From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Prudence in Action   
      
   It is wise not to be over hasty in action, nor to cling stubbornly to   
   our own opinions. It is wise also not to believe all that we hear, nor   
   to hasten to report to others what we hear or believe. Take counsel of   
   a wise and conscientious man, and seek (Tobit 4:19) to be guided by   
   one who is better than yourself, rather than to follow your own   
   opinions. A good life makes a man wise towards God, and gives him   
   experience in many things (Ecclus 34:9). The more humble and obedient   
   to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he   
   does.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ  Bk 1 Ch 4   
      
   =================   
   December 1st - St. Edmund Campion   
   (c. 1540-1581)   
      
   Persecution in England after the Reformation called forth many   
   Catholic martyrs. Most heroic of those who died under Queen Elizabeth   
   I was Edmund Campion, called by his enemies “the seditious Jesuit”.   
      
   Edmund’s father was a London bookseller. The parents had left the   
   Catholic Church when Queen Elizabeth re-established Anglicanism, so   
   Edmund became Protestant. The brilliance of his mind was evident from   
   childhood. As a boy he had been selected to give a speech of welcome   
   to Queen Mary Tudor in 1553. Thirteen years later he was chosen to   
   give an oration of welcome to Queen Elizabeth when she visited Oxford.   
   Leading figures, including Queen Elizabeth, were interested in the   
   potentialities of this young Oxford scholar. William Cecil,   
   Elizabeth’s counselor, did not hesitate to call him “a diamond of   
   England.” A born leader, Campion was the most notable figure of his   
   day at the University. He exercised there a magnetic influence   
   comparable to that of John Henry Newman three centuries later.   
      
   The Anglican bishop of Cloucester persuaded Edmund to take the oath of   
   Supremacy to the Queen and receive the Anglican order of deacon. But   
   Campion’s studies thereafter convinced him that the Anglican Church   
   was invalid. Falling under suspicion as pro-papist, he went to Dublin   
   to assist in the foundation of a university. In 1571, when Pope St.   
   Pius V’s excommunication of Elizabeth made people like himself ever   
   more subject to prosecution, Campion fled to Belgium. At Douay he was   
   reconciled to the Catholic Church, and ordained a subdeacon. Then he   
   went to Rome and joined the Society of Jesus. He was ordained a   
   Catholic priest in Prague, Bohemia, in 1578.   
      
   In 1579 the general of the Jesuits began to send English Jesuits back   
   to Britain to carry on a secret apostolate. The first two chosen for   
   this dangerous mission were Fathers Robert Persons and Edmund Campion.   
   Persons entered England disguised as a returning soldier. Campion came   
   later, posing as a jewel merchant, accompanied by Jesuit Brother Ralph   
   Emerson as his “servant”. Not all Catholics welcomed them. They feared   
   that the trio came with some political purpose. The priests had to   
   reassure them that their mission was “only apostolical--without any   
   pretense in knowledge of matters of state.”   
      
   The British government quickly learned of their arrival, so they had   
   to move out into the provinces. To the government also, Fr. Edmund   
   asserted that their presence in England was spiritual, not political.   
   He did this in a leaflet “Challenge to the Privy Council,” which soon   
   became known as “Campion’s Brag”. In 1581 he was able to print and   
   distribute “Decem Rationes” (“Ten Reasons”), a leaflet addressed to   
   Protestants to persuade them to return to the Catholic faith.   
      
   Campion, now all the more prominent--and hated--by his enemies, led   
   a life of joyful adventure, going about on his mission often only a   
   step ahead of the police. The success of his religious contacts was   
   great, so the hardships were worth it. He wrote to his superior in   
   Rome: “I am in apparel to myself very ridiculous; I often change it   
   and my name also.” He knew he could not escape forever, but as he   
   said, “Fear itself hath taken away all fear.”   
      
   On Sunday, July 16, 1681, after he had celebrated Mass in a private   
   house, a traitor in the congregation called the police. Campion was   
   arrested and tortured within an inch of his life, but he did not break   
   down. Government leaders, including, it is said, Queen Elizabeth   
   herself, tried another tack. They would give him high positions in the   
   Church of England if he would give up his Catholicism. Campion’s   
   sister also tried to persuade him to recant. Edmund rejected this   
   ploy, too. The court finally tried him and all other Catholic   
   missionaries on the charge of fomenting rebellion. Even the packed   
   jury didn’t really believe the verdict of guilty. Before sentence, Fr.   
   Campion said to his judge: “In condemning me--you condemn all your   
   own ancestors. To be condemned with these old lights … is both   
   gladness and glory to us.”   
      
   On December 1, 1681 Campion and 3 others were hanged in London.   
   At the scaffold, he publicly prayed “for your queen and my queen, unto   
   whom I wish a long reign with all prosperity.”   
      
   As he was later beheaded, disemboweled and quartered, some of his   
   blood splashed on Henry Walpole, a young gentleman in the front row.   
   Walpole subsequently became a Jesuit and was martyred in 1595. This is   
   one example of the great spiritual influence of Campion, the “diamond   
   of England”. Walpole and Campion were canonized together in 1970.   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   He who goes about to take the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from the   
   Church plots no less a calamity than if he tried to snatch the sun   
   from the universe.   
   -St. John Fisher   
      
   Bible Quote   
   31 What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against   
   us?  (Romans 8:31)  RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year.   
   That Mass prepares us for the double coming (adventus) of mercy and   
   justice. That is why St. Paul tells us, in the Epistle, to cast off   
   sin in order that, being ready for the coming of Christ as our   
   Saviour, we may also be ready for His coming as our Judge, of which we   
   learn in the Gospel.  Let us prepare ourselves, by pious aspirations   
   and by the reformation of our life, for this twofold coming.  Jesus   
   Our Lord will reward those who yearn for Him and await Him: "   
   Those who trust in Him shall not be confounded."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)