Our goal in life

[Weedy]

Our goal in life

Our goal in life, the very reason we were created in the first place,
is for union with God. We were made for God and our hearts are
restless until they rest in him. Lucian of Antioch (240-312), an early
Christian theologian and martyr, once said that "a Christian's only
relatives are the saints." Those who follow Jesus Christ and who seek
the will of God enter into a new family, a family of "saints" here on
earth and in heaven. Jesus changes the order of relationships and
shows that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. Our
adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all our relationships
and requires a new order of loyalty to God and his kingdom. Do you
hunger for God and for his word?

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7 December – St Charles Garnier SJ

(1606-1649)
Priest Martyr, Missionary. Born in 1606 in Paris, France and died by
being shot in the chest and abdomen and then tomahawked in the head on
7 December 1649 at Fort Saint Jean, Canada, he was just 43 years old.
Additional Memorials – 19 October as one of the Martyrs of North
America, 26 September in Canada.

Charles was the son of a secretary to King Henri III of France. He
attended the Collège de Clermont in Paris and joined the Jesuit
Seminary in Clermont in September 1624. After his novitiate, he
returned to the College of Clermont as Prefect. When he finished his
studies in rhetoric and philosophy, he spent two years teaching at the
College of Eu. Completing years of studies in language, culture and
theology, he was Ordained in 1635.

Charles had to be persistent in asking to become a missionary because
his father, a wealthy Parisian gentleman, opposed his desires and
obstructed his first request. That same persistence proved invaluable
as he worked with the Petun people who initially were hostile to the
Black Robes, as they called the Jesuits.

Garnier spent his first three years in New France learning the Huron
language and ministering at the mission in Ossossané. In November 1639
he and Father Isaac Jogues were sent to the Petuns who would not
accept them because they remembered the accusation that the Black
Robes had caused the epidemic that swept through the Huron lands in
1636. The two Jesuits spent the winter months among the Petun, then
returned to Ossossané because they thought they had failed. Father
Garnier returned the following autumn and then left again. Finally he
returned during the winter of 1647 and founded two missions. For now,
the people were more responsive than on his previous visits.

For several years the Iroquois had been increasing their attacks on
the Huron world; they had already killed Father Anthony Daniel in
1648, so Garnier took the report very seriously, which he received in
November 1649, that the Iroquois were on the warpath against the Petun
and threatened to burn their villages. He sent his newly-arrived
assistant, Father Noel Chabanel back to the mission headquarters
because he did not want to leave him at risk but Charles himself was
firm in wanting to stay with his people. On 7 November at
mid-afternoon, the Iroquois attacked, killing anyone they found.
Garnier was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the abdomen. He
was stripped of his cassock and left to die in the cold but he
regained consciousness and tried to move towards a Petun man who had
been wounded. An attacker scalped him and then killed him with a blow
to the head. Another Jesuit came to the village the next day and
buried the gentleman’s son, our Saint, in a shallow grave among the
people he so wanted to bring to Christ.

Charles Garnier was Canonised on 29 June 1930 by Pope Pius XI with the
seven other Canadian Martyrs (also known as the North American
Martyrs).

see
https://anastpaul.com/2021/12/07/


Saint Quotes:
“No one heals himself by wounding another.”
--Saint Ambrose

“But if these beings angels guard you, they do so because they have
been summoned by your prayers.”
--Saint Ambrose

“The Church of the Lord is built upon the rock of the apostles among
so many dangers in the world; it therefore remains unmoved. The
Church’s foundation is unshakable and firm against assaults of the
raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although
the elements of this world constantly beat upon the Church with
crashing sounds, the Church possesses the safest harbor of salvation
for all in distress.
--Saint Ambrose

There is a stream which flows down on God’s saints like a torrent.
There is also a rushing river giving joy to the heart that is at peace
and makes for peace.
--Saint Ambrose

He who read much and understands much, receives his fill. He who is
full, refreshes others. So Scripture says: “If the clouds are full,
they will pour rain upon the earth.”
--Saint Ambrose

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Prayer to the Sacred Heart

May all the words that I speak be dipped in the Blood of Thy Sacred
Heart, Jesus, that they may be so many arrows to pierce the hearts of
all who hear them with love for Thee.
- Amen.