Appreciating God's Grace: (3)

[Rich]

Appreciating God's Grace: (3)

I do not desire consolation that robs me of contrition, nor do I
care for contemplation that leads to pride, for not all that is high
is holy, nor is all that is sweet good, nor every desire pure, nor all
that is dear to us is pleasing to God. I accept willingly the grace
whereby I become more humble and contrite,
more willing to renounce self.
The man who has been taught by the gift of grace, and who learns by
the lash of its withdrawal, will never dare to attribute any good to
himself, but will rather admit his poverty and emptiness. Give to God
what is God's and ascribe to yourself what is yours. Give Him thanks,
then, for His grace, but place upon
yourself alone the blame and the punishment your fault deserves.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 10

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June 11th – Bl. Pedro Rodrigues & Comp.

Blessed Pedro Rodrigues, martyr, 12th-century, was a commander of the
military Order of Saint James of the Sword. On this day we also
commemorate the martyrdom of blessed Pedro Vale, Domingos Vaz, Alvaro
Garcia, Stephen Vasques, and Valerio Doria, all Portuguese knights of
the same Order. Lord Pelayo Correia, Grand Master of the Order of St.
James of the Sword, had taken numerous important sites from the Moors
in the Algarve province of Portugal. Since harvest time had arrived,
the Arabs requested a four-month break to dedicate themselves to
bringing in the crops. It was granted.

During this time, the Grand Master gave permission to Military
Commander Pedro Rodrigues and another five knights to leave the camp
quarters to hunt. During a chase, they came up on Antas, near the city
of Tavira. They were spotted by a large group of Moors who charged
against them like wild wolves. Realizing the danger, the Catholic
knights sent a messenger to the Grand Master and prepared to defend
themselves. The Grand Master arrived as soon as he could, but it was
already too late. The six knights of his Order were lying dead on the
ground among an enormous number of Arabs they had slain. Lord Pelayo
was indignant since the Moors had broken their given word. On the
horizon he caught sight of Arab knights who had fled on his arrival,
and he chased them to the city of Tavira. There he attacked and
conquered the city.

The first concern of the victor was to purify the main mosque of the
city and transform it to a Catholic church so that the Holy Mysteries
could be celebrated in thanksgiving for the conquest. That church was
dedicated to St. Mary, Queen of the Angels, with a special side altar
to St. Barnabas, on whose feast the victory was achieved. Behind this
altar the mortal remains of the Catholic heroes were placed. Since
they had died fighting for the Faith, the faithful honored them as
martyrs.

Many years later, Alphonse VIII, King of Castile, was encircling
Tavira in a siege. One Saturday morning he was walking around the
walls studying the best place to assault the city, when he noticed six
gigantic knights wearing the habit and carrying the banner of the
Order of St. James hovering in the air over the Church of St. Mary.
Astonished by the vision, he went to the Monastery of St. Francis,
outside the city walls, to ask what this could mean. The monk who
guarded the monastery gates told the Monarch:

“Have no doubt! They are the knights of St. James killed by the
Moors in an ambush in those days when Lord Pelayo took Tavira. As long
as their relics remain in the Church of St. Mary, they protect the
city against its enemies.”

Soon afterward, moved by respect for the Blessed Knights, Alphonse
VIII ordered his army to leave the city and return to Castile.


Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)

This is a very beautiful story, which to be well understood needs some
explanations.

I don’t know how many of you have a clear idea about what a religious
military order was. It was a religious order of the time much like the
Franciscans, Dominicans, or Benedictines. The religious members of a
military order had a similar life--they had the three vows, they lived
in a monastery, they were subject to a rule, and they had to obey a
superior, like the other religious orders.

But they had a special characteristic: their mission was to wage war
for the cause of the Holy Church. Therefore, they used to fight in the
Crusades, attack the Moors wherever they were a threat against the
Catholic cause, and fight the barbarians as well as other enemies of
the Church. The religious military orders produced great warriors. The
Order of St. James of the Sword was one of these orders. It was
dedicated principally to fight the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula. The
members of the Order, therefore, waged war against those Arabs who had
invaded Spain and Portugal centuries before.

With these presuppositions, let us return to the narration.

Six of those knights went to hunt with the permission of the superior.
They came too near the Moors, who violated the truce and attacked
them. The Catholic knights sent an alert to their superior, but they
did not step back; they sold their own lives at a high price and died.
When the Grand Master arrived at the scene, he realized the bravery of
the knights by the number of Moors they had killed, their cadavers
also laying on the ground. The Grand Master pursued the enemies,
conquered the city, and transformed the mosque into a Catholic church.

When they invaded Spain, the Moors changed the Catholic churches into
mosques. When the Catholics re-conquered them, they made them Catholic
again. At times, however, certain mosques were never Catholic first,
like the most beautiful Cathedral of Cordoba that was constructed as a
mosque and is a masterpiece of Arab architecture.

The Catholics, then, would purify the mosque and make it a church.
Canon Law used to specify that when a church had been in the hands of
pagans or heretics, it should be purified in accordance with many
specifics rules. This needed to be done because when heretics and
pagans use a building to make their impure ceremonies of worship, it
draws together all kinds of devils. Therefore, the building must be
purified. A purification like this - what an anti-ecumenical act! So,
the church was purified and the martyrs were buried there.

Many years afterward, a King of Castile, Alphonse VIII, was encircling
the city, and the six knights appeared in the sky. He went to ask a
monk what this meant, and he learned that they were the protectors of
the city. He withdrew from the environs.

You are seeing the importance of the relics of those martyrs in the
city. They constituted a kind of supernatural wall of protection for
it. The Castilian King drew back from the city. You can see how
worthwhile it is to have relics. It is very important for us to be
close to the bodies--or a part of the bodies--of those who are in
Heaven.The relics deserve a true veneration. If some of you have a
relic or many relics, you should treat them with respect. Here is some
advice:

• At the least kiss them when you wake up in the morning and when
you go to sleep at night;
• keep them in a box on the side table by your bed;
• if you always carry one or two with you, keep them in a separate
place in your clothes with your rosary. Do not put them together with
papers, receipts, and aspirins for instance. It is not advisable to
keep them in the same place with money either. The money, in a certain
sense, symbolizes the opposite of the relics: it symbolizes the
pleasures of this earth, while the relics stand for the life of
sacrifice needed to reach Heaven. Keep one pocket for your money, and
another for your relics.

http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j025sdPedroRodrigues6-11.htm


Saint Quote:
Faith resembles a lamp. As a lamp lights the whole house, so the light
of Faith illuminates the whole soul.
-- St. John Chrysostom

Bible Quote:
For unto you it is given for Christ, not only to believe in him, but
also to suffer for him: Having the same conflict as that which you
have seen in me and now have heard of me. [Philippians 1:29-30 ] DRB

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Prayer of Solace

May Christ support us all the day long,
till the shadows lengthen,
and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed,
and the fever of life is over
and our work is done.
Then in his mercy
may he give us a safe lodging,
and holy rest and peace at the last.
Amen.

(attributed to John Cardinal Newman)