On Ardent Love and Eager Desire to Receive Christ [III]

On Ardent Love and Eager Desire to Receive Christ [III]

Accept, O Lord my God, my vows and my desire to offer Thee infinite
praise and boundless blessing; for these are Your rightful due, by
reason of Your unspeakable greatness (Ps. 150:2) These I render, and
wish to render every day and every moment of time; and I lovingly pray
and entreat all the heavenly host to join with me and all the faithful
in offering Thee praise and thanksgiving.
--Thomas à Kempis--Imitation of Christ Book 4  Ch.17

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3 October – Blessed Szilárd István Bogdánffy

(1911-1953) aged 42
 Bishop (auxiliary), Martyr, Spiritual Director, Professor –
Patronages – Bishops, Priests.
Szilárd Bogdánffy was born to Hungarian parents on 21 February 1911 in
the village of Feketetó, then part of Torontál County,
Austria-Hungary. He lived there with his family until 1925. He was
baptised in the parish church of Čoka to which his village belonged
and where his father was a cantor.

The Bogdánffy family is a Transylvanian Armenian family which was
granted nobility by the Habsburgs. The Bogdánffys are a branch of an
ancient Armenian Gajzágó family, one of the families that built the
Transylvanian town of Szamosujvár (Armenopolis, Gherla now in Romania)
in the 18th century and which gave many Armenian Catholic (in union
with Rome) Priests to the town which became the Armenian Catholic
Bishopric of Transylvania.

Bogdánffy went to elementary school in Crna Bara until 1925, when the
Bogdánffy family moved to Timişoara, a city in Eastern part of Banat.
There he went to the Piarists high school. After his final exams, he
was accepted to the Catholic seminary of the Latin-rite Diocese of
Oradea. He was ordained a Priest by the Bishop of Oradea Stefan
Fiedler on 29 June 1934.  He continued his studies at the University
of Budapest, where he earned a PhD in philosophy and dogmatics (with a
thesis on “Apocalyptics in the Synoptic Gospels”). Upon his return to
Romania he became professor of the Catholic seminary in Oradea and
confessor at the Ursuline convent in the city. In 1939 he was followed
by the Royal Romanian Secret Services for alleged anti-Romanian
activity. During World War II – because he was hiding Jews – he was
also interrogated by the Hungarian Fascist “Nyílas” gendarmes.

After the end of the war, the new Romanian communist leadership
started a campaign against the Christian religion (especially against
catholic Christians). As a consequence, the Vatican allowed secret
consecration of bishops. Fr Szilárd Bogdánffy was consecrated as
Bishop of Oradea of the Latins and Auxiliary Bishop of Satu Mare on 14
February 1949 by Gerald Patrick O’Hara, Regent of the Apostolic
Nunciature to Bucharest. The new Bishop was arrested and imprisoned
only two months later.

He had previously been approached, on several occasions, by
representatives of the regime, with the request that he lead an
“independent Romanian Latin-rite Church, with no ties to the Vatican”
which he adamantly refused. Until his death he spent four years as a
captive in various prisons throughout Romania, including the evil
reputed Capul-Midia camp. He fell seriously ill, being affected by the
atrocious conditions and regular torture. In Aiud Prison, as the
Byzantine rite Catholic Bishop of Lugoj, Ioan Ploscaru recalled,
Bishop Bogdánffy was “humble and serene, always ready to help his
fellow sufferers.” Although suffering with serious pneumonia, the
prison doctor refused him the necessary medication claiming he was not
worthy of it. He died in solitary confinement on 3 October 1953 in the
prison of Aiud, Romania.

His Beatification took place on 30 October 2010 in Oradea as approved
by Pope Benedict XVI. His Beatification Mass with 200 Priests, 42
Bishops and two Cardinals. Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of
Esztergom-Budapest, President of the Council of European Bishops’
Conferences, preached.  Cardinal Angelo Amato, President of the
Congregation for causes of the Saints, presided on behalf of Pope
Benedict XVI.

He is the first Catholic martyred during the Communist regime in
Romania to be elevated to the honour of the altars.

see
https://anastpaul.com/2020/10/02/


“Go your way,
behold, I send you out
as lambs in the midst
of wolves.”  Luke 10:3

“He will be with you also, all the way, that faithful God.
Every morning when you awaken to the old and tolerable pain,
at every mile of the hot uphill dusty road of tiring duty,
on to the judgment seat, the same Christ there as ever,
still loving you, still sufficient for you, even then.
And then, on through all eternity.”
--Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)


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Meditation for the Day

Spiritual progress is the law of your being. Try to see around you
more and more of beauty and truth, knowledge and power. Today try to
be stronger, braver, more loving as a result of what you did
yesterday. This law of spiritual progress gives meaning and purpose to
your life. Always expect better things ahead. You can accomplish much
good through the strength of God's spirit in you. Never be too
discouraged. The world is sure to get better, in spite of setbacks of
war, hate, and greed. Be part of the cure of the world's ills, rather
than part of the disease.
--Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saint Quote:
"Charity is the queen of virtues. As the pearls are held together by
the thread, thus the virtues are held together by charity; as the
pearls fall when the thread breaks, thus virtues are lost if charity
diminishes."
--St. Padre Pio