From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Apply thy whole mind to know Jesus   
      
   Apply thy whole mind to know Jesus Christ, thy whole heart to love   
   Him and all thy care to follow Him, since for this alone thou art a   
   Christian. What difficulty canst thou have in loving a Man-God, who   
   assumed humanity only for love of thee and for thy salvation! Be then   
   resolved to study and to contemplate Him in all His actions, to   
   penetrate into His designs, to enter into His dispositions and the   
   purport of His mysteries; and endeavor to do, to suffer, and to live   
   as He did; for the whole merit of a Christian in this life consists in   
   conformity in all things with Jesus Christ; and, in the next, it will   
   constitute his never-ending happiness. If he endeavors to participate   
   here in the humble and suffering life of his Redeemer, he will   
   hereafter partake of His glorious immortality.   
   --Thomas à Kempis, From the Imitation of Christ   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
    1 November – Blessed Peter Paul Navarra SJ   
      
    Priest, Martyr, Missionary, Writer – born as Pietro Paolo in 1560 at   
   Laino Borgo, Cosenza, Italy and died by being burned alive on 1   
   November 1622 at Ximabara, Nagasaki, Japan. As he was burning he   
   prayed aloud the Litany of Our Lady. He is also known as Paul Navarro   
   and Pietro Paolo Navarro. Additional Feast with the 205 Martyrs of   
   Japan is 10 September.   
      
   Peter Paul Navarro was born in the small town of Laino, Basilicata in   
   southern Italy. In 1579 when he was eighteen, he entered the Jesuit   
   novitiate in Nola and requested to be sent to the Japanese mission.   
   His request was granted and in 1584 he was sent to Goa, India for his   
   studies and was Ordained in 1585. A year later in August 1586 he   
   arrived in Hirado, western Japan. There he spent a year studying   
   Japanese and served in mission posts in Shikoku and Honshu. Fr Navarro   
   knew that to be successful in evangelising the Japanese, he himself   
   must become one of them and this motivated him to speak and write   
   fluently in the language. To prove to the Japanese that they did not   
   have to relinquish their customs and cultural traditions to become   
   Christians, he dressed like them, ate their food and used their type   
   of furniture.   
      
   Fr Navarro went to northern Kyushu which became the centre of his   
   missionary activity after he was expelled from his Hirado missions   
   because of persecutions against Christians. Later, in 1614 when all   
   foreign missionaries from Japan were expelled by the edict of Shogun   
   Iyeyasu, Fr Navarro was one of the two dozen Jesuits who went   
   underground rather than leave the country, as more than eighty other   
   Priests had to. For the next seven years, he went about his priestly   
   duties in Shimabara, western Kyushu, disguised as a beggar, wood   
   seller, tradesman or farmer. In these disguises, Fr Navarro was able   
   to enter the homes of Christians to celebrate Mass or administer the   
   Sacraments at night to avoid being captured, since he was being   
   hunted. During this period he wrote in Japanese, “An apology of the   
   Christian Faith against the Calumnies of the Pagans.”   
      
   Peter Onizuka and Dennis Fujishima were the two lay Catechists helping   
   Fr Navarro during his final years in Shimabara. Peter was a teenager   
   whose father housed fugitive Priests. Dennis was in his forties and   
   had been a Christian as a young man. Both of them were with Fr Navarro   
   and his servant, Clement Yuemon, after Christmas in 1621 when they   
   were all captured by priest-hunters. They were brought before the   
   daimyo of Arima who treated the captives with great respect. The   
   daimyo detained them in a house owned by a Christian where they were   
   cared for by Christians and he even allowed Fr Navarro to celebrate   
   Mass. He also came frequently to converse with Fr Navarro. The daimyo   
   was prepared to release them if they could renounce Christianity, an   
   offer which they turned down. The daimyo wanted to transfer them   
   secretly to Macao where they could be set free. But before he could do   
   anything, he received orders from the shogun that the three were to   
   die by slow fire.   
      
   When Fr Navarro was informed of his impending death, he was happy that   
   his prayers had been answered and wrote to his Jesuit friend, Fr John   
   Baptist Zola, saying: “I give infinite thanks to the Lord and I ask   
   you to thank him with me. I also ask your prayers for perseverance   
   until my final breath.”   
      
   On the day of execution, 1 November, Fr Navarro celebrated the Mass of   
   All Saints and the two Catechists, Peter and Dennis, who had asked to   
   enter the Society, pronounced their Jesuit vows during that final   
   Mass. While waiting for the executioners, Fr Navarro wrote his last   
   letter to Fr Matthew de Couros: “For many years I have prayed for this   
   great grace from God but always with some fear, that I would not be   
   heard because of my many sins. The Father of mercies now gives me this   
   long-desired grace. May he be blessed forever.”   
      
   In the afternoon the four prisoners escorted by fifty soldiers and a   
   large crowd of Christians made their way to the place of execution,   
   with Fr Navarro chanting the Litany of Our Lady and his companions   
   joyfully sang the responses. As they approached the shore, the Martyrs   
   saw the standing stakes awaiting them. The daimyo had instructed the   
   soldiers to place the wood around the stakes so as not to prolong the   
   prisoners’ suffering.   
      
   The three Jesuits, Frs Peter Paul Navarro, Peter Onizuka and Dennis   
   Fujishima and their faithful servant, Clement Yeumon, alight in   
   flames, gave final heroic witness of their great love for God.   
   They were beatified by Blessed Pope Pius IX together with another 201   
   Martyrs of Japan on 7 May 1867.   
      
   From Anastpaul 2020   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   We are preparing ourselves for the time, which will come very soon,   
   when we shall find ourselves at the end of our journey and shall be   
   drinking of living water from the fountain I have described. Unless we   
   make a total surrender of our will to the Lord, and put ourselves in   
   His hands so that He may do in all things what is best for us in   
   accordance with His will, He will never allow us to drink of it.   
   --St. Teresa of Jesus   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;   
   10 love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in   
   showing honor.  [Romans 12:9-10]  RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer From the Imitation of Christ   
    As, O Jesus, I can have no pretensions to Heaven but through Thy   
   virtues and merit, I beseech Thee to inspire me with an ardent desire   
   of knowing and following Thee. Grant, O my most amiable Saviour, that   
   I may follow Thy maxims, practice Thy virtues and form myself upon   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)