Most tender of friends...

“Jesus Christ treats missionaries in a very special manner,

for it is He who guides their footsteps

and preserves them from all danger." - St Damien of Molokai

"I find my consolation in the one and only 
companion who will never leave me,

that is, our Divine Saviour in the Holy Eucharist. . . . 
It is at the foot of the altar that we find the strength necessary

in this isolation of ours.  Without the Blessed Sacrament
a position like mine would be unbearable.  But, having Our Lord 
at my side, I continue always to be happy and content...

Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the

most tender of friends 
with souls who seek to please Him.

His goodness knows how to proportion itself to the smallest
of His creatures as to the greatest of them.  Be not afraid then in your solitary conversations, to tell Him of you miseries, your fears, 
your worries, of those who are dear to you, of your projects, 
and of your hopes.  Do so with confidence and with an open heart."

St Damien of Molokai

Belgian by birth (Jozef Damien de Vuester)

1840-1889

Priest, Missionary to Hawaii

Known as: Apostle to the Lepers
Feast Day - May 10 
Top Image:  Monstrance with paint applications by Kate Browning Word

 "It is a great happiness to me whenever I have an opportunity of sending

news of myself, of reminding you, my dear parents, that on an island

in the midst of the great Pacific, you have a son who loves you

and a priest who prays for you..." - Letter by Father Damien to his parents

Click here: The Life of Father Damien - YouTube (8:46 mins)
Click here: Trailer: Molokai: The Story of Father Damien 1999 - YouTube 
(1:30 mins) EXCELLENT film!

Click here: “Damiaan Donker” the Beer in Honor of St. Damien of Molokai | Catholic Faith and Reflections

St Damien of Molokai, pray for us!

They stayed... for love of Him...

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
through which the world has been crucified to me,

and I to the world. - Gal 6:14

"Fr Paul Miki was the son of an affluent Japanese military chief and a gifted evangelist who strongly defended the faith against Buddhism.  When the political climate became hostile to Christianity in Japan, the missionaries were ordered to leave.  He and fellow Jesuit missionaries decided to continue their ministry in secret.  The Jesuits did not want to leave the faithful without the Holy Eucharist and Sacraments. They were eventually arrested.

Fr Miki was martyred along with two other Jesuits and 23 other Christians - united in a common faith and love for Jesus Christ and His Church.  They were killed simultaneously by being raised on crosses and then stabbed with spears. The people pushed near, dipped cloths into the wounds and cut off pieces of the clothing of the holy martyrs as holy relics.

When missionaries returned to Japan in the 1860s, at first they found no trace of Christianity. But after establishing themselves they found that thousands of Christians lived around Nagasaki and  that they had secretly preserved the faith.  The survival of Japanese Catholicism is one of the most moving stories in the entire history of the Church. For over two centuries the people had no priests but lived the faith as best they could, in secret, not daring to keep written materials but handing down their beliefs by word of mouth." 

Excerpt ~ James Hitchcock, The Nagasaki Martyrs

St. Paul Miki and Companions

Martyrs ~ Japan (d. 1597)

FEAST DAY - Feb 6

Click here: St. Paul MIki - YouTube

Click here: St. Paul Miki and the Rise of Japan’s Hidden Christians | Crisis Magazine

 While hanging upon a cross Paul Miki 

preached to the people gathered for the execution:

“The sentence of judgment says these men came to Japan from the Philippines, but I did not come from any other country. I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I certainly did teach the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason I die. I believe that I am telling only the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you to become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”

At this point, he turned his eyes toward his companions and began to encourage them in their final struggle.  The faces of them all shone with great gladness.  Another Christian shouted to him that he would soon be in paradise.  "Like my Master," murmured Paul, "I shall die upon the cross.  Like Him, a lance will pierce my heart so that my blood and my love will flow out upon the land and sanctify it to His name."

As they awaited death the entire group sang the Canticle of Zechariah (see Luke 1:67–79). The executioners stood by respectfully until they had intoned the last verse. Then at a given  signal they thrust their spears into the victims’ sides.  - Excerpt from Bert Ghezzi, Voices of the Saints

St Paul Miki and Companions, pray for us!

Fidelity to the mission...

After the Last Supper it was Jude who asked Our Lord why He chose 

to reveal Himself only to the disciples and not the world. He received the reply:

 Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord; and my Father
will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.  

- John 14: 23 (Today's Communion Antiphon)

 

"The more lively the Eucharistic

faith of the people of God,

the deeper is its sharing in ecclesial life

in steadfast commitment to the mission

entrusted by Christ to His disciples."

Sacramentum Caritatis, 6

Sts Simon and Jude

Apostles, Martyrs (approx 65 AD)

St. Jude: patron saint of hospital workers,

desperate situations, and impossible causes.

Click here: St. Jude Novena

St. Simon: patron saint of sawyers and tanners.

FEAST DAY - October 28

PHOTO: Missionaries of Charity ~Home for the dying - Khaligat ~ Calcutta, India

"Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so also He sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This He did so that, by preaching the gospel to every creature (cf. Mark 16:15), they might proclaim that the Son of God, by His death and resurrection, had freed us from the power of Satan (cf. Acts 26:18) and from death, and brought us into the kingdom of His Father" ~Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

Almighty God, You chose Your servants Simon and Jude to be numbered 
among the glorious company of the Apostles. As they were faithful 
and zealous in their mission, so may we with ardent devotion 
make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives 
and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Click here: Ss. Simon & Jude - YouTube (2 mins)

Sts. Simon and Jude, pray for us!

Setting hearts ablaze! ...

"All holiness and perfection of soul lies in 
our love for Jesus Christ our God, who is 
our Redeemer and our supreme good." - St Alphonsus Ligouri

 

"To cast fire upon the earth -
that is my mission!

And how I wish it were already blazing fiercely!

Nothing in the world can set hearts ablaze with love

for God like the Blessed Sacrament.

That is why this Divine Bread
has been pictured as a furnace of love." 

 St Alphonsus Ligouri

Italy ~ 1696 - 1787

Lawyer before ordination as priest (age 30)

Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Founder of Redemptorist order

Prolific writer and gifted in the fine arts

FEAST DAY - August 1

Image above: The Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist is like a consuming Fire (2003) Elizabeth Wang

"I love Jesus Christ and that is why I am on fire

with the desire to give Him souls, first of all my own, and then  

an incalculable number of others." ~ St Alphonsus Ligouri

Someone once remarked, after a sermon by Alphonsus,"It is a pleasure 
to listen to your sermons; you forget yourself and preach Jesus Christ."

Click here: Saint Alphonsus Liguori - YouTube (2:45 mins)

Click here: St. Alphonsus Liguori, C.Ss.R. #2 - YouTube

(7 mins, including blessing from Redemptorist Provincial at end of video)

St Alphonsus Ligouri, pray for us!