Pain for the Sake of Healing

[Weedy]

Pain for the Sake of Healing

"Gratefully will I receive a rebuke offered in such a friendly way.
If I receive your correction calmly as a medicine, I shall not be
pained by it--even though, because of a natural or personal weakness I
cannot help feeling saddened.
Nonetheless, it is better to put up with the pain while the abcess
is being healed, rather than not be cured so as to avoid the pain."
--St. Augustine--Letter 73, 2

Prayer: Lord, while I was still far away from you, you coaxed me in a
great many ways to hear you from afar and be converted to you and call
upon you.
--St. Augustine--Confessions 13, 1

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October 19th - St Philip Howard
Memorial
19 October
25 October as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

St. Philip, born 28th June 1557, was the 13th Earl of Arundel. His father
Thomas, IV Duke of Norfolk, was beheaded by Queen Elizabeth in 1572
for involvement in the affair of Mary, Queen of Scots. Philip Howard,
baptized by the Archbishop of York in the Chapel of Whitehall Palace,
had Philip of Spain as one of his godfathers.

Philip married Anne, daughter of Lord Dacre of Gilsland, when he was
fourteen. He graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge in 1574 and
was about 18 when he attended Queen Elizabeth's court. [Unknown]
Handsome, high-born, quick-witted and articulate, he neglected his
wife and God but the turning point came in 1581 when he was present at
a disputation in the Tower of London between a group of Catholic
prisoners, Fr. Edmund Campion, Jesuit, Fr. Ralph Sherwin, Priests and
others. These humble suffering Confessors awakened Philip's soul and
he returned to Arundel to think about reconciliation with the Catholic
Church, which he knew meant death.

He was reconciled in London by Fr. Weston, a missionary Priest, and
shortly after sought religious liberty abroad. He was betrayed by a
servant and apprehended at sea. On 15th April, 1585, he was lodged in
the Tower and after countless interrogations, a year later was
examined before the Star Chamber, found guilty of treason, fined
£10,000 and committed to prison at the Queen's pleasure.

With the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 anti-Catholicism swept
the country. Philip was tried again before the King's Bench and
falsely charged with praying for a Spanish victory and again found
guilty. His sentence: to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Thereon began his long term of imprisonment, never knowing from day to
day which would be his last. Each day he spent several hours in prayer
and meditation; he was noted for his patience in suffering and
courtesy to unkind keepers. Weakened by malnutrition and not without a
suspicion of having been poisoned, he died on 19th October 1595. He
was 39 years old and had spent the last eleven years of his life in
the Tower of London.

Written on the step before the Shrine is this inscription: "The more
affliction we endure for Christ in this world, the more glory we shall
obtain with Christ in the next." This is a translation of the original
Latin cut by St. Philip over the fireplace in the Beauchamp Tower,
which visitors to the Tower of London can still see:

Quanto plus afflictionis pro Christo in hoc saeculo, tanto plus
gloriae cum Christo in futuro. Arundell -- June 22, 1587.

In 1971 his remains were brought from the Fitzalan Chapel in Arundel
and enshrined in The Cathedral,

He was one of 40 Welsh and English Martyrs who died between 1535 and
1679. Probably best known among them are the Jesuit Edmund Campion
(executed Tyburn 1581), Ambrose Barlow (Benedictine, executed
Lancaster 1641), Cuthbert Mayne (diocesan priest executed in
Launceston in 1577), Margaret Clitherow (executed in York in 1586) and
Welsh priest John Kemble (executed in 1679 at the age of 80). The
process of their canonization was first begun as early as 1874. 136
martyrs were beatified in 1929 and Pope Paul VI announced in May 1970
that 40 of them would be canonized later that year.

* Pastoral Letter of Bishop Cormac concerning St Philip Howard
* Cardinal Basil Hume OSB, Homily on St Philip Howard


Saint Quote:
To prefer man to God: A strange and unhappy slavery is that of a man
who seeks to please other men. I vow never to do anything nor to leave
anything undone because of what people think. This will set up in me a
great interior peace.
—St. Claude de la Colombiere

Bible Quote:
I know that, after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among
you, not sparing the flock. 30 And of your own selves shall arise men
speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 31
Therefore watch, keeping in memory, that for three years I ceased not,
with tears to admonish every one of you night and day. 32 And now I
commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, who is able to build
up, and to give an inheritance among all the sanctified. (Acts
20:29-32) D.V.


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Reflection on Perfect Love

You cannot have perfect love unless you empty your heart of every
other love. That is why those who fill their hearts with love of God
and neighbor desire nothing but the will of God or that of some fellow
human being — provided this is not contrary to God.
That is why they devote themselves to prayer, spiritual
conversations, and reflection, for it is a joy to them to long for God
and to speak, hear, and think about him whom they dearly love. That is
why they rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep,
show compassion to those in distress, and give to the needy, since
they love others as themselves. Hence too their contempt for riches,
power, pleasure, honor, and praise. Those who love these things
frequently offend against God and their neighbor — for the whole law
and the prophets depend on these two commandments. So those who wish
to possess the fullness of that love which is the price of the kingdom
of heaven should love contempt, poverty, toil, and subjection, as do
the saints.
–St. Anselm of Canterbury