Vietnamese Martyrs

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

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Wednesday, 24 November 2010

SAINTS ANDREW DUNG-LAC
Priest,
AND HIS COMPANIONS
(18th and 19th centuries)

        This feast day celebrates all of the martyrs of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (1745-1862) who shed their blood in the remote Far East, particularly in Vietnam. Many of the martyrs were priests of the Dominican order. Others belonged to the Paris Society for Foreign Missions, while still others, including Andrew Dung-Lac, were Vietnamese.

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Collect: O God, the source and origin of all fatherhood, you kept the blessed martyrs Andrew and his companions faithful to the cross of your Son even to the shedding of their blood. Through their intercession enable us to spread your love among our brothers and sisters, that we may be called and may truly be your children. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

To begin Mass this morning, the symbolism of the colour of red had the impact of FIRE.

To mind came the quote: “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on free. Let the truth be you delight… proclaim it… but with a certain congeniality.” (St. Catherine of Siena. http://www.catholicfire.blogspot.com/).

As St Catherine of Siena says challenges us Faith, Truth, Congeniality.

The Memorial is of the Vietnamese Martyrs, and not only Vietnamese, but in particular the Vietnamese Saint Andrew and his companions.

The 117 Vietnamese Martyrs canonizes by Pope John Paul II in 1988 are representative of a much larger phenomenon. Thousands upon thousands of Christians in both Vietnam and neighbouring countries such as Chine and Japan have died for their faith over more than four centuries.

Pope John Paul choose the Month of the Holy Souls  for the canonization of the martyrs in the context of the crossing of lines of Confucian worship, cult of the ancestors and Catholic devotion to the Holy Souls.

The Gospel reading today repeats that of 33^rd Sunday, Lk 21:18-19, “… not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.”