Love seeks one thing only… the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love therefore, is its own reward - Thomas Merton.
Franciscan friar Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and his companions were tortured and killed for their faith in 1860. Little else is known about them, but the testimony of their lives speaks volumes.
Tertullian, one of the 2nd-century ecclesiastical writers wrote that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church", implying that a martyr's willing sacrifice of their lives leads to the conversion of others.
Our goal must be the infinite and not the finite. The Infinity is our homeland. We are always expected in Heaven.
This is my last hour of life, listen to me attentively: if I have held communication with foreigners, it has been for my religion and for my God. It is for Him that I die.
