Christ's Resurrection

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Christ's Resurrection

"Know that our faith is strengthened by the resurrection of Christ.
The passion of Christ represents the misery of our present life, while
the resurrection of Christ gives us a brilliant glimpse of the
happiness of the future life.

Let us apply ourselves energetically in the present life, and hope in
the future. Now is the time for the painful struggle; then will come
the recompense. Those who are lazy about carrying out their work will
be brazenly impudent if they expect the recompense."
--St. Augustine--Sermon 233, 1

Prayer: O death, when you seized my Lord, you then lost your grip on me.
--St. Augustine--Sermon 233, 5

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2 April – St Pedro Calungsod

Martyr, Sacristan, Missionary Lay Catechist--born in c 1654 in
Ginatilan, Cebu, Philippines, named after Saint Peter the Apostle and
died by being hacked to death with a catana on 2 April 1672 at Tomhom,
Guam. His mutilated body was thrown into the sea.

Pedro Calungsgod was a young native of the Visayas Region in the
Philippines. Little is known about his life. Based on accounts, Pedro
was taught as a lay catechist in a Jesuit minor seminary in Loboc,
Bohol. For young recruits like him, the training consisted of learning
the Catechism, Spanish, and Latin. They would be later sent with the
priests to the countryside to perform daily religious functions as
altar boys or catechists. Some of them were even sent to mission
centres overseas to accompany the Jesuits in their arduous task of
proclaiming the Good News and establishing the Catholic faith in
foreign lands. And that was the case of Pedro Calungsod. He served as
a teenage catechist alongside Spanish Jesuit missionaries to the
violent Chamarros in the Ladrones Islands (modern Marianas) in 1668 at
age 14.

When he was 17, he and his companion Fr Diego Luis de San Vitores were
martyred after baptising the daughter of a Christian woman and a
non-Christian village chief in the now-U.S. territory of Guam. Upon
hearing of her baptism (with the mother’s consent), the chief attacked
the two missionaries. Though Pedro could have escaped, he did not
leave his companion.

“From his childhood, Pedro Calungsod declared himself unwaveringly for
Christ and responded generously to His call. Young people today can
draw encouragement and strength from the example of Pedro, whose love
of Jesus inspired him to devote his teenage years to teaching the
faith as a lay catechist,” Pope St. John Paul II declared during his
beatification in 2000.

“In a spirit of faith, marked by strong Eucharistic and Marian
devotion, Pedro undertook the demanding work asked of him and bravely
faced the many obstacles and difficulties he met. In the face of
imminent danger, Pedro would not forsake Fr Diego but as a ‘good
soldier of Christ’ preferred to die at the missionary’s side,” he
added.

He was Beatified on 5 March 2000 by St Pope John Paul II at Vatican
City and Canonised on 21 October 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Patronages--Filipino youth, Catechumens, altar boys, the Philippines,
Overseas Filipino Workers, Guam, Cebuanos, Visayans, Archdiocese of
Cebu.

https://anastpaul.com/2019/04/02/


On the Fervent Amendment of our Whole Life

“When a certain anxious person, who often times wavered between hope
and fear, once overcome with sadness, threw himself upon the ground in
prayer, before one of the altars in the Church and thinking these
things in his mind, said “Oh, if I only knew how to persevere,” that
very instant he heard within him, this heavenly answer: “And if thou
did know this, what would thou do? Do now what you would do and thou
shall be perfectly secure.” And immediately being consoled and
comforted, he committed himself to the Divine Will and his anxious
thoughts ceased. He no longer wished for curious things, searching to
find out what would happen to him but studied rather to learn what was
the acceptable and perfect will of God for the beginning and the
perfection of every good work.”
--Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)


Saint Quote:
Fix your minds on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Inflamed with
love for us, he came down from heaven to redeem us. For our sake he
endured every torment of body and soul and shrank from no bodily pain.
He himself gave us an example of perfect patience and love. We, then,
are to be patient in adversity.
-- Saint Francis of Paola from a letter

Bible Quote:
He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. {1 Corinthians 1:31}


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Prayer:

Apostle of penance! thy life was always that of a Saint, and we are
sinners: yet do we presume, during these days, to beg thy powerful
intercession, in order to obtain of God, that this holy Season may not
pass without having produced within us a true spirit of penance, which
may give us a reasonable hope of receiving His pardon. We admire the
wondrous works which filled thy life,--a life that resembled, in
duration, that of the Patriarchs, and prolonged the privilege the
world enjoyed of having such a Saint to teach and edify it. Now that
thou art enjoying in heaven the fruits of thy labours on earth, think
upon us, and hearken to the prayers addressed to thee by the Faithful.
Get us the spirit of compunction, which will add earnestness to our
works of penance. Bless and preserve the Order thou hast founded. Thy
holy relics have been destroyed by the fury of heretics; avenge the
injury thus offered to thy name, by praying for the conversion of
heretics and sinners, and drawing down upon the world those heavenly
graces, which will revive among us the fervour of the Ages of Faith.
Amen