First to follow Jesus Christ into martyrdom
On this past Feast of St Stephen (26 December 2024), I spoke with my nephew and godson Stephen. So proud of that fine young Catholic man. Beautiful family. Stephen and I both have a deep love, respect and devotion to St Stephen the very first martyr for Jesus Christ and our Catholic Faith. Saul of Tarsus, a contemporary of St Stephen in the very first years of the Church, put many early Christians to death with great passion. He actually held the cloaks of those angry Jews who stoned St Stephen to death, making Saul a willing aider and abettor. Stephen prayed for Saul and all his persecutors, and while we don’t know about those who actually stoned St Stephen to death, Saul himself would eventually become the Apostle Paul, perhaps the greatest missionary in the history of our Church!
So, what’s my point? Saul in his day, persecuted, even murdered his fellow Jewish and non-Jewish Christian converts as fast as he could hunt them down, for nothing more than a religious conviction different than his own. A Jew hunting down his fellow Jews. And still today, apostate Catholics like former president and apostate Catholic Joe Biden, former Speaker and apostate Catholic Nancy Pelosi and apostate Senator Dick Durbin have promoted and are still promoting the deaths of millions of innocent human lives through the monstrosity of abortion in this country. They have thrown innocent pro-life activists, many of them quite elderly, in jail with no trials, and have set the FBI to persecute good, conservative families and active parents, as well as traditional Catholics who love the Latin Mass. And quite unjustly, from January 6th nearly 500 demonstrators, many also elderly, were thrown in jail and never given a fair trial. So, to my mind, at this moment Biden, Pelosi and Durbin, along with many others in government, are the true hounds of hell! I pray for their conversions just as St Stephen, my namesake, prayed for Saul of Tarsus 2000 years ago.
St Stephen Protomartyr, pray for us!