From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Our goal in life   
      
   Our goal in life, the very reason we were created in the first place,   
   is for union with God. We were made for God and our hearts are   
   restless until they rest in him. Lucian of Antioch (240-312), an early   
   Christian theologian and martyr, once said that "a Christian's only   
   relatives are the saints." Those who follow Jesus Christ and who seek   
   the will of God enter into a new family, a family of "saints" here on   
   earth and in heaven. Jesus changes the order of relationships and   
   shows that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. Our   
   adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all our relationships   
   and requires a new order of loyalty to God and his kingdom. Do you   
   hunger for God and for his word?   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   7 December – St Charles Garnier SJ   
      
   (1606-1649)   
    Priest Martyr, Missionary. Born in 1606 in Paris, France and died by   
   being shot in the chest and abdomen and then tomahawked in the head on   
   7 December 1649 at Fort Saint Jean, Canada, he was just 43 years old.   
   Additional Memorials – 19 October as one of the Martyrs of North   
   America, 26 September in Canada.   
      
   Charles was the son of a secretary to King Henri III of France. He   
   attended the Collège de Clermont in Paris and joined the Jesuit   
   Seminary in Clermont in September 1624. After his novitiate, he   
   returned to the College of Clermont as Prefect. When he finished his   
   studies in rhetoric and philosophy, he spent two years teaching at the   
   College of Eu. Completing years of studies in language, culture and   
   theology, he was Ordained in 1635.   
      
   Charles had to be persistent in asking to become a missionary because   
   his father, a wealthy Parisian gentleman, opposed his desires and   
   obstructed his first request. That same persistence proved invaluable   
   as he worked with the Petun people who initially were hostile to the   
   Black Robes, as they called the Jesuits.   
      
   Garnier spent his first three years in New France learning the Huron   
   language and ministering at the mission in Ossossané. In November 1639   
   he and Father Isaac Jogues were sent to the Petuns who would not   
   accept them because they remembered the accusation that the Black   
   Robes had caused the epidemic that swept through the Huron lands in   
   1636. The two Jesuits spent the winter months among the Petun, then   
   returned to Ossossané because they thought they had failed. Father   
   Garnier returned the following autumn and then left again. Finally he   
   returned during the winter of 1647 and founded two missions. For now,   
   the people were more responsive than on his previous visits.   
      
   For several years the Iroquois had been increasing their attacks on   
   the Huron world; they had already killed Father Anthony Daniel in   
   1648, so Garnier took the report very seriously, which he received in   
   November 1649, that the Iroquois were on the warpath against the Petun   
   and threatened to burn their villages. He sent his newly-arrived   
   assistant, Father Noel Chabanel back to the mission headquarters   
   because he did not want to leave him at risk but Charles himself was   
   firm in wanting to stay with his people. On 7 November at   
   mid-afternoon, the Iroquois attacked, killing anyone they found.   
   Garnier was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the abdomen. He   
   was stripped of his cassock and left to die in the cold but he   
   regained consciousness and tried to move towards a Petun man who had   
   been wounded. An attacker scalped him and then killed him with a blow   
   to the head. Another Jesuit came to the village the next day and   
   buried the gentleman’s son, our Saint, in a shallow grave among the   
   people he so wanted to bring to Christ.   
      
   Charles Garnier was Canonised on 29 June 1930 by Pope Pius XI with the   
   seven other Canadian Martyrs (also known as the North American   
   Martyrs).   
      
   see   
   https://anastpaul.com/2021/12/07/   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   “No one heals himself by wounding another.”   
   --Saint Ambrose   
      
   “But if these beings angels guard you, they do so because they have   
   been summoned by your prayers.”   
   --Saint Ambrose   
      
   “The Church of the Lord is built upon the rock of the apostles among   
   so many dangers in the world; it therefore remains unmoved. The   
   Church’s foundation is unshakable and firm against assaults of the   
   raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although   
   the elements of this world constantly beat upon the Church with   
   crashing sounds, the Church possesses the safest harbor of salvation   
   for all in distress.   
   --Saint Ambrose   
      
   There is a stream which flows down on God’s saints like a torrent.   
   There is also a rushing river giving joy to the heart that is at peace   
   and makes for peace.   
   --Saint Ambrose   
      
   He who read much and understands much, receives his fill. He who is   
   full, refreshes others. So Scripture says: “If the clouds are full,   
   they will pour rain upon the earth.”   
   --Saint Ambrose   
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to the Sacred Heart   
      
   May all the words that I speak be dipped in the Blood of Thy Sacred   
   Heart, Jesus, that they may be so many arrows to pierce the hearts of   
   all who hear them with love for Thee.   
    - Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)