IN GOD'S HANDS
Saint Ralph Sherwin
From a letter after his condemnation:
"Truth it is, I hoped ere this, casting off this body of death, to have kissed the glorified wounds of my sweet Saviour, sitting in the throne of His Father's own glory, which desire hath so quieted my mind that neither the sharpness of death much terrified me nor the shortness of life much troubled me. My sins are great, I confess, but I flee to God's mercy; my negligences are without number, I grant, but I appeal to my Redeemer's clemency: I have no boldness but in His blood; His bitter passion is my only consolation.
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| Saint Alexander Briant, executed with Saint Ralph Sherwin, had a deep devotion to the Passion of Christ and experienced the stigmata while he was racked in the Tower © 2012 Mary's Dowry Productions Screenshot from 'Saint Alexander Briant' DVD |
It is comfortable that the prophet hath recorded that 'He hath written us in his hands'. Oh! that He would vouchsafe to write Himself in our hearts; how joyful would we then appear before the tribunal seat of His Father's glory: the dignity whereof, when I think of it, my flesh quaketh, not sustaining, by reason of mortal infirmity, the presence of my Creator's majesty. Our Lord perfect us to that end whereunto we were created, that, leaving this world, we may live in Him and of Him, world without end. It is thought that on Monday or Tuesday next we shall suffer; God grant us humility that we, following in His footsteps, may obtain the victory."
"Behold, I have graven thee in my hands." - Isa. 49, 16
Reading for 23rd December
Mementoes of the Martyrs and Confessors of England and Wales
by Henry Sebastian Bowden of the Oratory
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| Saint Alexander Briant prays for Saint Ralph Sherwin and Saint Edmund Campion at Tyburn Gallows - 1st December 1581 © 2012 Mary's Dowry Productions Screenshot from 'Saint Alexander Briant' DVD |
For films about the English Martyrs:
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