St. John de Brebeuf on Suffering for the Faith

St. John de Brebeuf was brutally tortured by his Iroquois captors including being baptized in boiling water and bodily mutilated before his martyrdom. May we suffer the attacks on our Faith with the same fortitude that St. John de Brebeuf showed in imitation of Christ. Here is an entry from the former's spiritual journal.

Jesus, my Lord and savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name…I bind myself in this way so that for the rest of my life I will have neither permission nor freedom to refuse opportunities of dying and shedding my blood for you, unless at a particular juncture I should consider it more suitable for your glory to act otherwise at that time. Further, I bind myself to this so that, on receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit.

—  St. John de Brebeuf 

_________________________________

Prayer for St. John de Brebeuf’s Intercession

Almighty ever-living God, who blesses your Church Militant on earth with the witness of your holy Martyrs, grant, we pray, that by the intercession of Saint John de Brebeuf, we may grow in our desire for the things of God and live in imitation of Christ. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, our Divine Savior. Amen.