Part one (13): Spirit of Martyrdom 99

Spirit of Martyrdom 99

alone, grant that we may glorify Thee in the most perfect manner possible to us, by dying for Thy honor.

0 sole object of all our love, Thou dost command us to love Thee with our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole strength. This is what we desire, 0 Lord, and to that end, we long to shed our blood and sacrifice our life for Thy love. But this will never be more than a wish, unless Thou, in Thy great mercy, dost fulfil the desire Thou hast been pleased to impart to us.

0 Most Benign Jesus, since in an excess of admirable goodness Thou art pleased to be our Head, and to let us be Thy members, grant by that same goodness that we may live by the life of our Head and die by His death.

Such is our obligation, since Thou hast made us one body with Thyself by holy Baptism, in which Thou didst make us solemnly promise to adhere unto Thee and to follow Thee everywhere, and consequently, to imitate Thee by being victims destined to sacrifice for Thy glory. Give us, then, the grace to fulfil perfectly this holy, sacred promise and profession. Grant that we may follow Thee in Thy life and in Thy death, and that we may be immolated, like Thee, for Thy love and for Thy Father's glory.

0 Thou, the well-beloved of our souls, when we contemplate Thee on the Cross, we see Thy most holy body all torn with wounds and anguish and drenched with blood from head to foot. Alas, 0 my Saviour, behold how Thou art in the utmost extremity of pain, anguish and agony. Behold Thee dying the most cruel and shameful of all deaths. Not satisfied with that, behold Thee again, as victim upon our altars, where Thou art sacrificed every day and every hour, to prove that Thou art yet ready to suffer and die a thousand times for love of us, most wretched and unworthy creatures.

Good Jesus, what return shall we make to Thee, what shall we suffer for love of Thee? It is not enough, no, not enough to have but one body to immolate for One who immolated so holy and noble a body for us. It is not enough to have but one life to lose for One who surrendered, on our behalf, a life of which one single moment was worth more than all the lives of men and angels. It is not enough to die but once for Him who died a death of infinite merit for love

of us. Surely, dear Jesus, if we had all the human bodies that ever were or shall be, we would most willingly, with Thy grace, deliver them up and abandon them to every kind of torment for Thy sake. And i f we had all the lives of men and angels, with how glad a heart would we not offer them to be sacrificed to Thy glory? Would it were possible to die as often, for Thy love, as there are moments of time in all past, present and future centuries! How happy would we then esteem ourselves!

Thou one and only love of our hearts, who will grant us to behold ourselves redeemed with our own blood and filled with wounds and suffering for love of Thee, as Thou wast Once for love of us? If only we might one day see ourselves in this enviable state, how we would then praise and bless Thee! 0h! blessed be that day, yes, a thousand times blessed, in which Thou shalt accomplish the extreme desire to be sacrificed for Thy pure love! Come fires, flames, Swords, guns. gibbets, gehennas! Come all things that confound us, come all contempt and shame! Come all you torments, all rage and cruelty of men and devils, earth and hell, come upon us! We defy you, if only we may ever love our most lovable Jesus; if only we may love Him by our death, and die for His love, in order to love and bless Him forever in eternity!

Well we know, 0 Good Jesus, that of ourselves we do not have the power to endure the least suffering in the world. Yet we have the greatest confidence that in Thy infinite goodness Thou wilt be our strength and enable us to accomplish all things. We know that we are most unworthy of such great things. Since Thou hast died for us, Thou art most worthy that we should die for Thee, and Thou hast infinite goodness and power to make us worthy of this high achievement.

This, then, is what we beg of Thee most humbly and most urgently, 0 Most Kind Jesus, by the burning love that compelled Thee to die for us On the Cross, by that Precious Blood which Thou didst shed, by that most painful death which Thou didst suffer, by the very great love which Thou hast for all Thy holy martyrs, and by their abounding love for Thee, in a word, by everything that Thou dost treasure in heaven and on earth.

Spirit of Martyrdom 101

Make us worthy of this mercy, by Thy great goodness, for love of Thyself and for the glory of Thy Holy Name. To that end grant us now, we beseech Thee, the spirit of martyrdom with the grace and dispositions required for it. Make us strong and firm to do and suffer all things with courage for Thy love, fearless of all the world except Thee and Thy displeasure. Let us have no reliance on our strength, nor on anything that is of ourselves; but let all our trust be in Thy goodness only. Make us abhor worldly glory, ambitions and delights, as we abhor hell; and let us seek all our happiness in contempt, abjection, labors and persecutions. Make us live in complete unawareness and oblivion of the world and in detachment from ourselves and all worldly things. Above all, may we be so consumed by the fire of Thy holy love that it may be our very life's breath, and that we may continually burn with a flaming desire to love Thee ever more and more, and to, do and suffer yet greater things, for Thy pure love. May our life be consumed at last i n the flames of that divine love!

0 Good Jesus, deeply implant in us these divine characteristics of the spirit Of martyrdom, and imprint them also upon all whom Thou hast chosen from all eternity to be numbered among the ranks of the holy martyrs, especially those who will have to suffer and die for Thee in the last, terrible persecution of antichrist.

0 Mother of Jesus, Queen of martyrs, and 0 you holy martyrs of Jesus, we implore you to pray that, in His infinite goodness, He may fulfil these things in us; for His glory alone and for purest love of Him.

Finally, 0 Jesus Christ, most worthy of all love, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may live a life of perfect imitation of Thy most holy life, of Thy Blessed Mother and of the glorious martyrs, so that we may deserve to resemble Thee and them in death as well as in life, and to sing forever in their company with Thee the most sweet canticle of Thy holy praise and Thy divine love.

Xxxviii. Prayer in Honor of All the Martyrs

Ant. Mirabilis es, Domine Jesu, magnus et laudabilis nimis in sanctis Martyribus tuis. M irificasti omnes voluntates tuas in ipsis, et

desiderium animae eorum trìbuisti eis. Omnis spiritus laudet te, et omnes virtutes tuae benedicant tibi.

V. Orate pro nobis, omnes sancti Martyres. R. Ut digni efficiamur amore Jesu, et societate passionum ejus

Oremus.

Domine Jesu, qui maxima potentiae et amoris tui miracula in passione ac morte tua, et in sanctis Martyribus demonstrasti: da nobis quaesumus, intercedentibus sanctis martyribus tuis, Stephano, Laurentio, Eustachio, Blasio, Clemente et Agathangelo, Thecla, Catharina, Felicitate, Caecilia, Agnete, et omnibus aliis, pro amore tuo prospera mundi despicere; nulla ejus adversa formidare; in omnibus nos humiliare; te semper magis atque magis toto corde, ore et opera diligere; passionibus tuis sociari; morti tuae configurari; ac denique tibi viventes et morientes, velut hostias sanctas atque placentes, i n sacrificium laudis, gloriae, et amoris immolare. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre, in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen. 105-