The love of Christ is stronger than death

[Weedy]

The love of Christ is stronger than death

Since the martyrdom of John the Baptist to the present time, the
kingdom of God has suffered violence and persecution at the hands of
violent people. The blood of Christian martyrs throughout the ages
bear witness to this fact. Their testimony to the truth of the Gospel
and their willingness to suffer and die for their faith prove victory
rather than defeat for the kingdom of God. What fuels their faith and
courage in the face of suffering, persecution, and death? They know
and believe with the "eyes of faith" that nothing in this present
world can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans
8:35-39).

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September 5th – Blessed Gentilis of Toringa
† 1340

GENTILIS was born at the end of the13th century at Matelica, near
Ancona. He joined the Friars Minor, and after profession and
ordination was sent to the convent of Mount Alvernia, where he twice
served as guardian. The associations of this place had a strong effect
on Gentilis and bred in him a great love of silence and solitude; but
at the same time they fired him with St. Francis’s own ambition to
evangelize the East and Islam. He was eventually sent to Egypt, where
he found he could do nothing because not only did he not know Arabic
but all his efforts to learn it were without fruit. He was about to
return home in despair, but in consequence of a dream or vision
persevered and at length overcame his difficulties. He fell in with a
Venetian ambassador to the court of Persia, Mark Comaro, who asked the
friar to accompany him across Arabia; while on the journey he tended
Comaro in a dangerous illness, and prophesied that he would live to be
doge of the republic. Together they visited the shrine of St.
Catherine of Alexandria in the desert of Sinai, a great resort of
Christian pilgrims in spite of its inaccessible situation.

One day Bl. Gentilis disappeared mysteriously for a week, and on his
return it was said that he had been miraculously transported to Italy
and back to assist at the death-bed of his father in accordance with a
promise he had made him. Arrived in Persia, he preached throughout
that country northward as far as Trebizond, and is said to have
baptized very many converts. He was put to death for the faith, but
the circumstances of his martyrdom are not known. His body was brought
back to Europe by some Venetians, and is buried in the church of the
Frati St Venice. The cultus of Bl. Gentilis was approved by Pope St.
Pius V.

Besides Wadding’s Annales (sub anno 1340), consult Mazzara,
Leggendario Francescano, vol. ii, m, pp. 409-415, and Marcellino de
Civezza, Missions franciscaines, vol. iii, p. 650. A short account is
also given in Leon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iii, pp.
109-112.


Saint Quote:
Believe me, do not be cast down or grieved at the small vexations by
which it pleases our Lord to try your love and patience; but endeavor
rather to conform your will to His, letting Him do with you according
to His desire, which is, that you should remain peaceful and resigned
in the midst of your difficulties.
-- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Bible Quote:
But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
for ever and ever.
9 I will thank thee for ever,
because thou hast done it.
I will proclaim[a] thy name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly. [Psalm 52:8-9] RSVCE


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On The Deeper Foundations of Humility [IV]

The consciousness of past sin will not of itself give us the
perfection of humility. Perfect humility means the annihilation of
self. We have a deeper and more solid foundation for this virtue in
our own nothingness, and the absence of any sort of good--save that
which God has given us. Every gift of nature is simply a free gift
from Him. All that is from ourselves is the marring and injuring of
what we have received; the misuse of talents, money, position,
influence. What folly, then, to pride ourselves on what belongs to
God.

We are still mere nothing and less than nothing, as regards
supernatural gifts. Our natural gifts are put into our hands, they
remain with us and are in some sense ours; but a supernatural gift
requires a fresh giving immediately from the hand of God each time
that it is given us. We cannot begin any supernatural work without His
preventing grace; we cannot move a step in it without fresh grace to
carry on; we cannot bring it to a successful issue without the grace
necessary to complete it. Do I realize as I ought this nothingness of
my own, and the absolute and continual dependence upon God for each
thought or act pleasing to Him?

If this is so, how can I be anything but humble? To pride myself on
what God does in me would be ridiculous; to pride myself on what I can
do of myself would be to pride myself on all that mars and spoils the
work of God. "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" asks St.
Paul. Yes, O Lord, I have only one thing that I have not received, and
that is my vileness, misery, sin. Can I boast of these.