founder of the order for permission to   
   enter the Society. He was accepted, and eventually became the director   
   of the Seminary of Belley. Given his health, Saint Peter was resigned   
   to remaining in France, but hoped that he would be sent on mission to   
   Oceania, the world region entrusted to the Society of Mary by Pope   
   Gregory XVI.   
      
   Peter was granted his deepest hope in his mid thirties, and was sent   
   with 20 fellow Marists to the Pacific Ocean, by the long route around   
   the Cape of South America. The ship suffered significant damage on   
   several occasions, greatly delaying the voyage, and the struggling   
   seafarers were saved only by the intercession of Mary, Star of the   
   Sea.   
      
   Leaving some brethren at the Wallis Islands, Saint Peter and Brother   
   Marie-Nizier continued on to Futuna. There, the two were welcomed by   
   King Niouliki and his tribe, and worked tirelessly to gain their   
   confidence. They learned the language, and worked to catechize them,   
   beginning with the king. When Niouliki attended Mass, his people   
   followed. Idols were destroyed, and the population appeared on the   
   brink of conversion when war broke out between tribes. When King   
   Niouliki was victorious, he cited his gods had secured the victory,   
   and soon the people had returned to their previous beliefs. When Saint   
   Peter arrived at the village, he was set upon and slain, hacked to   
   death with clubs and hatchets. Brother Marie-Nizier escaped this fate,   
   having been absent that day, but reported the incident, including the   
   strange weather phenomenon that followed the holy man’s death. Upon   
   killing Peter, the locals were frightened as the sky immediately grew   
   dark and a thunderstorm began. Through the darkness, a luminous cross   
   glowed over the spot where Peter had given his life. The king ordered   
   his body buried in haste, but his relics were secured and later   
   translated to the Marist most house in Lyons, via New Zealand.   
      
   Within five months of his death, the entire island of Futuna was   
   converted to the faith, built on the foundation and example of Saint   
   Peter Chanel. The life of Peter Chanel reminds us that our own lives   
   have meaning, and the actions and events of our lives are powerful   
   witness to those we encounter. The Lord has both a plan and a profound   
   use for each of us, and in the stillness of our daily lives, we need   
   only listen and pray to understand our place in His grand design.   
   During this blessed Easter season, how might we better serve the Lord?   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "If you see that you have not yet suffered tribulations,   
   consider it certain that you have not begun to be a true   
   servant of God; for the Apostle says plainly that all    
   who choose to live piously in Christ, shall suffer    
   persecutions.    
   --St. Augustine   
      
   St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom,   
   St. Jerome, and St. Cyril were all charged with a   
   thousand crimes, and in that way were greatly afflicted.   
      
   ("A Year with the Saints".  April - Patience)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus,   
    shall suffer persecution.  (2 Timothy 3:12)   
      
      
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   "Give me, O Lord, a steadfast heart which no unworthy   
   thought can drag downwards; an unconquered heart which   
   no tribulation can wear out; an upright heart which   
   no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon    
   me also, O Lord my God, understanding to know you,   
   diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a    
   faithfulness that may finally embrace you;   
   through Jesus Christ, our Lord."    
   --(Prayer of Thomas Aquinas)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)