St Martin was born in Lima, Peru, the illegitimate son of a Spanish knight, John de Porres, and a freed Panamanian slave named Anna. In 1594, Martin became a Dominican lay brother in Lima and served in various menial offices. Outside of the monastery he became known for his care of the poor and the sick. Martin founded an orphanage and ministered to African slaves brought to Lima. He was aided by St. Rose of Lima, who respected his penances and labors. Martin experienced many mystical gifts, including bilocation and aerial flights. When he was dying in Rosary Convent on November 3, the viceroy, the count of Chichon, knelt by his bed, seeking Martin’s blessing. Martin, who is the patron of interracial justice, was canonized by Blessed Pope John XXIII (r. 1958-1963) in 1962. EWTN ( Image from the Catholic Professional )
In our time more than in the past, people are so absorbed by earthly things that at times they find it difficult to think about God as the protagonist of history and of our own existence.
In the face of the enigma of death, the desire for and hope of meeting their loved ones again in Heaven is alive in many, just as there is a strong conviction that a Last Judgment will re-establish justice, and the expectation of a definitive encounter in which each person will be given his reward.
For us as Christians, however, “eternal life” does not merely mean a life that lasts for ever but rather a new quality of existence, fully immersed in God’s love, which frees us from evil and death and places us in never-ending communion with all our brothers and sisters who share in the same Love.
Thus, eternity can already be present at the heart of earthly and temporal life when the soul is united through grace with God, its ultimate foundation.
Everything passes, God alone never changes. A Psalm says: “Though my flesh and my heart waste away, God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever” (Ps 73[72]: 26). All Christians, called to holiness, are men and women who live firmly anchored to this “Rock”, their feet on the ground but their hearts already in Heaven, the final dwelling-place of friends of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us meditate on these realities with our souls turned toward our final and definitive destiny, which gives meaning to the circumstances of our daily lives. Let us enliven the joyous sentiment of the communion of Saints and allow ourselves to be drawn by them towards the goal of our existence: the face-to-face encounter with God.
Let us pray that this may be the inheritance of all the faithful departed, not only our own loved ones but also of all souls, especially those most forgotten and most in need of divine mercy.
May the Virgin Mary, Queen of all the Saints, guide us to choose the world of eternal life at every moment, “and life everlasting”, as we say in the Creed; a world already inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ, whose coming we can hasten with our sincere conversion and charitable acts.
For all the saints who from their labors rest, who Thee by faith before the world confessed; Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might; Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light. Alleluia, Alleluia!
And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia, Alleluia!
But then there breaks a still more glorious day: the saints triumphant rise in bright array; the King of glory passes on His way. Alleluia, Alleluia!
“If during life, we have been kind to the suffering souls in Purgatory God will see that help be not denied us after death.” – St Paul of the Cross
“As we enter Heaven, we will see them, so many of them coming towards us and thanking us. We will ask who they are and they will say a poor soul you prayed for in Purgatory.'” -Venerable Fulton Sheen
“With Charity towards the dead, we practice all the works of charity. The Church encourages us to aid the souls in Purgatory, who in turn will reward us abundantly when they come into their glory.” -St Francis de Sales
In the year 2000 our son was a teenager going through a very rough time. I could see the spirit of the world trying to pull him away from our family and take him into a dark world. Within our home there was suddenly a lot of turmoil. I was a full time mother so I could see how troubled our son was becoming but I did not know how to handle it.
During my daily holy hour I began to pray the rosary specifically for our son to be delivered away from all the bad influences and temptations that were pulling him down. I prayed the Glorious Mysteries because I was interceding for my son’s resurrection. While meditating on the Glorious Mysteries, I claimed for my son the grace of each mystery …
It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.
It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.
People are made for happiness. Rightly, then, you thirst for happiness. Christ has the answer to this desire of yours. But he asks you to trust him. True joy is a victory ..Christ holds the secret of this victory.
Young pilgrims, Christ needs you to enlighten the world and to show it the “path to life” ( Psalm 16 ) The challenge is to make the Church’s “yes” to Life concrete and effective. The struggle will be long, and it needs each one of you. Place your intelligence, your talents, your enthusiasm, your compassion and your fortitude at the service of life !
At this stage of history, the liberating message of the Gospel of Life has been put into your hands. And the mission of proclaiming it to the ends of the earth is now passing to your generation.
The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your youthful ideals, in order to make the Gospel of Life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people’s hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love.
You young people .. know that the Truth is more powerful than darkness; that Love is stronger than death. I would like to invite each of you to listen careful to God’s voice in your heart. Listen to his voice. Do not be afraid.
Uniquely among the responsible leaders on all sides of the First World War, Karl had frontline experience. After assuming power he strove to alleviate the horrors of war he saw, and took concrete steps to bring about peace. As emperor he understood peace to be his absolute, kingly duty. In his ascension manifesto, therefore, he named peace as his central goal. Only Karl took up the peace proposal of Pope Benedict XV, incorporating its principles in a set of proposed peace accords (which historians have evaluated as thoroughly realistic and having had great potential).
Social Aid – Informed heavily by Catholic social teaching, he established the world’s first-of-its-kind Ministry of Social Welfare to care for war victims, widows, and orphans.
Charitable Action: He personally distributed his private wealth as alms, used royal carriages and palace resources to deliver coal and food (such as organizing soup kitchens) to the poor in Vienna, and fought against wartime usury.
