Beatification of the martyrs in Spain (Tarragona)

Dear Marist brothers and friends. In the article recently posted on our site, I referred to a holiness already acquired by our brother martyrs but not yet officially proclaimed by our Church. Perhaps we are part of a good number of Marists who remain indifferent about whether the holiness of our  martyrs is proclaimed or not, which leads us to a certain lack of concern with regard to the different official steps towards sanctity (venerable, blessed and saint).

The life of each one of us has developed in the measure that we have passed through the stages that defined us more and more as persons. We have been successively children, adolescents, young people, and persons with the human maturity and the qualities we have developed in these stages. Each of them has been preceded by a certain enthusiasm stamped with the hope of becoming something more than what we were… We have not lived these stages alone ; many have helped us : our parents, our family, friends, companions, formators. At each step we have obtained results that others have recognised, even officially, which has filled us with joy and enthusiasm to go further.

The stages of the spiritual life, only by way of comparison, obey the same dynamic. As baptised, we have undertaken a journey which renders us little by little pleasing to God and to our brothers, which is nothing other than progress on the path of holiness. Yes, we are saints, by the grace of God and the living of the evangelical values which have gradually reinforced the image of God in us.

Now, at the ecclesial level, we will be presented with some models of holiness, attained to the highest degree by our brother martyrs. Using a comparison with something we are all familiar with, our 68 brothers will be recognized officially as having obtained a DOCTORATE ‘SUMMA CUM LAUDE’. That fills us with joy, we who love them for what they are for us, and invites us to live with optimism our lives as men of God.

I encourage you, then, to unite yourself with this celebration, close up or from afar, which will be for our 68 brother martyrs a true RECOGNITION at the level of the Church, because they remained faithful right to the end, giving themselves totally to Jesus and his Gospel and becoming from this fact our MODELS.

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Br Luis Jorge Flores Aceves – Postulator General
Beatification of the martyrs in Spain (Tarragona)