Shouting It Aloud: The 2016 National Day of Prayer

The theme for the 65th annual National Day of Prayer is Isaiah 58 - a call to prayer and fasting for our peoples' transgressions.

In a nation that not only continues to countenance Planned Parenthood kill unborning children but profiting from the sale of baby body parts, such a call is apt. To add injury to insult, some governments are prosecuting the whistle blowers in lieu of the abortionists who are engaged in prima facia illegal practices. 

The Supreme Court broke with 5,000 years of human civilization and legalized same sex so called marriage, but forced it upon all states with a dubious application of the 14th Amendment and a fuzzy "Right to Dignity".

And over the last year, progressive LGBTQQ? activists have been fighting to break down privacy barriers to allow people claiming gender dysphoria to use bathrooms opposite to their biological designation, which opens the door for perverts (non-transvestites citing gender fluidity) easy access to public facilities.  But if one points out that there are only two sexes (as shown through chromosomes), social justice warriors will unmercifully attack and isolate the individual not speaking the politically correct shibboleth.

Thus is seems apt to focus on asking the Lord for forgiveness and seeking to fast.

Alas, even fasting is a facet for this culture to mock.  Recently, Glenn Beck called for his audience to fast for America as it was on the precipice of choosing the major party candidates for press.  Yet even some right wing media outlets like Breitbart and the Drudge Report (both of which have been heavily skewed for supporting Donald Trump), found this clarion call a moment for mockery.

Some may cynically question if a call to prayer will matter. Bible believers should recall the walls came tumbling down in Jericho by those humbling themselves and following divine will.  Many attribute the stop of Islamic incursions into Europe during the 16th century in the Battle of Lepanto because of the call by Pope Pius V to pray the Rosary via the intervention of Our Lady of Victory (now called Our Lady of the Rosary).  The American Revolution was bolstered by the first Great Revival and the prayful action of the Black Robe Regiment.

The 2016 National Day of Prayer will have 47,000 separate events. This is the time to shout it out loud. 

Commemorating the North American Jesuit Martyrs

Eight Jesuits, Jean de Brébeuf, Noël Chabanel, Antoine Daniel, Charles Garnier,René Goupil, Isaac Jogues, Jean de Lalande and Gabriel Lalemant, sacrificed their earthly lives to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in "New France"  (Canada) in the Seventeenth Century.  These Blackrobes were on mission with the Hurons, the Mohawks, and even the Iroquois (while under their capitivity).

For those who have the illusion that the Pre-Columbian era Aboriginal Americans were "noble savages", it is worth watching Black Robe (1991) which depicted St. Gabriel Lalemant's journey in faith. 

Reading about the horrendous torture which these North American Martyrs suffered at the hands of unhappy campers in order to witness their faith is remarkable.

However, I was impressed  by a homily by Fr. Joe McCloskey, S.J. about one of the Jesuit Martyrs which was remarkable for his ordinariness yet faithful dedication.  Noël Chabanel was a Jesuit who was highly esteemed in rhetoric and learning who was sent on mission to New France.  Despite his reputation for learning, he could not master the Algonquin language.  Moreover, when he was sent on mission to Fort Sainte-Marie (near Midland, Ontario) to minister to the Hurons, he found that he could not stand their smell, their food nor adjust to their way of life. 
.                                                                                         When St. Isaac Jogues, the leader of the Jesuit missionaries, known to the Indians as the "Black Robes", was slain in 1647, Noel was offered the choice of returning to France. Yet Chabenel chose to keep his qualms to himself lest he be reassigned. So much so, Chabanel, made a vow to God in 1647 to remain with the Indians until his death, despite his personal aversions to them and their life style.  Chabanel  came to believe that his own "martyrdom" was a bloodless one in which he was asked daily to give his life in service with very little personal sense of reward or accomplishment. Two years later, Chabanel was murdered by an apostate Huron and the Black Robes body was tossed into the Nottawasaga River and was never recovered.

No one but a masochist would want to die as the North American martyrs did, many may find that their lot in life is a bloodless martyrdom like St. Noel Chabanel.