Message for a friend

I begin my daily work by reading the last news concerning the persecution which prevails around the world.

I hear that there are massacres in Rwanda, assassinations in Iran, in Nepal, in Bosnia...

Too often Christians of different confessions are sacrificed just because they believe in Jesus Christ.

Thinking of them, praying for them is another way of living the Good News today and waiting for the times when hatred will no longer exist and men and women will live in peace.

Each day my love grows stronger for the members of the Uniate Church of Romania who experience, since two generations, a perfidious persecution and are not free to live according to their faith. All this Church's goods have been confiscated together with some 2,500 churches, and the present authorities are continuing the persecutions which prevailed under the Ceausescu regime.

And each time I feel the pain of knowing what the women and children of Bosnia are suffering in this long and cruel war.

And I pray for these persecuted people, forgotten by this world. In fact, they are more numerous today than ever: in our century, more christians have been killed because of their faith than during the nineteen previous centuries.

Bringing back peace, respect of human dignity and of freedom of belief, helping the martyrs which are suffering today, is a blessed cause. I pray for the martyrs and for the persecuted, and I also send to you, dear friend, a complimentary copy of this information bulletin, "The Voice of the Martyrs". I only ask you to read it, today. And also to think of those who are persecuted today and of ways to help us in this fight for freedom and justice.

You can truly be helpful to those who suffer today. By giving from your surplus, you will truly help those who suffer, the hungry children and the widows of those who died fro their faith.

So how can you participate, by giving and by being informed, to our charitable work for the Martyr Churches? Just remember the women who were asking themselves, in front of our Lord's tomb: How can we move the tombstone? They did not lose hope, and the angels came and moved the tombstone.

Like these women, I am not alone in this combat. Angels are on my side. Their work has brought a partial ceasing of the anti-religious persecutions in the former communist countries. You can contribute to the work of the angels, who have already defeated communist tyrants, by helping the Uniates of Romania, the Hungarians, the Bulgarian, the eastern Slovaks, the catholic Ukrainians, the Russians, the christians persecuted in the muslim and buddhist countries, all these forgotten people in our world of wealth.

This information bulletin can become the good friend who faithfully enters your home once a month. It will bring you, if you wish, the information which will keep you in touch with a world where christian faith struggles for survival. It can be the lever with which you can move the tombstone, so that in the glory of the empty tomb, you can be the instrument and the witness of the resurrection of the Church in distress.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Radu Roscanu, Director

I have not come to call the righteous

But for what reason do the Pharisees blame the Savior for eating with sinners? Because it was the law to put a distinction between the holy and the profane: that is, that whatever was hallowed was not to be brought into contact with things profane.

They made the accusation therefore supposedly vindicating the law; but really it was envy against the Lord, and readiness to find fault.

But He shows them that He is present now, not as a judge, but as a physician; and He performs the proper duty of the physician’s office, in being in the company of those in need of healing.

But no sooner had they received an explanation of their first accusation, than they bring forward another, finding fault because His disciples did not fast, wishing to obtain hereby an opportunity against Him.

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Hymn of the Birthgiver of God

It is truly right to call you blessed, o Birthgiver of God, ever blessed and most pure and Mother of our God.

More honourable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim; who without loss of virginity gave birth to God the Word, true Birthgiver of God we praise you.

Pray

Bear one another’s burden

It being impossible for man to be without failings, he exhorts them not to scrutinize too severely the offences of others, but even to bear their failings, so their own may in turn be borne by others.

In the building of a house, all the stones do not hold the same position: one is fitted for a corner but not for the foundations, another for the foundations and not for the corner.

So too it is in the body of the Church. The same thing holds true in the frame of our own flesh: one member bears with the other, and we do not require everything from each, but what each contributes in common constitutes both the body and the building...

For example, this man is irascible, you are dull-tempered: bear, therefore, with his vehemence so that he in turn may bear with your sluggishness... So do you by reaching forth a hand one to another when about to fall, fulfil the Law in common, each completing what is wanting in his neighbor by his own endurance.

But if you do not do it in this way, but each of you will investigate the faults of his neighbor, nothing will ever be performed by you as it ought...

He shows that we ought to be our own lives, and this not lightly, but carefully to weigh our actions... He who plants in the flesh wantonness, drunkenness, or inordinate desire, will reap the fruits of these things.

And what are these fruits? Punishment, retribution, shame, derision, destruction... Have you sown almsgiving? The treasures of heaven and eternal glory await you. Have you sown temperance? Honor and reward, and the applause of angels, and a crown from the Judge await you.

St. John Chrysostom

The priority of repentance

"Who among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the wasteland and follow the lostone until he finds it?" Lk 15:4

Almost half of the Catholics in the USA and Canad are not practicing their faith. They don’t even go to Mass on Sunday. They are "fallen-away". Yet, almost all church personnel, finances, and activities are directed to the ones who have not fallen away. The shepherds of the church today certainly don’t leave ninety-nine Christians and go to find a lost one. Therefore, Jesus’ idea of leaving the many in order to seek the one seems strange to us.

Jesus has this "funny" idea because He putsa much higher priority on repentance than we do. According to Mark’s Gospel, "Repent" is the first command Jesus gives in His public ministry (Mk 1:15). Calling us to repentance is such a high priority for Jesus, paul was even happy that the Corinthians were sorrowful since "sorrow for God’s sake produces a repentance without regrets, leading to salvation" (2 Cor 7:10). "There will likewise be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent" (Lk 15:7).

Repent. Go to Confession. Give Jesus and all heaven cause to rejoice.

Theophore

The guide to heaven

"Who are these people all dressed in white? And where have they come from?" Revelation 7:13

Today we thank God for saving and sanctifying the saints on earth and in heaven. We especially thank Him for taking our family members, relatives, and friends to be with Him in heaven.

We look forward to becoming holy and joining Jesus and the family in heaven. We cannot do this by our own power but we can let it be done to us (see Lk 1:38).

The Father and the Son have sent the Holy Spirit to make us holy. All we have to do is obey by following the lead of the Spirit (Gal 5:25). However, this is difficult to do because our flesh (human nature) lusts against the Spirit (Gal 5:17).

There is a strong opposition between what we naturally want and what the Spirit wants. Therefore, to let the Spirit make us saints, we must allow the Spirit to crucify our flesh with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24). In this way, we become holy, able to be like our Father and "see Him as He is" (1 Jn 3:2).

Holiness is the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of our efforts. All saints have been produced by the Spirit. Life in the Spirit leads to life in heaven.

Theophore

Praying for the dead

"If the dead are not raised, what about those who have themselves baptized on behalf of the dead?" 1, Cor. 15:29

The resurrection was violently disputed in the Judaism of Christ’s time and in the early Church (i.e. Acts 23:6; Lk 20:27; 1 Cor. 15:12). However, those who believed in the resurrection assumed we could pray for the dead. In our day, most people assume our resurrection in some way, but may dispute the validity pf praying for the dead. What was disputed in Christ’s time, we assume. What was assumed by the early Christians, we dispute.

These differences in assumptions and disputed questions tempt us that since the Bible rarely mentions praying for the dead (see 2 Mc 12:44; 1 Cor 15:29), this practice must not have been acceptable. Others reason that some practices not mentioned often in the Bible were assumed to be acceptable and needed no further explanation.

For example, Paul referred to the Corinthian practice of baptizing the dead by proxy. People today feel a need for further explanation of such a dubious practice. However, Paul didn’t question the validity of this practice and didn’t bother to explain it. Rather, he used it to illustrate the validity of our resurrection, the main concern of the Church at that time.

Therefore, when we pray for the dead, one of the main things we do is to affirm the resurrection. The "poor souls" in purgatory are risen, victorious over death, and certain of eternal happiness in heaven. Praying for the dead is proclaiming the resurrection.

Theophore

Message for a friend

Dear friend,

I begin my daily work by reading the last news concerning the persecution which prevails around the world.

I hear that there are massacres in Rwanda, assassinations in Iran, in Nepal, in Bosnia...

Too often Christians of different confessions are sacrificed just because they believe in Jesus Christ.

Thinking of them, praying for them is another way of living the Good News today and waiting for the times when hatred will no longer exist and men and women will live in peace.

Each day my love grows stronger for the members of the Uniate Church of Romania who experience, since two generations, a perfidious persecution and are not free to live according to their faith. All this Church's goods have been confiscated together with some 2,500 churches, and the present authorities are continuing the persecutions which prevailed under the Ceausescu regime.

And each time I feel the pain of knowing what the women and children of Bosnia are suffering in this long and cruel war.

And I pray for these persecuted people, forgotten by this world. In fact, they are more numerous today than ever: in our century, more christians have been killed because of their faith than during the nineteen previous centuries.

Bringing back peace, respect of human dignity and of freedom of belief, helping the martyrs which are suffering today, is a blessed cause. I pray for the martyrs and for the persecuted, and I also send to you, dear friend, a complimentary copy of this information bulletin, "The Voice of the Martyrs". I only ask you to read it, today. And also to think of those who are persecuted today and of ways to help us in this fight for freedom and justice.

You can truly be helpful to those who suffer today. By giving from your surplus, you will truly help those who suffer, the hungry children and the widows of those who died fro their faith.

So how can you participate, by giving and by being informed, to our charitable work for the Martyr Churches? Just remember the women who were asking themselves, in front of our Lord's tomb: How can we move the tombstone? They did not lose hope, and the angels came and moved the tombstone.

Like these women, I am not alone in this combat. Angels are on my side. Their work has brought a partial ceasing of the anti-religious persecutions in the former communist countries. You can contribute to the work of the angels, who have already defeated communist tyrants, by helping the Uniates of Romania, the Hungarians, the Bulgarian, the eastern Slovaks, the catholic Ukrainians, the Russians, the christians persecuted in the muslim and buddhist countries, all these forgotten people in our world of wealth.

This information bulletin can become the good friend who faithfully enters your home once a month. It will bring you, if you wish, the information which will keep you in touch with a world where christian faith struggles for survival. It can be the lever with which you can move the tombstone, so that in the glory of the empty tomb, you can be the instrument and the witness of the resurrection of the Church in distress.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Radu Roscanu, Director