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.
For my father and my mother have left me: but the Lord hath taken me up. (Psalm 26:10)
You desire that which exceeds my humble powers, but I trust in the compassion and mercy of the All-powerful God - St. Stephen
