Purpose of Temptation:

Purpose of Temptation:

 The purpose of temptation is to test humans to determine their
worthiness to receive life eternal: "Blessed is the man who endures
temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown
of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." [James
1:12] "We must through many tribulations (trials) enter the kingdom of
God." [Acts 14:22] God tests all things because he desires a perfect
and everlasting world--eternity; if such a world is to be, nothing
evil (destructive) can be permitted to enter therein: "Blessed are
they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb: that they may
have a right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gates into
the city. Without are dogs and sorcerers and unchaste and murderers
and servers of idols and every one that loveth and maketh a lie. "
[Revelation 22:14-15]

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July 15th - Bl. Ignatius Azevedo and His Companions, Martyrs
 (Missionaries to Brazil died. 1550

Ignatius Azevdo came from a family of wealth and rank on both his
father's and mother's side; he was born at Oporto in 1528, and joined
the Society of Jesus when he was 20.

 He proved to be a model novice, except that his physical
mortifications made him so thin that the Portuguese provincial Father
Simon Rodriguez had to remonstrate with him..  When he was still only
25 he was made rector of the college of St Antony at Lisbon. Here he
did not confine himself to the strict limits of his official duties,
but was active in every good work; it is recorded that on one occasion
he personally tended 3 men in such advanced stages of some loathsome
disease that the ordinary hospitallers would not touch them:  and by
caring for their bodies he converted their souls. With a brief
interval as vice-provincial of Portugal, Father Azevedo persevered in
this office for ten years, and was then removed to a similar post at
the college in Braga founded by the famous Dominican archbishop
Bartholomew Fernandez (" a Martyribus ").

 All this time he had been beset by a desire-kindled by a Japanese
student at Lisbon-to preach the gospel to the heathen; and at length,
in 1566, he was appointed to go to Brazil as visitor, to inspect and
advise on the Jesuit missions there,  He was away on this commission
for two years; the first missionaries had landed in Brazil only 17
years previously, but the Jesuits had already established residences
among several of the cannibal tribes of that huge country. On his
return to Rome he recommended to St Francis Borgia that more
missionaries be sent out there, and the general ordered him to select
suitable subjects for the work from the Spanish and Portuguese
provinces and to go with them to Brazil as their superior. The band
which Father Azevedo enlisted set out on June 5,1570.  The superior
and 39 (at first 42) others of the party were on a merchant vessel,
the Santiago, and the others on one of a squadron of men-o'-war going
out under the command of Dom Luis Vasconcelos, governor of Brazil.

 They reached Madeira, and here Vasconcelos decided to stop for a time
in order to get the advantage of more favourable winds;  the master of
the Santiago, however, intended to continue the voyage to the
Canaries. This put Father Azevedo into a quandary. There was no room
for the rest of the Jesuits on the other warships; but if he went on
he would not have them under his care and there was very grave danger
from pirates. However, he decided to proceed with his ship, but seems
to have had a premonition of what would happen, for before leaving
Madeira he delivered a stirring address on the glory of martyrdom, and
warned his own party of their danger.

  When within a few miles of her destination the Santiago was
overtaken by a French privateer, commanded by James Soury, an
implacable Huguenot, who directly he heard of the convoy of Jesuits
going to Brazil had set out in chase from La Rochelle. The Santiago
put up a good fight, and the missionaries helped in every possible
way, short of actually bearing arms and shedding blood; after she was
boarded there was a fierce hand-to-hand struggle, but on the death of
her captain she was constrained to strike her flag. Thereupon Soury
demonstrated his hatred of the Catholic religion by sparing the
remainder of the crew and passengers but ordering the death of the
missionaries.  Bl Ignatius and his 39 companions were then and there
brutally massacred in cold blood, meeting their death with heroism and
joy; their leader was thrown into the sea clasping a picture of our
Lady given to him by Pope St Pius V. Of these martyrs nine were
Spaniards and the rest Portuguese.

Several contemporary revelations of this massacre were reported, of
which the chief were to Bl. Ignatius's brother, Don Jerome, in the
East Indies, and to St Teresa at Avila, whose kinsman, Bl. Francis
GoDoy, was among the martyrs. Their beatification took place in 1854.

A popular account may be found in the small volume, by Father Cordara
in Italian and by Father de Beauvais in French in 1854. See also
Astrain, Historia de la Compañia de Jesus en la Aristencia de Espñia,
vol. ii, p. 244; and J. Brodrick, The Progress of the Jesuits (1946)
pp. 220-230.  For bibliography, Dc Guilhermy, Ménologe de Portugal,
vol. ii, pp. 39-43.


Bible Quote:
  O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!
How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!
 [Romans 11:33]   DRB

Saint Quote:
For the cup we drink is a participation in the blood of Christ, and
the bread we break is a participation in the body of Christ. Because
there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, since we all share
the same bread. And so we pray that, by the same grace which made the
Church Christ's body, all its members may remain firm in the unity of
that body through the enduring bond of love.
-- Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe

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 You have not the Time
--Sermon from the Cure de Ars--Concerning Prayer and Work

We can only find our happiness on earth in loving God, and we can only
love Him in prayer to Him. We see that Jesus Christ, to encourage us
often to have recourse to Him through prayer, promises never to refuse
us anything if we pray for it as we should. But there is no need to go
looking for elaborate and roundabout ways of showing you that we
should pray often, for you have only to open your catechism and you
will see there that the duty of every good Christian is to pray
morning and evening and often during the day--that is to say,
always....

Which of us, my dear brethren, could, without tears of compassion,
listen to those poor Christians who dare to say that they have not
time to pray? You have not the time! Poor blind creatures, which is
the more precious action: to strive to please God and to save your
soul, or to go out to feed your animals in the stable or to call your
children or your servants in order to send them out to till the earth
or to tidy up the stable? Dear God! How blind man is! .... You have
not the time! But tell me, ungrateful creatures, if God had called you
to die that night, would you have exerted yourselves? If He had sent
you three or four months of illness, would you have exerted
yourselves? Go away, you miserable creatures; you deserve to have God
abandon you in your blindness and leave you thus to perish. We find
that it is too much to give Him a few minutes to thank Him for the
graces which He is giving us at every instant! ....

You must get on with your work, you say.

That, my dear people, is where you are greatly mistaken. You have no
other work to do except to please God and to save your souls. All the
rest is not your work. If you do not do it, others will, but if you
lose your soul, who will save it?