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The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of Christianity

      We continue today with the abridged History of the Mass and Holy Mother Church over a 2000 year span called 2000 YEAR VOYAGE ON THE BARQUE OF PETER. Today we bring you that period known in Church annals as the persecution years in Rome and yet the Church flourished, undaunted in her quest to fulfill what Christ had asked of His Disciples to "Go and preach the Gospel to all nations." For Installment eight, click on BARQUE OF PETER

      Tertullian, the Carthaginian theologian said, "The Blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christianity." Those first centuries indeed were the setting for a fertile field of holy martyrs who gave their very lives for their faith amidst horrific persecution by a plethora of Roman Emperors who paranoically feared these Christians were a threat to their existence. The only threat to the Roman way of life was their own pagan lifestyle! This, along with the blood of the millions of Christians who'd been put to the death was their downfall, for justice demands that such atrocities must be dealt with. Despite years of persecution, the Catholic Church survived and flourished - their faith and perseverance converting innumerable souls who in turn promulgated the faith and the Sacraments to far-reaching nations - until Constantine the Great proclaimed Christianity as the state religion. Through this nurturing time schisms and Apostasies reared their ugly heads but all the popes persevered and passed on a flourishing Church to those who would follow and reap the blessings and life-giving sacrifices of the early Christians. Because Rome had played such a pivotal role in the annals of early Church history, the city of Seven Hills became the permanent seat of Roman Catholicism. The Holy Mass flourished; blossoming liturgically once Latin was declared the official language of the Church.

      It has long been said that if something is of God it will persevere and grow, if not it will fade away. The greatest example of this is the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Consider that over five million were murdered in the first three centuries of the Church and yet, it multiplied miraculously through the blood of the martyrs.

      Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church has continued to spread all over the world until it has today reached every corner of the earth. It has done so despite the faults of humans, the mistakes of the Magisterium and even bad Popes, excluding of course our present vicar who is truly a saint in these end times. To say the Church is lily-white would be an aberration for it has gone through some very trying times - schisms, apostasies, wars, inquisitions, and massacres all in the name of the Church. Yet despite these setbacks the Church has flourished and will continue because it has rigorously obeyed the command Jesus Christ gave to His Apostles: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world" (Matthew 28: 19-20).

      That was the inspiration the Apostles had in dispersing to different countries in order to carry out Our Lord's command. They baptized, preached, celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and ruled in some of the countries where they were dispatched. They also appointed and ordained bishops and priests to rule and minister to those who believed - the faithful.

      But there was a price to pay. And the price the early Christians paid was the greatest treasure they could give --their lives. They were forced to choose between a pagan culture where the morals of Rome were extremely depraved and the Truth, the Way, and the Life.

      This pagan evil spread from within the walls of Rome to the farthest regions of the Roman empire. There were some 30,000 different "gods" and "goddesses" which the Roman peoples worshipped a majority of them for the very purpose of debauchery and immorality. This cancer spread rapidly and those who sought to stop it, such as the Apostles and their many disciples, were considered traitors to Rome. This was the crux of the reasons why the full force of Rome was pitted against the new religion of these Christians. Those whose faith was lax faltered and they betrayed their own fellow Christians as to their location in homes, caves and forests where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated.

      The first Pope, of course, was a fisherman - Saint Peter. Christ commanded that His Apostles "become fishers of men" (cf. Mark 1:17). As a legacy to Christ, to the role Peter played, and a symbol of Christianity the fish became the mark that identified those loyal to Christ. It was their way of communicating while practicing their religion underground.

      The Liturgy of the Mass was not set in stone. Because the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated in varied places, and often "on the run," no special vestments were worn. Depending on where Mass was said the celebrant would either sit at a table as Christ did or stand at the table. Mass prayers were inspired by the Holy Spirit in the earlier days and passed on so that eventually all were striving to emulate these supplications. Though very little was written down and there was no set "apostolic liturgy", "liturgical" improvisation did not open the door to celebrants doing or saying anything they pleased" writes Fr. Pierre Loret in "The Story of the Mass." This is encouraging to offset the modernist movement within the Church today.

      Research shows that when Mass was conducted in the Catacombs, the priest often presided at the hollowed out tombs in the cave walls. Thus, he had his back to the people. This practice eventually evolved into a standard practice until the Second Vatican Council. The bread and wine were gathered from the gifts brought by the people. It is documented that in the early days this was ordinary bread and wine, not necessarily unleavened bread. Possibly, because of the diversity, the Church sought in ensuing centuries to consolidate the type of properties to be used.

      Liberals today hold to the argument that the Holy Eucharist was always meant to be given in the hand and condone wide-spread distribution to all because in the early Church the baptized were handed Holy Communion while standing and also took the consecrated bread back to their homes to give to those who could not attend the Mass. What these modern free-thinkers fail to realize is the bread was often bulky, the catacombs rocky and uneven - thus making kneeling practically impossible - and because of confinement of area, very few cold attend. It was also dangerous to attend at times for fear they might be followed and discovered, thus jeopardizing the rest of the faithful. There was also a great shortage of celebrants and thus prudence necessitated that the early Christians conduct themselves in the manner they did. Later, as the Church developed and sanctuaries were built tabernacles were created to keep the Blessed Sacrament. As more churches developed, emphasis was placed on devotion to the Blessed Sacrament by providing a quiet, reverent atmosphere which prompted kneeling and receiving Our Lord on the tongue. But in the early days of the Church, this was impossible. Many things were impossible, including regular reception of the Holy Eucharist for Masses were at times few and far between and the fear of being discovered was great.

      Despite this hindrance, Christianity grew. It is important here to note that while we all call them Christians - they were in reality all Catholics for they received the Sacraments and participated in the Mass, receiving the true Body and Blood of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Catholic in Greek is katholikos which etymologically is derived from kata meaning "thoroughly" and holos meaning "whole" - thus: universal. The Church was indeed boundless for these early Catholics spread the faith to all regions of the vast empire, clashing with the pagan culture and mores that were a direct dichotomy of everything Christ taught. They were living in the world, but not of the world. For their beliefs, they were persecuted. Sound familiar with what is happening today?

      Like what is happening in this century here in the United States and worldwide, the Roman culture became debase over a period of time. Originally, it was set up as an idealistic culture, to learn from the Greeks' mistakes and become the greatest empire ever. But as time went on, greed, lust, envy --all the deadly sins crept in and Rome began to decay from within.

      As Rome capitalized on the Greek's mistakes, they also were victimized by them for history does indeed repeat itself. Because of the tremendous Grecian influence, most of the upper class of Rome spoke Greek. Romans strove to imitate the Greeks in many ways, chief among them their worship of "gods" and "goddesses." As mentioned earlier, many of these deities stood for all that is immoral and debase. Just as Greece lost its soul, so also the carbuncle of immorality and paganism rotted the once proud Roman empire from within. As mentioned, history has a way of repeating itself, which is paralleled in today's headlines about our very country. America is losing its soul also. But back to the early days - the final days of the Roman empire from the glorious times of Julius and Augustus Caesar to the decadent reigns of Caligula and Nero. As we touched in the previous installment, it was under Nero's regime that Christians began to be persecuted and murdered by the thousands for their faith.

      The Christians had been persecuted well before that, but not to the degree that Nero accomplished. Also, harassment and persecution prior to that had not come from the Romans as much as from the Jews as chronicled in the New Testament, especially the Acts of the Apostles. Peter was imprisoned in 44 A.D. and Saint Paul was taken prisoner in Jerusalem in 56 A.D. The two were not incarcerated and put to death by the Romans until 67 A.D, after the great fire of Rome perpetrated by the vile Nero.

      While the blood of the martyrs nourished the seeds of Christianity, the blood of idolatry sowed seeds of discontent. In past installments we saw where the first Jewish revolt against Rome occurred at the same time Nero was killing millions of Christians. While the Roman general Titus put down this bloody revolt in 70 A.D. when he destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, it was the beginning of the decline of Rome which over the next several centuries would sink into decay because of its moral malaise. In the next installment we will cover the Popes of the third century leading up to the time of Constantine and the end of persecution.

Tomorrow: Installment Nine: The Blood of the Martyrs replenish a flourishing Church part two

Church's oldest prelate Cardinal Ignatius Gong Pin-Mei has spanned the century under 9 Popes and intense suffering in China.

      Today we feature our forty-ninth red hat in alphabetical order. He is the 98 year-old Cardinal Ignatius Gong Pin-Mei, Bishop emeritus of Shanghai and Apostolic administrator of Soochow, who withstood thirty years incarcerated by the Chinese communists from 1955 to 1985. For more on this shining symbol of faith to Chinese Catholics everywhere, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II in pectore while still in prison and officially made a Cardinal Priest during the Consistory of June 28, 1991, click on COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION

49.   Cardinal Ignatius Gong Pin-mei

      The oldest living prelate in the Church today is China's Cardinal Ignatius Gong Pin-mei whose life spans the century of Popes. He was born on August 2, 1901 during the papacy of Pope Leo XIII in P'ou-tong which is within the Diocese of Shanghai. At the age of 29 he became a priest on May 28, 1930 and worked as a missionary priest in various Chinese schools and provinces until June 9, 1949 when Pope Pius XII appointed him Bishop of Soochow, a position he officially took over on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary that same year. Less than year later the Holy Father moved him to the position of Bishop of Shanghei. Five years later on September 8, 1955 the Chinese communist regime under Chairman Mao Tse-tung imprisoned him and after five years of kangaroo courts and stern treatment, he was unfairly sentenced to life imprisonment on March 16, 1960 despite the pleas for mercy from Pope John XXIII. Incarcerated for thirty years as a living martyr for the faith of Chinese Catholics everywhere, he persevered as a living saint never kow-towing to the government's demands and his persistence and prayers paid off in July 1985 when he was paroled and pardoned and all his political rights restored, but he was not permitted to function as a Bishop.

      Pope John Paul II had not forgotten this jailed prelate of distinction, bestowing on him the highest distinction - that of the cardinalate in the Holy Father's first Consistory of June 30, 1979 but, in order to protect Cardinal Gong Pin-Mei, it had to be in pectore which means it could not be revealed until he was safely in the United States in 1988 and his name was publicly announced for the Consistory of June 28, 1991 where he was formally invested with the red-hat and received the titular church of St. Sixtus. Even though he resides in America for his own safety, he remains the Bishop emeritus of Shanghai and Apostolic Administrator of Soochow at the unheard of age of 98 years young!

      Like the deceased Cardinal Mindzenty who was also imprisoned by the communists, Cardinal Gong Pin-Mei has become a living symbol of faith for Catholics everywhere as he joined the persecuted Catholics in standing up to the communists rather than fleeing and leaving his flock. With precious little time left on this earth, this holy Chinese prelate, the epitome of perseverance that spans a century of the Catholic Church in China, presently resides at Our Lady Queen of the Clergy Home at 128 Strawberry Hill Avenue, Stamford, Connecticut.

      Today, in honor of the Feast of Saint Louis de Montfort, we present the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We also present the Opening Prayer for the feast of Saint Peter Chanel:

Father, You called St. Peter Chanel to work for Your Church and gave him the crown of martyrdom. May our celebration of Christ's death and resurrection make us faithful witnesses to the new life he brings.

I, __________________, a faithless sinner - renew and ratify today in thy hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.

      In the presence of all the Heavenly court I choose thee this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen.

SIMPLY SHEEN: And baby makes three in honor of the Holy Trinity

      They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".

"There are few things more beautiful in life than to see that deep passion of man for woman which begot children as the mutual incarnation of their love, transfigured into that deeper 'passionless passion and wild tranquility' which is God."

Events Today in Church History

      On this date in 1521, ten years before Our Lady would appear at Guadalupe, the Spanish Commander of the Conquistadors Hernando Cortez captures the Aztec stronghold of Tenochtitian ruled by the great tribal leader Montezuma. Cortez victory enabled the Spaniards to gain a firm foothold in Mexico and the message of Guadalupe a decade later would add to the influx of conversions among the Aztec and Toltec peoples. For other pertinent events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES

Historical Events in Church Annals for April 28:

1180 A.D.


Queen Isabella of Hainaut weds the King of France Philip II who would organize the 3rd Crusade with Richard the Lion-Heart.

1220 A.D.


The cornerstone is laid for the Cathedral of Salisbury in England.

1282 A.D.


The papal troops of Pope Martin IV are defeated as the Sicilian garrisons reach Romagna.

1462 A.D.


A papal bull which guaranteed protection of the old Roman ruins is issued by Pope Pius II, 210th successor of Peter.

1442 A.D.


Birth of Edward IV to the Tutor King Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou. Edward would go on to rule as King of England from 1461 until his death in 1483.

1521 A.D.


The Spanish Conqueror Hernando Cortez captures the Aztec city of Tenochtitian.

"Woe to all who, for pride, vanity, ego and self-righteousness, hold back My Mother's Triumph. They shall stand before the Triune Divinity, and there Justice shall be given rather than Mercy."

      Those words come from Our Lord on the feast of Saint Bernardin of Siena on May 20, 1994 which He imparted to the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart in Message #497 that all He and His Blessed Mother have prophesied will come to pass soon. He reminds His children that they have no need to know when, only when it is necessary in God's Divine plan to know which will be revealed in His time. His Blessed Mother follows her Divine Son's Message two days later on the Solemnity of Pentecost when she emphasizes the vital role her Divine Spouse the Holy Spirit plays in our lives and asks us to invite Him into our hearts and there to reside full time. For Messages #497 and #498, click on "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..."

Messages 497 and 498

Message Four Hundred-ninety-seven, May 20, 1994

(Imparted to the Hidden Flower by the Sacred of Jesus)

      Beloved Hidden Flower of My Mother's Immaculate Heart, I bless you and give to you My Peace.

      To all of My children I desire you to say: I, your Lord and God, wish all the world to receive My Peace. But the world does not want My Peace. O! Those who proclaim My name, while in their hearts they commit murder with their tongues, and are so blinded by the evil one they do not recognize that they seek revenge for human satisfaction, when Justice belongs only to Me.

      Now the time has come when all of My little ones, particularly those who receive My words, shall be persecuted relentlessly. Now does the River of Sorrow become broader, and My Holy Mother weeps because of the cruel persecution.

      I, your Lord and God, the Word made Flesh, say to you solemnly: Fear nothing. Go forward as I direct you. You will not defend yourselves, for I will be your defense in the final hour. Let not man's opinion sway you from the Truth. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. He who is with Me, cannot be against Me. No man can serve two masters. You are either Mine, or you belong to satan.

      Now is the time to choose, for I solemnly tell you the final hours of the end times have begun. No, you do not know how long this is, for this knowledge belongs to the Father alone. You shall know that which is for the good of your soul only in the moment when you need it, for all of my little ones must walk by faith.

      Be strong, not of yourselves, but in Me, Who alone makes perfect all that is imperfect. Woe to all who, for pride, vanity, ego and self-righteousness, hold back My Mother's Triumph. They shall stand before the Triune Divinity, and there Justice shall be given rather than Mercy.

      I solemnly tell you it is not too late for Mercy. I AM MERCY. Come to Me. I am burning with intense Love to give My Mercy to all the world. This great Hour of Mercy must come, but I need your prayers, your sacrifices in order to let My Mercy pour out.

      Be faithful, humble, obedient children of My Church. Read Sacred Scripture. Go to Mass every day if possible, confess at least weekly, and rush to receive Me reverently in the Sacrament of Penance. Live just and upright lives. Remember, I remain with you. The gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church. This is the Time of Purification. O! Seek My Mercy that this River of Sorrow may be mitigated.

      I love and bless you. I am coming. Prepare now, for time is very short!

Message Four Hundred-ninety-eight, May 22, 1994

(Imparted to the Hidden Flower by the Immaculate Heart of Mary)

      Beloved Hidden Flower, I bless you. You see now how fully one can be filled with the Holy Spirit if one seeks Him!

      O! Little children, on this great feast I gaze upon my faithful little ones and I am joyful because you have kept your commitment to my Divine Son. I implore great graces for you, so very few in number, on the occasion of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

      O! With what sadness does my motherly heart behold the vast number of my children who have abandoned my Divine Son. O! They are poor wretches and I weep for them. They have forsaken the protection of my Immaculate Mantle. They are propelled to think, act , move and speak not by the Holy Spirit but by the evil one who so subtly controls their every breath and beat of heart. O! They are so blinded they do not see their error.

      The Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier. He must be the Divine Guest of the soul if one is to be in union with God's Will! It is the Holy Spirit Who makes calm the human emotions, allowing the intellect of the soul to lead with clarity. The Holy Spirit transforms and the soul becomes the image of my Divine Son. All self is annihilated, all the passions are subdued. God's Will alone remains. This is what shall see you through the terrible times ahead.

      As your Mother I once again implore you to open your hearts that they may be converted. Do not judge anyone - that belongs to God. Pray very much from your heart that it may be the tabernacle where the Triune Divinity abides.

      I solemnly tell you all mankind shall soon, very soon, be touched powerfully by the Holy Spirit. This is the Mercy of God at work! Therefore, please heed my words. Be always in the state of grace. Go to weekly confession, daily Mass whenever you can. Receive my Divine Son in the Blessed Sacrament. Read Sacred Scripture, pray the Rosary. Be always humble, obedient children. The moment is very near and I, your Mother, warn you.

      I love and bless you. Thank you for responding to my Call!

    Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. Little children, be joyful carriers of peace and love in this peaceless world. By fasting and prayer, witness that you are mine and that you live my messages. Pray and seek! I am praying and interceding for you before God that you convert; that your life and behavior always be Christian. Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE

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April 28, 1999 volume 10, no. 83   DAILY CATHOLIC