From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Eternity will be ours when faith sees   
      
       "We are distanced from eternity to the extent that we are   
   changeable. But eternal life is promised to us through the truth. Our   
   faith, however, stands as far apart from the clear knowledge of the   
   truth as mortality does from eternity. At the present we put faith in   
   things done in time on our account, and by that faith itself we are   
   cleansed. In this way, when we have come to sight, as truth follows   
   faith, so eternity may follow on mortality. Our faith will become   
   truth, then, when we have attained to that which is promised to us who   
   believe. And that which is promised to us is eternal life. And the   
   Truth--not that which shall come to be according to how our faith   
   shall be, but that truth that always exists because eternity is in   
   it--the Truth then has said, 'And this is life eternal, that they   
   might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have   
   sent.' When our faith sees and comes to be truth, then eternity shall   
   possess our now changed mortality."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from ON THE TRINITY 4.18.24.34)   
      
   =============   
   20 June – Blessed Francisco Pacheco SJ   
      
   (1566-1626)   
   Martyr, Priest of the Society of Jesus, Missionary to India, China and   
   Japan, Provincial Superior. Born in 1566 in Ponte de Lima, Braga,   
   Portugal and died by being burned at the stake on 20 June 1626 in   
   Nagasaki, Japan. Also known as – Francesco, Francis.   
      
   Francisco Pacheco was the most experienced Jesuit who died a Martyr   
   during the Great Persecution in Japan between 1617 and 1632. At the   
   time of his arrest, he was Provincial Superior of the Jesuits and   
   Apostolate Administrator of the Diocese and his imprisonment was a   
   serious loss to the Christian community struggling to survive the   
   persecution.   
      
   Fr Pacheco was born in Ponte di Lima, near Braga, Portugal, of noble   
   parents. As a youth he heard of the exploits of Missionaries in Japan   
   and dreamed of imitating them. While at the Jesuit school in Lisbon,   
   he also watched the annual departure of the Jesuit Missionaries and   
   this further strengthened his resolve and thus he decided to join the   
   Society in 1585. His request to go to the missions was only granted   
   seven years later and his first stop was Goa, India where he continued   
   his studies. He then went on to Macau to further continue his studies   
   before being Ordained.   
      
   Fr Pacheco finally set forth for Japan in 1604 and spent four years in   
   the capital of Osaka, Miyako (today’s Kyoto) before taking up his next   
   appointment as Head of the Jesuit college in Macau. In 1614, he   
   returned to Japan and became Vicar General to Bishop Luis de Cerqueira   
   and was based in Nagasaki until the promulgation of the shogun’s   
   decree in 1614 banishing all foreign Missionaries and forbidding   
   Japanese Christians to practice their religion.   
      
   Fr Pacheco’s exile in Macau was a short one as he returned secretly to   
   Japan the following year, disguised as a merchant and took up   
   Missionary work at Takaku and the islands of Amakusa and Kani. During   
   those years of fierce persecution he sadly saw thousands of Christians   
   give up their religion under governmental pressure and fear of   
   torture. He also witnessed the terrible deaths of his brother Jesuits   
   and hundreds of Christians who remained steadfast in their faith,   
   though it meant beheading or death by slow fire. Fr Pacheco knew that   
   the longer he remained in Japan the closer was his Martyrdom.   
      
   Following his appointment as the Jesuits’ Provincial Superior, Fr   
   Pacheco moved his residence from Nagasaki to the seaport of Kuchinotsu   
   in Arima which had better security and better contact with the Jesuits   
   in Japan. The search for Jesuit Missionaries was intensified when more   
   spies were recruited by Shogun Iyemitsu. Fr Pacheco was betrayed by   
   his former host, an apostate who because of the reward money and   
   hoping to gain favour with the district governor, revealed where he   
   was With 200 soldiers surrounding the house, Fr Pacheco and two of his   
   Catechists, Paul Kinsuke and Peter Kinsei were arrested with two   
   others living in the next house. The Jesuits, the Catechists, their   
   hosts and families were all arrested and placed in a dungeon in   
   Shimabara where they had to endure the damp and cold winter. Within a   
   few days, Fr John Baptist Zola and his Catechist, Vincent Kaun, were   
   added to their number.   
      
   While in prison, Fr Pacheco admitted the four Catechists into the   
   Society and transformed his group of prisoners, including the lay   
   persons into a quasi-religious community with set times for rising,   
   prayer, meditation, fasting and doing penance to prepare and   
   strengthen them for the Martyrdom to come. Their greatest sorrow was   
   their inability to celebrate Mass, recite the Breviary and recite the   
   Rosary as all these had been taken away from them, although, of   
   course, they could still count on their fingers and added their own   
   meditations. Finally, on 20 June 1626, the prisoners were brought to   
   Nagasaki where two other prisoners, Fr Balthazar de Torres SJ and his   
   Catechist, Michael Too, were included. The final number was nine   
   Jesuits and nine lay Christians and all were escorted to the Martyrs’   
   Hill where the executions were to take place.   
      
   The Jesuits rejoiced in seeing each other and embraced for the last   
   time. They were the first to die. The government kept the Christians   
   aside hoping that some would apostatize but watching the Martyrs die   
   only strengthened their faith. They were kept in a prison in Nagasaki,   
   determined to die for Christ. They were Martyred on 12 July 1626.   
      
   Fr Pacheco and his eight Jesuit companions, together with the nine lay   
   Christians, were included among the 205 Martyrs Beatified by Blessed   
   Pope Pius IX on 7 May1867. Their ashes thrown into the sea and no   
   relics remain.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2021/06/20/   
      
      
   The Storms of Life   
      
   “At other times however, the tempest will come from outside ourselves   
   and will have a shattering effect on our spiritual life.   
      
   To whom shall we have recourse in our hour of need?   
      
   ...Let us turn, therefore, to Jesus on the Cross and to Jesus in the   
   Blessed Eucharist.   
   The Crucifix will teach us how to suffer with resignation and with love.   
   Before this mystery of infinite love, all our anguish and unrest, will   
   give way to a Christian acceptance of suffering.   
   If this is not enough, let us turn to Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist.   
   Let us invite Him into our hearts to calm the tempest and to give us   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)