Pray the Rosary for our Country
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Maurice and Companions who were all martyrs. (286 A.D.) Maurice was an officer of the Theban Legion of Emperor Maximian Herculius' army, which was composed of Christians from Upper Egypt. He and his fellow legionnaires refused to sacrifice to the gods as ordered by the Emperor. When they refused to obey repeated orders to do so and withdrew from the army encamped near Lake Geneva, Maximian had the entire Legion of over six thousand men put to death. There is also another large group of martyrs that the Church honors today; those are the brave souls who were put to death during the Spanish Civil war (1936-39).
In light of last week’s topic regarding Socialism, this group of martyrs hits close to home. These martyrs are the people who were killed by Socialist/Communist forces called Republicans (irony noted), largely because of their faith. “As of July 2008, almost one thousand Spanish martyrs have been beatified or canonized. For some two thousand additional martyrs, the beatification process is underway. The Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War were clergy, religious and lay persons who were murdered in a period known as the Red Terror. It is estimated that in the course of the Red Terror 6,832 members of the Catholic clergy were killed. One of the deadliest massacres came in the autumn of 1936. At least 5,000 citizens were killed in the city of Paracuellos del Jarama (Madrid). People, especially women, were murdered for attending Mass. Anyone associated with the political opposition was liquidated.” (Read more about the Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War here).
Civil wars are always brutal, but when one side is Communist, the true hatred and violence against all things Godly becomes painfully obvious and generally shows itself in brutality against anything or anybody Catholic. Let us learn a valuable lesson from this bloody civil war, which happened only a little more than 80 years ago … just one lifetime! Communism is a snake with many heads and can never be appeased or reasoned with. Reason is drowned out with shouts and slogans and any sort of appeasement is seen as weakness which must be brutally squelched. An interesting side-bar to this historical occurrence is the fact that many of the buzz words that we hear today were around back then. Communists were called “freedom fighters,” fighting for equality and for the common man. Oh, how history repeats itself! Don’t be fooled by those same buzz words today. Don’t fall for those who try to erase or re-write our history and make us ashamed of our country. Such tactics are tried and true and generally lead to suffering and bloodshed. Simply stay close to Jesus and His Blessed Mother and pray for the grace of final perseverance so that if it is written in the Book of Life that you, too, shall be a martyr, you go to your death with a hymn of praise in your heart and a prayer on your lips! Stay strong and keep praying for our Church and our Country! God bless you all.
—Fr. Epperson
Announcements
RCIA SPONSORS NEEDED Several RCIA participants are in need of sponsors. If you are interested in volunteering for this vital role, please contact the parish office at 542-6984, ext 10 or come to the RCIA class next Sunday at 10:30 a.m. in the Becker Center, Brinker Room.
ST. EUGENE’S GIFT SHOP & BOOKSTORE IS MOVING! Our Gift Shop/Bookstore will be closed this week, so that we can relocate all of our stock to our new location in the Faith room of the Parish Life Center (PLC). The new, much larger shop will be up and running this Saturday, Sept. 26! Please stop in and see all that we have to offer! Regular hours: Wed. – Sat., 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 pm; Sundays – 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Parish Finances in the Age of Covid
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Jan-Aug Finances
Income $309,480.06
Short fall $-32,296.02
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