Marist martyrs – Intercessors and models

Dear brothers and Marist friends. Our 115 Marist martyrs in Spain have already been beatified. They have already been officially declared, according to the Churchs, DOCTORS in holiness and, as such, our INTERCESSORS and our MODELS. All « graduates » undertake a new step, installed in their « office », in order to receive and concern themeselves with the « clients ». Nothing worse for these « professionals » than to find themselves WITHOUT CLIENTS. What would people think of us, Marist brothers, if we had no pupils in our educational centres ?

Well ! The beatification of our martyrs in Spain confirms us in the certitude that they are already in their heavenly « office ». Let us ask ourselves now if they lack CLIENTS… They are there to be our intercessors before God ; and God, without a doubt, wishes to work through their mediation when we pray to obtain some grace. Let us remember that the  BLESSED, when they are invoked, can obtain from God a miracle, in the face of extreme human situations. If a miracle is obtained through their intercession, the Church can declare them SAINTS.

I hope that in the future we become « clients » of our BLESSED brothers and of those in the troop of the VENERABLES, such as Brothers François and Alfano. In my opinion, we have confined them to the attic for long years, although extreme situations have not been wanting in our congregation and elsewhere during that time. We have only to think of our parents, friends, students, ex-students who could have benefitted from their intercession. A novena is a good thing but not necessary. What matters is to invoke the Venerable or the Blessed in a PRAYERFUL and CONTINUOUS way, asking his intervention before God, so that we obtain what we are asking for.

MayJesus, Mary and Marcellin revive in us a solid and sound devotion towards those who have preceded us in the following of Jesus, and whom the Church now presents to us as  models of a faith that led them to lose their life in order to gain it in Christ.

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Br Luis Jorge Flores Aceves, Postulator General