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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Neither feared death nor refused to live

It is written of St. Martin of Tours that he neither feared death nor refused to live. While happy to die so as to meet with Christ forever in Heaven, he was willing to continue a life of toil and austerity, and no small amount of pain in his old age. What makes one unafraid of death? Hope, which lends confidence, found in faith, that Christ is at the end of a virtuous life of fidelity; Christ and his promised eternal happiness. What makes one willing to live in continued toil? Love, obliged by the love one has been given by God completely by grace, one might remain to serve those in need even when rest from one's labors is sought and perhaps due. How far am I from such faith, hope and love, whom selfishness and anxiety still rule so frequently in my words, thoughts and actions! May I attain little by little, daily, unto the fearlessness and generous heart of St. Martin of Tours, of Christ my Lord!

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