New Podcast Hopes to Inspire Women to Embrace Their Mission in the Moment
New Podcast Hopes to Inspire Women to Embrace Their Mission in the Moment Read More »
Dear Letizia,
Humph. Your latest note confirmed my suspicion that the devil does get smarter as the years go by. Nowadays he invites us to renounce our faith silently, merely by going along with the kind of behavior that seems so normal on college campuses (or in corporate offices, for that matter). Such behavior makes life pleasant and non-confrontational, even though it smothers your friendship with Christ. I think it may take more courage to stay faithful to Christ amid the subtle and steady seductions of college culture than it did during the violent persecutions of the first Christian centuries. Even so, the example of the Christians who kept their faith amid those pressures can help give you the strength you need to guard your chastity, your honesty, your hope and your trust in God (choosing obedience to him over obedience to self-indulgence and ease) while everyone around you is bowing down to postmodern idols.
Of course, you remember the famous history of these North African martyrs, don’t you? Five catechumens (Christians who were receiving instruction in the faith as a preparation for their baptism) were arrested during the Emperor Severus’s persecution. They were imprisoned, publicly commanded to sacrifice to the pagan gods, and when they wouldn’t they were condemned to death by wild beasts in the local amphitheatre. They had to spend time in prison after their condemnation, because the governor wanted to include their execution in some upcoming festival games. One of the five, Felicity, was a pregnant slave girl (maid of Perpetua, another prisoner). She was afraid that she would not be allowed to offer her life, since pregnant women were exempt from capital punishment. In answer to her prayers, she gave birth during her imprisonment, and her daughter was adopted by some fellow Christians. Perpetua was a 22-year-old wife and mother, whose first child was still nursing.
While they were in prison, Perpetua’s father, who was not a Christian, visited her, trying to dissuade her from dying for Christ. He threw himself at her feet, he kissed her hands, he begged her to have mercy on him and the other members of her family… And then, later, during the interrogation with the local judge, her father showed up again, holding her infant in her arms. He wept as he tried to convince her to renounce the faith for the sake of her child and her family. Likewise, Felicity’s husband visited the prison, and did his best to convince Felicity to renounce Christ out of love for her newborn child. You can imagine how torn these two young women must have felt in the face of such appeals! But their faith in Christ was fresh, and they had received solid instruction in what it meant to be a Christian, and the Holy Spirit bolstered their hope so that they recognized the true hierarchy of values, in which the first commandment is always to love God above all things, even to the point of giving up all things.
That precisely is the lesson that today’s generation seems to have forgotten. A bit of humiliation, a bit of self-sacrifice, a bit of ambition and thirst for worldly recognition, and our Christian identity gets relegated to second place. The Church’s most promising young saints, whom God has surely given the mission to spark a renaissance of holiness and justice, end up minimizing their Christian identity and putting all their energy into striving for this world’s seductive promises of comfort, recognition, and “success”. Would that they held up to their imagination the examples of the saints, of heroic women like Perpetua and Felicity, instead of goggling at CEOs and movie stars and who-knows-what role models the devil astutely presents to them!
In any case, God rewarded their fidelity, giving supernatural fortitude to Perpetua and her companions, and they showed such confidence and joy in Christ during their captivity, on their way to the amphitheatre, and during their actual martyrdom, that one of their jailors and dozens of the spectators became believers. The five Christians were torn by wild beasts and then beheaded. And a slew of conversions followed in the wake of their courage. May God grant that the same courage fill your heart and mind, so that you keep your priorities straight in the face of the devil’s subtle and often painful (emotionally speaking) attacks.
Your loving uncle,
Eddy
St Perpetua and St Felicity and their Companions Read More »
Luke 11:14-23
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed. Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, as I prepare for Easter during this Lenten season, I turn to you once again in prayer. I wish to see you with the eyes of faith. I wish to welcome the salvation you came to give me and to accept it with a humble heart. Now, during this time of prayer, I want to give everything over to you so that your love and truth may direct my life.
Petition: Lord, help me to accept with simple faith the reality of who you are.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, help me to accept your miracles in my life so that my life will give you glory in my actions, words, and thoughts. Do not let me be blind to the force of your love in the world. I know you are stronger than Satan. I want to be in your camp. I want to be rescued from the clutches of sin by the omnipotence of your love.
Resolution: When I am faced with a temptation, I will call to mind that Jesus is stronger than Satan and he can give me the strength to reject the temptation.
March 7, 2024 – Jesus or Satan Read More »