- Matthew 11:16-19 -
- From: "Trudie" <trudie.Miller@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:50:52 -0500
- Matthew 11:16-19 -
"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in
the marketplaces and calling out to others:
'We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge
and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they
say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say,
'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." '
But wisdom is proved right by her actions."
_____________________________________________________________________
Jesus condemned the attitude of his generation. No matter what he said or did,
they took the opposite view. They were cynical and skeptical because he
challenged their comfortable, secure and self-centered lives. Too often we
justify our inconsistencies because listening to God may require us to change
the way we live.
<<>><<>><<>>
September 11th - Pedro de Corpa and Companions, Martyrs
The missionaries who established Catholic churches on the barrier islands of
coastal Georgia were dedicated to God and to country. Often intermediaries
between Spanish officials and tribal leaders, they learned the language of the
Guale and, in turn, taught them the tenets of Christianity. One tenet,
monogamous marriage, angered Juanillo, the son of a chief. When Father Pedro de
Corpa of Tolomato Mission, near Georgia's present- day Darien, denounced
Juanillo's practice of polygamy, trouble loomed. Also fueling Juanillo's anger
was intervention in tribal politics by Father de Corpa and another missioner,
Father Blas de Rodriguez of Tupique (near Eulonia). At the priests' urging, a
less quarrel- some man, Don Francisco, became mico or chief of the Guale
following the death of Juanillo's father. Martyrs for Faith
With a band of Guale warriors supporting him, the disinherited Juanillo
surprised Father de Corpa at prayer at Tolomato Mission, murdered him, and
impaled his head on a pike. The mission at Tupique became the warriors' next
target. There, Father Rodriguez suffered martyrdom after being allowed to
complete the saying of a final Mass. Propelled by rage and resentment, the Guale
began an attack on other coastal missions. On Saint Catherine's Island, Father
Miguel de Anon and Brother Antonio de Badajoz were subsequent victims of the
Indians' wrath. Traveling further by canoe, the Guale ambushed Father Francisco
de Verascola-a giant of a man whom they feared because of his size-on his return
from a trip to Saint Augustine to obtain provisions. Father Francisco de Avila
of Jekyll Island faced slavery instead of martyrdom when the Indians kidnapped
him. Spanish troops liberating him some months later found him in wretched
condition resulting from mistreatment which stopped just short of martyrdom.
Only the missionaries at San Pedro, thanks to a barking dog and the arrival of a
Spanish ship, did not experience the bloody and nightmarish fates of their
fellow Franciscans. Interest in the five Georgia martyrs stirred in the 1970s
when memory of them rose wraith-like following an archaeological dig which
unearthed remains of Santa Catalina Mission on Saint Catherine's Island.
Directed by Dr. David Hurst Thomas of the American Museum of Natural History,
the excavation yielded medals, rosaries, crosses and other artifacts. The
archaeologists discovered a large cemetery beneath the floor of the former
mission chapel.
Cause for Canonization In January 1973, Bishop Raymond W. Lessard of Savannah
appointed a commission, chaired by Father Francisco Morales of the Academy of
American Franciscan History in Washington, DC, to study the lives and martyrdom
of the missionaries. Georgia historians named to the commission included Dr.
Edward Cashin, head of the history department of Augusta State University, and
Dr. F. Lamar Pearson, Professor of History at Valdosta State University. On
February 22, 1984, Bishop Lessard officially opened the Cause for the Franciscan
martyrs' canonization. The striking memorial, sculpted by Marjorie Lawrence and
installed at Saint William Catholic Church in 1991, is a forceful reminder of
the five Georgia martyrs.
<><><><>
Padre Pio Quotations
These have been taken from his writing and his oral teachings. They are
instructions, admonitions, and advice. We, his spiritual children, will find a
flavor and harmony of things newly rediscovered.
They are echoes and heartbeats of faithfulness and love. They are shadows of the
hopes and joys and sorrows Padre Pio laid down at the foot of the cross on his
own personal Golgotha.
"Do not disturb your soul at the sad spectacle of human injustice .... One day
you will see the inevitable triumph of Divine justice over it."
"The pivot of perfection is love; he who lives in love lives in God, because God
is love, as the Apostle says."
"To fail in charity is like wounding God in the apple of His eye. What is more
delicate than the pupil of the eye? To fail in charity is like failing against
nature."
"Try always to advance more in charity; enlarge your heart with confidence for
the divine gifts which the Holy Spirit is anxious to pour into it."
"God can reject everything in a creature conceived in sin and of which it bears
the indelible impression inherited from Adam. But He can absolutely not reject
the sincere desire to love Him."
"Charity is the queen of virtues. As the pearls are held together by the thread,
thus the virtues are held together by charity; as the pearls fall when the
thread breaks, thus virtues are lost if charity diminishes."
"Humility and charity go hand in hand. The one glorifies, the other sanctifies."
"The time spent for the glory of God and the salvation of souls is never spent
badly."
"Where there is no obedience, there is no virtue; where there is no virtue,
there is no good. Where good is wanting, there is no love; where there is no
love, God is absent; where God is absent, there is no heaven."
"Obey promptly! Do not consider the age or merit of the person. And in order to
succeed, imagine you are obeying the Lord."
<><><><>
Saint Anthony, Model of Perfection
Dear St. Anthony, you took the words of Jesus seriously,
"Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect."
The Church honors you as a Christian hero, a man wholly
dedicated to God's glory and the good of the redeemed. St.
Anthony, Model of Perfection, ask Jesus to strengthen my
good dispositions and to make me more like you, more like
Him. Obtain for me the other favors I need. (Name them.)
.
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