Faith Working through Love

[Rich]

Faith Working through Love

"You have before you Christ as your end. You have no need to go on
looking anymore. The moment you believed, you already recognized it.
But faith alone is not enough, unless works too are joined to it.
"Faith working through love," says the Apostle!"
--St. Augustine--Sermon 16A, 11

Prayer: Lord, my God, listen to my prayer, and may your mercy hear my desire.
--St. Augustine--Confessions 11, 2

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October 31st - St. Quentin, Apostle of Amiens, Martyr

(d. 287)
St. Quentin was a Roman, descended from a senatorial family. Full of
zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he left his country and went
into Gaul, accompanied by eleven other apostles sent from Rome. They
separated to extend their campaign of evangelization to the various
regions of France. St. Quentin remained at Amiens and endeavored by
his prayers and labors to make that region part of Our Lord's
inheritance. By the force of his words and works he preluded the glory
of his martyrdom. He gave sight to the blind, vigor to paralytics,
hearing to the deaf, and agility to the infirm, in the name of Our
Lord, simply by the sign of the Cross. At all hours of the day he
invoked his God in fervent supplications.

But this apostolate could not escape the notice of Rictiovarus, the
Roman prosecutor who at that time represented Maximian Herculeus in
Gaul. St. Quentin was seized at Amiens, thrown into prison, and loaded
with chains. Rictiovarus asked him: "How does it happen that you, of
such high nobility and the son of so distinguished a father, have
given yourself up to so superstitious a religion, a folly, and that
you adore an unfortunate man crucified by other men?" St. Quentin
replied: "It is sovereign nobility to adore the Creator of heaven and
earth, and to obey willingly His divine commandments. What you call
folly is supreme wisdom. What is there that is wiser than to recognize
the unique true God, and to reject with disdain the counterfeits,
which are mute, false and deceiving?"

When the holy preacher was found to be invulnerable to either promises
or threats, the prosecutor condemned him to the most barbarous
torture. He was stretched on the rack and flogged. He prayed for
strength, for the honor and glory of the name of God, forever blessed.
He was returned to the prison when the executioners who were striking
him fell over backwards, and told Rictiovarus they were unable to
stand up, and could scarcely speak. An Angel released the prisoner
during the night, telling him to go and preach in the city, and that
the persecutor would soon fall before the justice of God. His sermon,
a commented paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed, has been conserved. To
his profession of faith in the Holy Trinity, he added that Our Lord
Jesus Christ, whom he adored, "gave sight to the blind, hearing to the
deaf, health to the sick and even life to the dead. At His voice, the
lame leaped up and ran, paralytics walked, and water was changed into
wine... He has promised to be forever with those who hope in Him, and
He never abandons those who place their hope in Him; by His
omnipotence He delivers them, whenever it pleases Him, from all their
tribulations." His guardians discovered that he had disappeared,
though all doors were barred, and found him in the city preaching.
They were converted by the prodigy. But Rictiovarus was furious and
said to them: "You, too, have become magicians?"

Brought back before the tribunal as a sorcerer, Saint Quentin said:
"If by persevering in my faith, I am put to death by you, I will not
cease to live in Jesus Christ; this is my hope, I maintain it with
confidence." He was again placed on the rack and beaten, and tortured
with other demoniacal means; his flesh pierced with two iron wires
from the shoulders to the thighs, and iron nails were thrust into his
fingers, his skull and body. Finally, this glorious martyr was
decapitated, after praying and saying: "O Lord Jesus, God of God,
Light of Light..., for love of whom I have given up my body to all the
torments... ah! I implore Thee, in Thy holy mercy, receive my spirit
and soul, which I offer Thee with all the ardor of my desires. Do not
abandon me, O most kind King, most clement King, who livest and
reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and
ever!" His death occurred on October 31, 287.

His body was twice buried secretly, and twice it was rediscovered
miraculously - in the years 338 and 641, first by Saint Eusebie of
Rome, on a marshy island, where it had remained intact; later near the
city of Augusta, by Saint Eloi. St. Quentin remains in great honor in
France above all, where more than fifty-two churches and as many
localities were, at the beginning of the 20th century, dedicated to
his memory; he is honored also in Belgium and in Italy. Charlemagne
and the kings of France have gone to venerate the relics of St.
Quentin.

Reflection: Let us never forget that "the sufferings of the present
life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, prepared by
God for those who love Him." (Romans 8:18; I Cor. 2:9)

Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin
(Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13.


Saint Quote:
Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.
--Saint John Vianney

Bible Quote
And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no
wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee?
My hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever
he shall say to you, do ye. (John 2:3-5) DRB


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Pious Invocations

O God, Who, through the Immaculate Conception of the
Virgin, didst prepare a suitable dwelling place for Thy Son,
grant, we beseech Thee, that, as through the death of Thy
Son, foreseen by Thee, Thou didst preserve her from all stain
of sin, by her intercession we also may be purified and so
may come to Thee. Through the same Christ Our lord. Amen.

Bid me bear, O Mother blessed, On my heart the wounds
impressed, Suffered by the Crucified.

Mary sorrowing, Mother of Christians, pray for us.