FEBRUARY 15, 2024 – LENT DAY 2 – STS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MARTYRS.
- St. Claude de la Colombiere (1862). Priest. (Current) St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s confessor.
- Sts. Faustinus & Jovita (121). Martyr. (Traditional) brothers
FAUSTINUS and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and zealous professors of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their city of Brescia, while the bishop of that place lay concealed during the persecution. Their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a glorious death for their faith at Brescia, in Lombardy, under the Emperor Adrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them; and the emperor himself, passing through Brescia, when neither threats nor torments could shake their constancy, commanded them to be beheaded. They seem to have suffered about the year 121. The city of Brescia honors them as its chief patrons, possesses their relics, and a very ancient church in that city bears their names.
REFLECTION: The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom—at least of mortification and penance. It is always the spirit of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of Christ, the greater share we inherit in His spirit, and in the fruit of His death. To souls mortified to their senses and disengaged from earthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of eternal life, and the most ardent desires of possessing Him in His glory. This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.
WORD OF THE DAY
RESISTING AGGRESSION. The right to use force against an unjust aggressor. This right is present when certain conditions are fulfilled, namely: 1. recourse to civil authority would be impossible. The common good demands that as a rule the State alone uses physical compulsion, for if any private citizen could at will employ force in defending his or her rights, the peace and order of the community would be disturbed; 2. the attack must be actual or immediately imminent; it is wrong to use deadly weapons before the attack, since there is grave danger that such force might be used against an innocent person; nor is it permissible to use such weapons after the attack is over, for then the defense is too late and the act of possible killing would constitute revenge; 3. the attack must be unjust, which really means that it is not provoked; aggression, therefore, is not justified; 4. the force employed must be proportionate to the loss threatened and must not exceed what is necessary; killing is not allowed if wounding would be sufficient for proper defense; wounding is not permitted if disarming the adversary or summoning help would be enough.
Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)
LENT MEDITATION DAY 2
Enjoy daily meditations this lent from Fr. Richard Clarke, SJ. Short and powerful, written in 1880 for busy lay people to reap rewards through lent. (includes audio) Lent Day 2: First Thursday in Lent — The Preliminaries of the Passion.
This article, FEBRUARY 15, 2024 – LENT DAY 2 – STS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MARTYRS. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
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