A Kempis: Judgment and the Punishment of Sin (2)

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A Kempis: Judgment and the Punishment of Sin (2)

The patient man goes through a great and salutary purgatory when he
grieves more over the malice of one who harms him than for his own
injury; when he prays readily for his enemies and forgives offenses
from his heart; when he does not hesitate to ask pardon of others;
when he is more easily moved to pity than to anger; when he does
frequent violence to himself and tries to bring the body into complete
subjection to the spirit.
It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices than to keep
them for purgation in the hereafter. In truth, we deceive ourselves by
our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that fire feed upon but
our sins? The more we spare ourselves now and the more we satisfy the
flesh, the harder will the reckoning be and the more we keep for the
burning.
--Imitation of Christ, Ch 24

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April 9th - Bl. Thomas of Tolentino, Martyr
d. 1321

AMONG the missionary pioneers who in the early 14th century strove to
spread Christianity in the Far East was the Franciscan, Thomas of
Tolentino, whose memory is still venerated by the faithful in India,
the country in which he received the crown of martyrdom.

From the time he had entered, the Order of Friars Minor in early
youth, Thomas had been known as a truly apostolic man, and when the
ruler of Armenia sent to ask the Minorite minister-general for some
priests to fortify true religion in his realm, Thomas was chosen for
the mission with four of his brethren. Their labours were blessed with
success, many schismatics being reconciled and infidels converted.
Armenia, however, was being seriously threatened by the Saracens, and
Thomas came back to Europe to solicit help from Pope Nicholas IV and
the kings of England and France.

Although he duly returned to the Armenian mission with 12 other
Franciscans, Thomas subsequently travelled farther afield to Persia.
Again he was recalled or sent back to Italy, but this time it was to
report to Pope Clement V with a view to a further advance into Tartary
and China. His embassy resulted in the nomination of an ecclesiastical
hierarchy consisting of John of Monte Corvino as archbishop and papal
legate for the East, with 7 Franciscans as suffragans. In the meantime
Bl. Thomas had returned to the field of his labours, full of zeal for
the conversion of India and China. He appears to have been making for
Ceylon and Cathay, but the ship was driven by contrary winds to
Salsette Island, near Bombay. Thomas was seized by the Saracens with
several of his brethren and imprisoned. After being scourged and
exposed to the burning rays of the sun, the holy man was beheaded. Bl.
Odoric of Pordenone afterwards recovered his body and translated it to
Xaitou. The cultus was approved in 1894.

There are various letters of Jordan de Severac, and others, which
supply information concerning Bl. Thomas see BHL., nn. 8257-8268. Some
portion of these is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i
(under April 1), and others in the Analecta Franciscana, vol. iii.
Further materials are available in the volumes of Fr Jerome
Golubovich, Bibliotheca bio-bibliographica della Terra Santa e deli’
Oriente Francescano. See also Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng. trans.),
vol. ii, pp. 61-64. On Bl. Odoric of Pordenone, see under January 28
and the bibliography thereto appended, much of which has also a
bearing upon the subject of the present notice.


Saint Quote:
One must pass through the desert and spend some time there in order to
receive the grace of God; it is there that one empties oneself, that
one drives away from oneself everything which is not God and that one
empties completely the house of one's soul in order to leave all of it
to God alone.
--Blessed Charles de Foucald

Bible Quote:
Let him decline from evil, and do good: let him seek after peace and
pursue it: 12 Because the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his
ears unto their prayers: but the countenance of the Lord upon them
that do evil things. (1 Peter 3:11-12) DRB


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In silence comes God's meaning to the heart. I cannot judge when it
enters the heart. I can only judge by results. God's word is spoken to
the secret places of my heart and, in some hour of temptation, I find
that word and realize its value for the first time. When I need it, I
find it there. "Thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee
openly." I pray that I may see God's meaning in my life. I pray that I
may gladly accept what God has to teach me.
--From Twenty-Four Hours a Day