Today is the Memorial of St. John de Brebeuf and St. Isaac Jogues and their companion martyrs. Many people are familiar with the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY but are less familiar with the roadside shrines in our own area. The following links will bring up what we’ve previously written about the little very-close-to-the-roadside shrine on the way from Canandaigua to Bloomfield, and the other one where the road splits and Rte. 15A heads north and the other branches into Main Street in Honeoye Falls. Here are posts with pictures and information from both ‘shrines.’
https://www.cleansingfire.org/2015/10/north-american-martyrs-local-marker/
https://www.cleansingfire.org/2013/11/a-blackrobe-shrine-in-canandaigua/
You will know you are not the first to visit this day if you find a red rose awaiting you. We owe so much to these martyrs; surely this is a good day to ask them to pray for our country’s future and for God’s blessings in this coming election, to keep strong the Faith for which the martyrs gave everything. Today’s Liturgy of the Hours (Office of Readings) contains a beautiful prayer of Fr. de Breboef for his own martyrdom. I am particularly touched by the words in the closing paragraph which are still so applicable today: “How I grieve, my God, that You are not known, that this savage country is not yet wholly converted to faith in You, that sin is here not yet blotted out!”
God bless America!
Here is the Reading #2 of the Office of Readings:
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