June 20th - The Irish Martyrs

Tit for tat. So often we live not in love and tolerance but hate and vengeance. The cruelty we inflict on one another to prove a point everyday is lit up in big events. What end does torture, burning, hanging, drawing, and quartering accomplish? In our daily lives, what end does an unkind word bring about?
We can use today to celebrate those who have died by our hands for the Faith, not just these Irish but all: Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant alike.
God punishes for chastisement and edification; why do we punish?

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But it is the Will of God that Christ both did and taught. Humility in dealings with others; steadfastness in faith; modesty in words; justice in deeds; mercy in works; discipline in morals. To be unable to do a wrong, and to be able to bear a wrong when it is done; to keep peace with the brethren; to love God with all one’s heart; to love God because he is a Father but fear him because he is God; to prefer nothing whatever to Christ because he preferred nothing to us; to adhere inseparably to his love; to stand faithfully and bravely by his cross; when there is any conflict over his name and honor, to exhibit in discourse that steadfastness in which we proclaim him; in torture, to show that confidence in which we unite; in death, that patience in which we are crowned – this is what it means to want to be co-heirs with Christ, this is what it means to do what God commands, this is what it is to fulfill the will of the Father.

-- St Cyprian, Treatise on the Our Father