Wednesday, September 30 : Saint Francis Xavier

There are numerous decrees forbidding entrance to China… But, aside from the dangers of prison and maltreatment, there are even greater ones that people here do not suspect… In the first place, loss of hope and trust in God, when it is for love of him and for his service that we are about to make his Law known and Jesus Christ, his Son, our Redeemer and our Lord, as he well knows. Since, in his blessed mercy, he has communicated these desires to us, to fail now in trust in his mercy and power before the perils we may run for his service is a far greater peril than all the harm God’s enemies might cause us. If it matters to his greater service, God will keep us from all the perils of this life… Hence we have for our guard the Lord’s word: “Whoever loves his life in this world will lose it and whoever loses it for God’s sake will find it” (cf. Jn 12,25). And this like it: “Anyone who sets their hand to the plough and looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom of God”. As for us, bearing in mind these dangers of soul, which are so much greater than those of the body, we are all the more sure and certain of confronting bodily dangers… Therefore, however it may be, we are determined to go to China.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team