| | | Father Jacques Hamel - 85 year old priest who was killed during Mass by two ISIS terrorists.
On Tuesday of last week, Fr. Hamel was martyred during Mass by two Islamic extremists in Normandy, France. The two men walked up to Fr. Hamel while he was saying Mass, slit the priest's throat, and then proceeded to preach a "sermon" in which they extolled radical islam and pledged their allegiance to ISIS. Yesterday, thousands of people attended his funeral to celebrate the life of this recent martyr in Rouen, France.
This holy man was an example of service to his parish community. At 85 years old, Fr. Jacques could have been enjoying his well-earned retirement, but seeing how few priests were available to administer the sacraments, and so he chose to continue his work as an auxiliary priest at the Eglise St. Etienne. His continual dying to self culminated when he shared, with Christ, the sacrifice of his life for the salvation of the Church.
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Dear to Our Heart
Priests and martyrs are especially dear to our hearts here at Catholic to the Max. The patron saint of our company is St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Auschwitz priest and "martyr of charity" who gave his life to save that of another prisoner, a married man with children, and as such, we deeply feel both the earthly loss and the heavenly glory of every priest-martyr.
On the morning of Fr. Hamel's martyrdom, we at Catholic to the Max were setting up a Catholic trade show booth in Chicago, Illinois, 500 miles away from our Steubenville workshop. When we learned of Fr. Hamel's death, we immediately took action: we found an image of Fr. Hamel, located an old prayer that had been written but never used, called our office and printing staff back in Steubenville, and ordered several hundred holy cards to be shipped to Chicago. The next day, we began giving away free holy cards to everyone at the Catholic trade show. We asked the recipients to pray for priests, foreign and domestic, and to ask for the prayers of Fr. Hamel, who was surely already interceding on our behalf.
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| | Carrying the Mission On
For the next month, following the funeral of Fr. Jacques Hamel, Catholic to the Max will be offering these same holy cards for free to the public on catholictothemax.com in paper packs of 50. Order as many as you would like, so long as you will use and distribute them. All we ask is that you pay shipping costs--we will make no money on this.
It is our wish that you, too, pray for priests, foregin and domestic, and ask for the prayers of Fr. Hamel.
Pray for safety.
Pray for peace.
Pray for the defeat of ISIS and all Islamic extremism
Pray for the Church.
And pray for the Holy Father, who has been publicly proclaimed a target by ISIS. |
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"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." - Tertullian, Apologeticus
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| | *shipping payment required. Offer ends 9/8/16 |
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