Holy Courage

"When Thomas More was Chancellor of England some of his friends reproached him for going to Communion so often.  With all his duties and responsibilities they thought that this piety took up too much of his time. 

    He answered their objections with these words: 'Your reasons for wanting me to stay away from Holy Communion are exactly the ones which cause me to go so often.  My distractions are great, but it is in Communion that I recollect myself.  I have temptations many times a day; by daily Communion I get the strength to overcome them.  I have much very important business to handle and I need light and wisdom; it is for this very reason that I go to Holy Communion every day to consult Jesus about them.' " 

From John M Haffert

The World's Greatest Saints

St Thomas More

Husband, Father, Patron of Lawyers
Author, Martyr
England ~ 1478-1535

FEAST DAY - June 22

St Thomas More

Portrait by Hans Holbein (1520)

Ste Thomas More, ora pro nobis!

ANOTHER FEAST CELEBRATED TODAY:

St. John Fisher

Bishop, Martyr

England ~ 1469-1535

FEAST DAY - June 22

Ste John Fisher, ora pro nobis!

 

Of all the English bishops, only Bishop John Fisher of Rochester publicly opposed Henry VIII's mandatory Oath of Allegiance, which unlawfully declared King Henry the head of the Church of England. The bishop's stand ultimately cost him his life. May his example inspire all Catholics today, especially the bishops on whose courageous leadership the Church depends.

On the scaffold he said to the people assembled:

"Christian people, I am come hither to die for the faith of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, and I thank God hitherto my stomach hath served me very well thereunto, so that yet I have not feared death. Wherefore I do desire you all to help and assist me with your prayers, that at the very point and instant of death's stroke, I may in that very moment stand steadfast without fainting in any one point of the Catholic faith free from any fear; and I beseech Almighty God of His infinite goodness to save the king and this Realm, and that it may please Him to hold His holy hand over it, and send the king good Counsel."

He then knelt, said the Te Deum, In te domine speravi, and submitted to the axe.

Erasmus said of John Fisher: "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable for uprightness of life, for learning and for greatness

of soul."