From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God the Father and Our Mother the Church   
      
      "Unflaggingly, let us love the Lord our God and let us love his   
   Church. Let us love Him as the Lord and the Church as his handmaid.   
      No one can offend the one and still be pleasing to the other. What   
   does it avail you if you do not directly offend the Father but do   
   offend the mother?"   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 88, 14   
      
   Prayer: Let my mouth speak the praise of the Lord by whom all things   
   were made and who was made amidst all things. He is the witness of the   
   Father and the creator of the mother.   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 188, 3   
      
      
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   October 9th - Bl. Cyril Tejedor and Company   
   (Died 1934)   
      
   Spain in the 1930s produced not only many an anti-Christian villain   
   but many a Christian hero. Among the latter were Blessed Cyril   
   Bertrand Tejedor and seven other Brothers of the Christian Schools,   
   and with them their chaplain, Fr. Innocencio Amau, a Passionist   
   priest. They were martyred together at Turon in northern Spain in   
   1934.   
      
   Brother Cyril Bertrand was a native of Lerma, born in the Spanish   
   diocese of Burgos, in March 1888. Baptized Jose Sanz Tejedor, he took   
   the religious name of Brother Cyril Bertrand in 1907 when he entered   
   the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the well-known teaching   
   brotherhood founded by St. John Baptist de la Salle.   
      
   At the end of his training, Cyril was appointed to teach in a very   
   difficult school. Observing the counsels given by de la Salle in his   
   book “The Conduct of Schools”, Br. Cyril achieved by patience and   
   fortitude a genuine skill in the classroom. That skill he took with   
   him to a number of other schools, and when these schools were closed   
   by the civil authorities because they were operated by religious, he   
   was appointed superior of the Brothers’ school at Santander. During   
   the six years he spent at Santander, the school achieved such a good   
   reputation that many pupils in other schools transferred there, hoping   
   that Brother Cyril might become their teacher.   
      
   In 1933 Brother Cyril Bertrand’s abilities were given the acid test.   
   He was invited to take over a school at Turon in the Asturias region.   
   The Brothers conducted 14 schools in the Asturias. The schools at   
   Turon was attended largely by the sons of local miners who, like the   
   industrialists of the area, were in those days highly politicized.   
   Within a few months after his arrival at Turon, Tejedor made a 30-day   
   retreat, in which he placed himself totally in God’s hands.   
      
   He had good reason to commit himself totally to God. In 1931, when the   
   Spanish monarchy was replaced by the Second Republic, there had been   
   an upsurge of political and social unrest in the Asturias. Several   
   left-wing parties supporting the Republic had combined to introduce   
   anticlerical legislation, intent particularly on wresting from the   
   Church its control of education. In the elections of 1933, however,   
   rightist parties won out. Would the monarchy now be restored? Not so,   
   swore the leftists. They launched a local rebellion on October 4,   
   1934. The revolt lasted only 15 days, but it took heavy military force   
   to suppress, and during that fortnight over a thousand people were   
   killed and thousands more wounded.   
      
   It was on the second hectic day of this rebellion, October 5, a First   
   Friday, that the anticlerical insurgents arrested Brother Cyril and   
   the seven others, along with their Passionist chaplain. They were   
   jailed along with other religious, with local priests, and a number of   
   civic leaders. On October 9, early in the morning, the eight Brothers   
   and the chaplain and two officers of the government forces were led   
   out to the cemetery and told that they were to die. A large pit had   
   been opened in the middle of the graveyard. The victims were lined up   
   on its edge and shot to death; their bodies fell into this common   
   grave.   
      
   The rebel leader who ordered the execution, long afterward recalled,   
   “The Brothers and the priest quietly listened to the sentence and then   
   walked to the center of the cemetery at a leisurely yet firm pace.   
   They knew where they were going and went like lambs to the slaughter.   
   It was so impressive that I, hardened as I am, could not help being   
   moved…. I think that while walking, and while waiting at the gate,   
   they prayed in a subdued voice.”   
      
   The seven Brothers who died with Cyril were young men. Marciano Jose   
   was a nonteaching brother, owing to deafness and health problems;.   
   Vittoriano Pio, an able musician, had been at Turon only 20 days;   
   Julian Alfredo had been assigned there because of his known strength   
   of character; Benjamino Julian, because of his good judgment and his   
   sense of joy. Oldest of the men was the Passionist Fr. Innocencio. He   
   just happened to be at the house on the day of the arrest because he   
   had come there on October 4 to hear the Brothers’ confessions for   
   First Friday.   
      
   The Passionist and the eight teaching brothers were not the only   
   victims of this anticlerical revolt. There were also ten diocesan   
   priests, two other Passionists, three Vincentians, two Jesuits, a   
   Carmelite, and six seminarians. They, too, had not known the day nor   
   the hour when they would be tested for their faith. But the Brothers   
   of the Christian Schools were appropriately beatified in a special   
   group in 1990.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Suppose an evil person would offend you, or one whom you judge to be   
   evil or even imagine so. Would you abandon so many others who are   
   good?   
   -- St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "The people served Yahweh throughout the lifetime of Joshua and   
   throughout the lifetime of those elders who outlived Joshua and had   
   known all the great deeds which Yahweh had done for the sake of   
   Israel. [..] And when that whole generation had been gathered to its   
   ancestors, another generation followed it which knew neither Yahweh   
   nor the deeds which he had done for the sake of Israel."  Judges   
   2:7-10   
      
      
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   On Offering Ourselves wholly to God [V]   
      
   I offer Thee also all the holy aspirations of devout persons; the   
   needs of my parents, friends, brothers, sisters, and all who are dear   
   to me; and the needs of all who have desired or asked me to pray and   
   offer the Eucharist for them and theirs, whether living or departed. I   
   pray that all these may enjoy the assistance of Thy grace, the aid of   
   Thy comfort, protection from dangers, and deliverance from pains to   
   come; and that, freed from all evils, they may offer glad praise and   
   thanks to Thee.   
   --Thomas à Kempis--Imitation of Christ Book 4 Ch.9   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)