From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God has not promised us tomorrow   
      
   If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be   
   able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But   
   God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not   
   promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day,   
   which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for   
   conversion. And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done! Not   
   only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to   
   them.   
   -- Pope Saint Gregory the Great   
      
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   November 24th - Martyrs of Vietnam   
      
   Several groups of martyrs called the Martyrs of Annam who were slain   
   for the faith in Vietnam from 1798 until 1861.   
      
   Between 1798 and 1853, sixty-four were martyred, receiving   
   beatification in 1900. Those who died in a second group, between 1859   
   and 1861, were beatified in 1909. There were 28 courageous men and   
   women who died for the faith during a long period of persecution.   
      
   A Portuguese missionary arrived in Vietnam, once called Annam,   
   Indo-China, Cochin-China, and Tonkin, in 1533. An imperial edict in   
   Vietnam forbade Christianity, and it was not until 1615 that the   
   Jesuits were able to establish a permanent mission there, in the   
   central region of the country. In 1627, a Jesuit went north to   
   establish another mission. By the time this missionary, Father   
   Alexander de Rhodes, was expelled from the land in 1630, he had   
   baptized 6,700 Vietnamese. In that same year the first Christian   
   martyr was beheaded, and more were executed in 1644 and 1645 . Father   
   Rhodes returned to Vietnam but was banished again in 1645. He then   
   went to Paris, France, where the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions   
   was founded. Priests arrived in Vietnam, and the faith grew. Between   
   1798 and 1853, a period of intense political rivalry and civil wars,   
   64 known Christians were executed. These were beatified in 1900.   
      
    In 1833, all Christians were ordered to renounce the faith, and to   
   trample crucifixes underfoot. That edict started a persecution of   
   great intensity that was to last for half a century. Some 28 martyrs   
   from this era were beatified in 1909. The bishop, priests, and   
   Europeans were given “a 100 wounds,” disemboweled, beaten, and slain   
   in many other grisly fashions. For a brief period in 1841 the   
   persecution abated as France threatened to intervene with warships.   
   However, in 1848, prices were placed on the heads of the missionaries   
   by a new emperor. Two priests, Father Augustin Schoffier and Father   
   Bonnard, were beheaded as a result. In 1855, the persecution raged,   
   and the following year wholesale massacres began. Thousands of   
   Vietnamese Christians were martyred, as well as four bishops and 28   
   Dominicans. It is estimated that between 1857 and 1862, 115 native   
   priests, 100 Vietnamese nuns, and more than 5,000 of the faithful were   
   martyred. Convents, churches, and schools were razed, and as many as   
   40,000 Catholics were dispossessed of their lands and exiled from   
   their own regions to starve in wilderness areas.   
      
   The martyrdoms ended with the Peace of 1862, brought about by the   
   surrendering of Saigon and other regions to France and the payment of   
   indemnities to France and Spain. It is now reported that the “Great   
   Massacre,” the name given to the persecution of the Church in Vietnam,   
   resulted in the following estimated deaths:   
      
   Eastern Vietnam - 15 priests, 60 cathechists, 250 nuns, 24,000   
   Catholic lay men and women. Southern Vietnam - ten priests, 8,585   
   Catholic men and women. Southern Tonkin region - eight French   
   missionaries, one native priest, 63 cathechists, and 400 more   
   Christians slain - in all, an estimated 4,799 were martyred and 1,181   
   died of starvation. Some 10,000 Catholics were forced to flee the   
   area. Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Martyrs of Vietnam on June   
   19,1988.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   When you feel the assaults of passion and anger, then is the time to   
   be silent as Jesus was silent in the midst of His ignominies and   
   sufferings.  O holy silence, rich in great virtues! O holy silence,   
   which is a key of gold, keeping in safety the great treasure of holy   
   virtues!   
    --St. Paul of the Cross   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place,   
   neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in   
   may see the light."  (Luke 11:29-11:33)  DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer from The Imitation of Christ, of Thomas `a Kempis:   
      
   I offer up unto Thee my prayers and intercessions, for those especially who   
   have in any matter hurt, grieved, or found fault with me, or who have done   
   me any damage or displeasure. For all those also whom, at any time, I may   
   have vexed, troubled, burdened, and scandalized, by words or deeds,   
   knowingly or in ignorance; that Thou wouldeth grant us all equally pardon   
   for our sins, and for our offences against each other. Take away from our   
   hearts, O Lord, all suspiciousness, indignation, wrath, and contention, and   
   whatsoever may hurt charity, and lessen brotherly love. Have mercy, O   
   Lord, have mercy on those that crave Thy mercy, give grace unto them that   
   stand in need thereof, and make us such as that we may be worthy to enjoy   
   Thy grace, and go forward to life eternal. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)