Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Apparition of St. Peter to St. Peter Nolasco, Francisco de Zurbaran, ARSH 1629
Meet St. Peter Nolasco, whose feast it is today. After being visited by the Blessed Virgin, at her instruction St. Peter Nolasco founded the Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the Redemption of Captives. And by captives, we are talking about people who were captured and enslaved by musloids. Now, get this: The Order first used money to redeem slaves, but when their money ran out, the men in the order were bound by the Order’s rule to *offer themselves* in exchange for captives.
Do you understand how far Christian civilization has fallen, and how utterly impoverished the Church now is? Men were signing up not only for a life of poverty, a life dedicated to prayer and liturgy, a life of celibacy and complete chastity, but were also willingly signing up to potentially offer themselves to musloid slavers in order to ransom other human beings. And they had vocations.
The picture above is St. Peter the Apostle appearing to St. Peter Nolasco. St. Peter Nolasco wanted to go to Rome to visit St. Peter’s tomb (I know the feeling), but it just wasn’t possible, so St. Peter the Apostle appeared to St. Peter Nolasco to console him and encourage him to continue his work in Spain. St. Peter the Apostle and First Pope was, of course, crucified upside-down at his own request because he felt himself not worthy to die in the same way as Our Lord because he had denied Him during His Passion. Tradition holds that St. Peter died repeating over and over again, “Agapo-se”, which means “I love you unconditionally” – something he could not say for the rest of his life until that moment, upside down in a Roman Circus, even after Our Lord had forgiven Peter for denying Him. THAT is a truly humble Pope.
Both St. Peters, pray for us!