Christophe Munzihirwa — October 29

Africa, This century (1937-2024)

Bible connection

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this:

‘Blessed are the dead,
those who die in the Lord from this moment on!’”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their hard work, because their deeds will follow them.” — Revelation 14:13

All about Christophe Munzihirwa (1926-1996)

Christophe Munzihirwa was born in Sud-Kivu Province, in the Belgian Congo.  In 1958 he was ordained as a priest. In 1968 he joined the Jesuit Order, from whom the first Catholic missionaries were sent to the Congo. He studied social science and economics in Belgium, but returned to his country in 1969, nine years after independence, to become the formation director for Jesuits in the Kinshasha province (now home to one of the largest and youngest cities in Africa)

Munzihirwa’s prophetic streak surfaced in 1971, when the government of CIA-backed dictator Mobutu Sese Seko responded to a youth protest movement by forcibly enrolling university-age persons, including seminarians, in the military for two years. Munzihirwa insisted on being enlisted alongside his novices, much to the embarrassment of the regime.

Munzihirwa became the Jesuit provincial superior for Central Africa in 1980. In 1986 he was made a coadjutor bishop in Kasongo, and in 1993 he became archbishop of Bukavu.

Munzihirwa earned fame for his refusal to accept patronage from Mobutu. That occasionally created obstacles for him, as in 1995 when a Catholic missionary and members of an international solidarity movement were arrested in Kasongo. When Munzihirwa demanded their release, military officials taunted him for not being a “friend” of Mobutu. Munzihirwa solved the problem by saying that until the group was let go, he would sleep outside their cell. They were freed that evening.

Munzihirwa was unafraid to denounce what he considered military misconduct. During a mid-1990s mass to install a new bishop in Kasongo, in a time in which Mobutu had ordered the city sacked because he believed it was harboring dissenters, Munzihirwa said: “Here before me I see these soldiers. I see the colonel. Stop troubling the people! I ask you, I order you: Stop it!” The commander wanted Munzihirwa taken into custody, and he replied: “I am ready. Arrest me.” Other bishops present, however, intervened and prevented the arrest.

That intervention notwithstanding, Munzihirwa’s criticisms of Mobutu often left him isolated within Zaire’s bishops’ conference. In 1995, a missionary asked him why the bishops were not more outspoken, and he replied: “Father, you can’t imagine. We are just a short distance removed from being part of the presidential mouvance,” a French term meaning “inner circle” or “movement.”

After the genocide began in Rwanda in 1994, Munzihirwa became an outspoken protector of the Hutu refugees who flooded his diocese. He recognized that a few had committed atrocities against Tutsis, but regarded most as innocent victims. He called for healing across ethnic boundaries.

In these days, when we continue to dig common graves, where misery and sickness appear along thousands of kilometers, on routes, along pathways and in fields … we are particularly challenged by the cry of Christ on the Cross: “Father, forgive them.”

Munzihirwa said in an August 1994 homily.

God’s mercy, which breaks the chain of vengeance, is hurtful to militants on every side. But in reality, that is the only thing that can definitively shatter the infernal circle of vengeance.

Final days

As Rwandan troops poured into the eastern part of what was then Zaire in the fall of 1996, Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa issued a final, fervent plea for help. “We hope that God will not abandon us and that from some part of the world will rise for us a small flare of hope,” he said in his Oct. 28 message, broadcast to anyone, anywhere, who might have been listening. As it turned out, few were.

The civil and military leaders of the region, representing the last shreds of the crumbling autocratic regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, had fled weeks before, knowing that Mobutu was doomed and the Rwandans were unstoppable. Those Rwandans were largely members of the country’s Tutsi minority who blamed Mobutu for harboring Hutu militants, and as their armed bands moved east they were killing anyone who got in their way.

Munzihirwa, bishop of the diocese of Bukavu in eastern Zaire since 1993, was the only authority that stood between hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees and potential annihilation. He had long criticized all parties which were part of the region’s violence. His last hope, shared with the handful of missionaries and diocesan personnel who stayed behind with him to shelter the refugees, was for rapid intervention by the international community. It was not to be. Less than 24 hours later, in the afternoon of Oct. 29, death came for the archbishop.

Munzihirwa, a Jesuit who called himself a “sentinel of the people,” was shot and killed by a group of Rwandan soldiers, his body left to decay in the deserted streets of Bukavu. It was more than 24 hours before a small group of Xaverian seminarians was able to recover the body and prepare it for burial. Munzihirwa had surrendered himself in the hope that two companions might be able to get away in his car; however, they, too, were caught and executed. At his Nov. 29 funeral, someone recalled Munzihirwa’s favorite saying: “There are things that can be seen only with eyes that have cried.”

In Munzihirwa’s region of Africa millions of people have since died in a continental war, involving the armies of eight nations and an ever-shifting constellation of rebel groups. Other conflicts in the Sudan, in Algeria, in Angola, in Sierra Leone — in a bewildering series of trouble spots scattered across the continent — have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Inevitably, killing on such a vast scale creates martyrs, people of faith who lose their lives because they refuse to turn away from danger.

Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa has become a symbol of hope and resistance in his country, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo. His martyrdom was not unexpected, at least not to him. Munzihirwa had written in an Easter meditation:

Despite anguish and suffering, the Christian who is persecuted for the cause of justice finds spiritual peace in total and profound assent to God, in accord with a vocation that can lead even to death.

More

Hutu/Tutsi conflict [3-minute video]

Long but great video on the Congo Conflict(s), conflict resolution and Munzihirwa

The music video below is in Swahili subtitled in French, but it still might be the most inspiring five minutes of your day. It is a tribute to Monsignor Christophe Munzihirwa the “elder of the council,” or “the wise one,” the one who provides advice to members of the community, sets the tone for what is acceptable behavior, and leads the community, especially the youth, by example.

What do we do with this?

See where Bukavu is on Google Maps.

Conflict resolution is sometimes a lost cause, especially if the church is not committed to it. Consider where the church is today — what are we doing to stay reconciled? What is the responsibility of Jesus followers when society breaks down?

Operation World’s prayers for the DRC.

Thomas Keating — October 25

North America, This century (1937-2024)

Bible connection

Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. — Revelation 8:1 (NET)

All about Thomas Keating (1923–2018)

Thomas Keating, was an American, Roman Catholic monk and priest of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists). He was born into affluence and privilege in Manhattan, walked away from it all when he entered an austere monastic community in Rhode Island, and was rewarded with spiritual riches. As he told the story:

“At 5, I had a serious illness. I heard adults in the next room wondering whether I’d live. I took this very seriously, and at my first Mass bargained with God: ‘If you’ll let me live to 21, I’ll become a priest.’ After that, I’d skip out early in the morning before school and go to Mass. I knew my parents wouldn’t approve, so I never told them.”

Keating was known as one of the principal developers of a contemporary method of contemplative prayer called centering prayer that emerged from St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. Over the years, his thoughts crystallized into what friends said became one of his favorite sayings: “Silence is God’s first language. Everything else is a poor translation.”

Keating went to the Buckley School, a private school on the Upper East Side, and Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts before entering Yale. As he studied Christianity, he was drawn to the mystics and came to believe the Scriptures call people into a personal relationship with God. Eager to explore his spirituality, he transferred from Yale to an accelerated program at the Jesuit-run Fordham University in the Bronx. He graduated in 1943. He expected to be drafted in World War II but received a deferment to enter the seminary. In 1944, at the age of 20, he entered the strict Cistercian Monastery Our Lady of the Valley in Valley Falls, R.I. He was ordained a priest in 1949.

“I felt the more austere the life, the sooner I would achieve the contemplative life I sought,” he continued. “I spent the next five to six years observing almost total silence.” In 1950, while Father Keating was in Rhode Island, the monastery burned down and the monks moved to St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, in central Massachusetts. He left Spencer in 1958 to help start a new monastic community, St. Benedict’s, in Snowmass, Colo., not far from Aspen. In 1961 he was elected abbot at St. Joseph’s and returned to Massachusetts, where he served in that capacity for the next two decades.

In 1971, after the Second Vatican Council, at which Pope Paul VI encouraged priests and religious scholars to renew the Christian contemplative tradition, Father Keating was invited to Rome. This led him, along with William Meninger and Basil Pennington, to develop the practice of centering prayer.

But his enthusiasm for this approach led to tensions within the abbey, and a vote on whether he should remain as abbot was evenly split. He decided he did not want to remain in a house so divided and moved back to Snowmass. It was a liberating move for him. He began organizing conferences with representatives of other religions, including the Dalai Lama, imams and rabbis.

During this period he focused more on centering prayer, holding workshops and retreats to promote it to clergy and lay people. In 1984, He helped found Contemplative Outreach, a network of people who practice centering prayer, and was its president from 1985 to 1999. “Centering prayer is all about heartfulness, which is a little different from mindfulness,” the Rev. Carl Arico, a co-founder of Contemplative Outreach. “It goes to the relationship with God, who is already there. It’s not sitting in a void.”

Father Keating wrote more than 30 books and created various multimedia projects; one of his most popular is “Centering Prayer: A Training Course for Opening to the Presence of God,” which consists of a workbook, DVDs and audio CDs. One reviewer called it “a monastery in a box.”

More

“A Big Experiment“: A brief history of the beginnings of the Snowmass Conference and the Eight Points of Agreement that came out of the initial years of dialogue.

“Father Thomas Keating is a Rebel With a Cause,” March 2018.  A look back at the history and evolution of Thomas Keating.

Books by Thomas Keating, listing in Goodreads.

Video: Thomas Keating: from the mind to the heart.

Video: Thomas Keating: A rising tide of silence  Amazon • iTunes • Google • Vimeo

What do we do with this?

Check out the work of Thomas Keating preserved in the work of Contemplative Outreach. Here is a link to their guides for contemplative practice.

Prayer Keating’s “Welcoming Prayer:”

Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it’s for my healing.
I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions.
I let go of my desire for power and control.
I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval and pleasure.
I let go of my desire for survival and security.
I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself.
I open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within.
Amen.

Jackie Robinson — October 24

North America, This century (1937-2024)
Robinson with Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese on a TOPS card.

Bible connection


Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also….

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. — Matthew 5:38-9, 43-45 (KJV)

All about Jackie Robinson (1919-1972)

The movie 42 and celebrations of the centennial of Jackie Robinson’s birth allowed Americans to remember his great achievements on the baseball diamond — including helping the Dodgers win the 1955 World Series and having his number retired by every Major League Baseball team in 1997. But mostly it helped everyone focus on the impact he had on ending segregation and helping to spur the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s.

Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 53. His famous quote is etched on his tombstone at his Brooklyn gravesite: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

Robinson’s impact on others continues to this day. His .311 lifetime batting average and 1962 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame rank him among the best ballplayers in history. But of even greater impact was his historic integration of the Great American Pastime. His courageous, faith-driven acceptance of this role made him the target of racist taunts from spectators and by many unwilling to accept that a Black man should play alongside white players.

While growing up in Pasadena, California, Robinson was influenced by a minister named Karl Everitt Downs, of Scott Methodist Church where Robinson’s mother, Mallie, attended. Mallie believed in God, and she instilled in the importance of faith in her son. She also taught him to be proud of his God-given blackness. When telling the Genesis creation story to her children, Mallie depicted Adam and Eve as black-skinned, explaining that their skin turned pale after they sinned. “Karl was the father that Jack didn’t have,” Rachel Robinson (Jackie’s wife) said. “Jack was so close to him. He kept saying that Karl changed his life.” We know that Robinson’s passionate sense of justice had gotten him into trouble earlier in life. But the patient mentoring of Karl Downs convinced him that Christ’s command to “resist not evil” wasn’t a cowardly way out but a profoundly heroic stance. Those relationships led him to Christ and made him a believer.

Historians and academics have pointed out how pop culture, sports journalism and Hollywood have often left Robinson’s religion out of his life story. For example, the movie 42 spends very little time exploring it. A four-hour Robinson documentary directed by Ken Burns barely mentions faith. Here’s the main mention in 42:

The Brooklyn Dodgers owner, Branch Rickey, was a “Bible-thumping Methodist” who refused to attend games on Sunday. Robinson was also a Methodist. They both on faith to overcome threats when they decided to end racial segregation in baseball. Rickey sincerely believed it was God’s will that he integrate baseball and saw it as an opportunity to intervene in the moral history of the nation, as Lincoln had done. A deep-rooted bond formed between the men. Robinson and Rickey were genuine Christians, muscular Christians certainly, but fully Christian in their concern for their fellow human beings. It was no act when Rickey read the passage from Giovanni Papini’s The Life of Christ to a skeptical Robinson at their historic first meeting in Brooklyn on August 28, 1945 (see today’s Bible reading).

“When I came to believe that God was working with and guiding Mr. Rickey,” Robinson wrote, “I began to also believe that he was guiding me.” And Rickey chose Robinson because of the young man’s faith and moral character. There were numerous other Negro Leagues players to consider, but Rickey knew integrating the racist world of professional sports would take more than athletic ability. The attacks would be ugly, and the press would fuel the fire. If the player chosen were goaded into retaliating, the grand experiment would be set back a decade or more.

Following his retirement, Robinson became more public about his faith. In 1962, during a speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Robinson said, “As the first Negro in the majors, I needed the support and backing of my own people. I’ll never forget what ministers like you who lead [the] SCLC did for me.”  There’s little doubt that faith played a significant role in this success.

More

Michael G. Long’s and Chris Lamb’s Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography

Ed Henry’s 42 Faith: The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story

The Jackie Robinson Story featuring Jackie Robinson  (and Ruby Dee!) from 1950.

Prophetic interview shortly before he died:

What do we do with this?

Jackie Robinson had a habit of kneeling for nightly prayers. The self-discipline he maintained changed the world in significant ways. Check your own.

Robinson grew up with a personal moral code taught by most white and black Protestants in the early 20th century—no smoking, no drinking, no premarital sex. But he was also shaped by the social witness distinct to the black church, believing that Christians had a responsibility to combat racism in American society, that anti-racism was a mark of true Christianity, and that many white Christians were failing to practice what they preached. How do you relate to those elements of his faith?

Rosa Parks — October 24

North America, This century (1937-2024)
Parks, Rosa | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
Bob Fitch photography archive (1970), © Stanford University Libraries

Bible connection

Read Exodus 9:13-35

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.

All about Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She died on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92 in Detroit, Michigan. Her death was marked by several memorial services, among them lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., where an estimated 50,000 people viewed her casket.

Most people know the story of the seamstress who helped ignite the civil-rights movement, but many people don’t know that Rosa Parks was a devout Christian, and that it was her faith that gave her the strength to do what she did that day in 1955.

In her book, Quiet Strength, Parks says her belief in God developed early in life. “Every day before supper and before we went to services on Sundays,” Parks says, “my grandmother would read the Bible to me, and my grandfather would pray. We even had devotions before going to pick cotton in the fields. Prayer and the Bible became a part of my everyday thoughts and beliefs. I learned to put my trust in God and to seek Him as my strength.”

Parks’ husband, Raymond, had been an early activist in the fight for civil rights, and Rosa joined him in his work. But she says she never planned to be arrested for breaking a racist law. On December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting on a bus in the front row of the section reserved for blacks. But when a white man got on, there were no more seats in the white section, so the bus driver told Parks to move back.

Parks was convinced that to move would be wrong—and she refused to get up. “Since I have always been a strong believer in God,” she says, “I knew that He was with me, and only He could get me through that next step.”

Parks was not the first black person to refuse to move to the back of the bus. Earlier that year, a woman had been carried off the bus clawing and kicking. Another woman had used profanity during her arrest. But the local NAACP declined to rally behind these women.

Parks’ behavior throughout her arrest was above reproach. Because of this, and because of her well-known exemplary character, Alabama civil-rights leaders thought Park’s arrest signaled the right time to act. They launched the famous year-long Montgomery bus boycott, and the rest is history.

Rosa Parks is another example of how faith in Jesus played a major role in the civil-rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. turned the other cheek in the face of violence. Jackie Robinson’s Christian faith was what led Branch Rickey—another devout Christian—to choose him as the man to break the color barrier in baseball.

Although she had become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks suffered hardship in the months following her arrest in Montgomery and the subsequent boycott. She lost her department store job and her husband was fired after his boss forbade him to talk about his wife or their legal case. Unable to find work, they eventually left Montgomery and moved to Detroit, Michigan. There, Rosa made a new life for herself, working as a secretary and receptionist in U.S. Representative John Conyer’s congressional office. She also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In 1987, with longtime friend Elaine Eason Steele, Rosa founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The organization runs “Pathways to Freedom” bus tours, introducing young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.

In 1992, Rosa published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South. In 1995, she published Quiet Strength which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life.

“From my upbringing and the Bible,” Parks wrote, “I learned people should stand up for rights just as the children of Israel stood up to the Pharaoh.”

Despite all she endured at the hands of some whites, Rosa Parks never fell to judging the whole race by the behavior of a few of its members, however appalling. In later years she would tell of the kindness of an old woman near her grandparents farm who used to take her bass fishing with crawfish tails as bait—an old white woman who treated her grandparents as equals. Even as a girl she appreciated that it was northern white industrialists with names like Carnegie, Huntington, and Rockefeller who were responsible for financing many of the Tuskegee Institute’s exquisite redbrick buildings. And she never forgot the white World War I Yankee doughboy who came to town and patted her kindly on the head in passing, an unheard-of gesture in the South. Her Christian faith only made her feel sorry for the white tormentors who called her “nigger” or threw rocks at her as she walked to school. Reading Psalms 23 and 27 early on had given Rosa McCauley the strength to love her enemy.

Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest award, and the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Award. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States’ executive branch. The following year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch. In 1999, TIME magazine named Rosa Parks on its list of “The 20 most influential People of the 20th Century.”

More

Interview from 1995.

Angela Basset plays Rose Parks in the 2002 movie. 

What do we do with this?

There is always a new Pharaoh clawing for dominance, isn’t there? Consider the oppressors of today and how Jesus might be calling you, or us, to respond.

Pray, in particular, for all the people simply saying, “black lives matter.” In a world so deformed by racism this obvious truth is still a rallying cry and a hope, a way to oppose the powers that be.

Teresa of Avila — October 15

The Modern Era (1227-1936)
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680), Date: 1647–52, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy

Bible connection

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  — Romans 13:8-10

All about Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Teresa of Avila (Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada, also called Teresa of Jesus) was a Spanish contemplative, mystic, and theologian.

This story from her childhood is often told to show what kind of person she was. Teresa learned as a small child that one had to die in order to see God. She wanted to see God. So being practical and courageous by temperament, she devised a scheme. She planned to go to the land of the Moors with her brother, Rodrigo. There they would surely be martyred and go to heaven. Very early one morning the two children slipped away from their home and crossed the bridge leading out of Avila. But the plan soon ran into trouble. An uncle who happened to be entering Avila at the time, met the children, heard their fantastic plan and shooed them back to their parents.

Later on in life, Teresa realized that one does not have to die to see God.

“We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us.”

These words contain three essential steps for what she named ”mental prayer.” First, we must be searching for God. Second, we must be willing to be alone with Him. And third, we only need to look upon our Lord who is present within us.

“The important thing in mental prayer is not to think much but to love much.”

Mental prayer becomes fruitful when we realize the gift of God dwelling within us. Referring to her earlier years in the convent, Teresa wrote these regretful words,

“I think that if I had understood then as I do now that this great King really dwells within a little palace of my soul, I should not have left Him alone so often and never allowed his dwelling place to get so dirty.”

Mental prayer, one learns, is nothing but our side of friendship with God—our “yes” to God’s call and invitation.

“Beginners do well to form an appealing image of Christ in His Sacred Humanity. They should picture Him within themselves in some mystery of His life, for example, the Christ of the agony or the Risen Savior in His glorified Body. Once they are conscious of Our Lord’s presence within their souls they need only look upon Him and conversation will follow. This friendly conversation will not be much thinking but much loving, not a torrent of words, much less a strained prepared speech, but rather a relaxed conversation with moments of silence as there must be between friends.”

One of the profound things she is known to have said matches the Bible reading for today, “It is love alone that gives worth to all things.”

Teresa was active during the Counter Reformation (1545 to about 1648). She became the central figure of a movement of spiritual and monastic renewal, reforming the Carmelite Orders of both women and men. She was later joined in the movement by the younger Carmelite friar and mystic John of the Cross. He became her companion and together they  established the Discalced (Barefoot) Carmelites.

Teresa was the first of only four women who have been named “doctor of the church” among Roman Catholics. Her ascetic doctrine and Carmelite reforms shaped Roman Catholic contemplative life, and her writings on the Christian soul’s journey to God are considered masterpieces.

More

The Wikipedia page is also quite complete.

Teresa’s famous prayer. Coro in Crescendo sings the Taize version of it, here with English subtitles.

You can read the Interior Castle for free.

Recommended biography.

Our friend, Zach Agoff, wrote about Teresa’s connection to Descartes.

A Roman Catholic bio:

Rod’s pilgrimage story.

What do we do with this?

Paul reminds us that love is the only thing we owe each other.  It is a continuing debt.  It is a debt that gives worth to our lives.  We are compelled to love each other regardless of the circumstances.  For some of us, that seems like a lot.  But the fact remains that each one of us is loved and as loved ones in the world we have the capacity to love others.  When we go ahead and make payments toward that debt, we fulfill God’s vision for the world.

Meditate on Teresa’s wisdom:

  • Christ has no body now but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet and loves with my heart.
  • We may speak of love and humility as the true flowers of spiritual growth; and they give off a wonderful scent, which benefits all those who come near.
  • After you die, you wear what you are.

Simon Kimbangu — October 12

Africa, This century (1937-2024)

Bible connection

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 

He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” — Exodus 3:7-12

All about Simon Kimbangu  (1887–1951)

The Portuguese explorer, Diogo Cao, was looking for a route to India when he sailed into the Congo River in 1482. Catholic missionaries arrived a decade later. They baptized kings and chieftains who imposed Christianity on their people, but their success was superficial. The gods of ancient ancestors continued to reign supreme. When Protestant missionaries began to arrive in the 1870s, they found a popular pagan piety lightly embellished with Christian touches, including a belief that crosses conveyed magical powers.

British Baptists came to Africa to save souls but are also known for their paternalistic and patronizing attitude toward the native people, viewing them as depraved children who needed the white man’s correctives. Simon Kimbangu  was an infant when he received a blessing from a Baptist missionary. His aunt sent him to a school run by the Baptists when his parents died. He stayed for many years. He and his wife were baptized there in 1915. He became a lay preacher and evangelist there in 1918. It was at the mission that he began experiencing the visions that would change his life.

He was nearly 30 when he heard a call from God: “I am Christ. My servants are unfaithful. I have chosen you to bear witness before your brethren and to convert them. Tend my flock.” Like Moses, he argued, “I am not trained.” And like Jonah he fled his village to work in distant oil fields.

But the call hounded him. He finally returned home from the oil fields to preach the Word. The results were striking. Kimbangu became one of the African Apostles of the early 1900’s. Women gave up their pagan fetishes. Men gave up all but one of their wives. Then in 1921 the healings began. A sick woman got out of her bed and walked. A dead child was reportedly raised to life. And a blind man named Ngoma regained his sight after the prophet daubed his eyes with paste made of soil and saliva.

Soon thousands of people left their jobs and flocked to N’Kamba in Central Africa to see the Holy Spirit’s power and hear the prophet. Although his fame frightened white religious leaders and colonial government officials who suspected unorthodox theology, and feared competition, economic disruption and rebellion, Kimbangu’s message was generally both orthodox and apolitical. None of his sermons survive, but followers described him as a humble and sober man who taught submission to authorities and racial reconciliation.

Nevertheless, European missionaries resisted his efforts. One charged the prophet with unforgivable sins against Caucasian Christianity: “Kimbangu wants to found a religion which is in accord with the mentality of the African.”

Government officials acted on their fears. The first attempt to capture Kimbangu came on June 6, 1921, but the prophet escaped in a way his followers described as a miracle. Three months later, however, he voluntarily gave himself up. Charged with sedition and hostility to whites, he was sentenced to death. They punished the prophet with 120 lashes and packed him off to a solitary cell in a far-off prison, 1200 miles away in what is now Lubumbashi. They hoped that would take care of the “crackbrained” Simon Kimbangu and the gullible fanatics who followed him. But they were mistaken.  Concerned Protestants had the sentence reduced to life in prison, and Kimbangu languished in the Elizabethville prison for decades, where he died.

Papa Salomon Dialungana Kiangani_Jesus-Christ 100 years.jccesk.com
Papa Salomon Dialungana Kiangani (1916-2001)

Solomon Dialungana, one of his three sons, said, “Just as the work of Jesus was carried on by the apostles after His death, the same was true of the prophet Simon Kimbangu.” His sons guided their father’s movement through heretical schisms and government persecution.

Officials clamped down on Kimbangu’s rapidly expanding following. They forbade them from holding public meetings, deported as many as 100,000 to distant areas of Africa, and killed as many as 150,000. “We have been forsaken by both Catholics and Protestants,” said one distraught follower. But the Kimbanguist movement kept growing. The forced deportations only spread the movement throughout the continent.

Persecuted followers poured their sorrow into hymns that were collected by the Belgian authorities: “Jesus was a prisoner,/ Jesus was smitten./ They are smiting us, too./ We, the blacks, are prisoners./ The whites are free.” Another hymn describing the armor of God was misinterpreted by colonial officials as a call for armed rebellion: “We who are carrying on our cause/ Let us be clothed and armed!/ Jesus will protect us./ Let us clothe and arm ourselves!”

Diangienda describes his father’s role in the booklet “The Beloved City”:

“Our fathers cried for a ‘chief,’ a saviour, but no saviour came, until they said in resignation that God did not know us black people. He only knew the whites. . . . The people hid from the missionaries and remained in the grasp of fetishism, of witchcraft, and of other evil practices. Then on 6 April 1921, the first miracle occurred. . . .

“Through Simon Kimbangu, who was obedient to God, the promises of Jesus have been fulfilled and the Name of the Father and the Son has been glorified. Through him the Congolese realized that God and Jesus had turned to us in mercy. The sorrow and suffering of our fathers had been heard by God the Father, and our tears were wiped away.”

Eventually, on Christmas Eve 1959, the Kimbanguist Church was recognized by the Belgian government, as equal to Catholic and Protestant  and could then could conduct themselves freely.  In 1969 Eglise de Jésus Christ sur la Terre par Son Envoyé Spécial Simon Kimbangu was included in the World Council of Churches.

More

The People’s Prophet by Christian History Institute

Simon Kimbangu’s 1921 Prophecy

The story of Kimbangu and the succession from a Zambian pastor in 2022.

Bethel U. page on African Churches.

A 2008 French news article on Kimbanguist worship:

Article: Is the Holy Spirit living in Africa? — BBC News.

MCC has a long relationship with partners in the Congo.

What do we do with this?

The followers of Simon Kimbangu learned that black lives matter in the middle of one of the most repressive colonial regime ever perpetrated on a people.  He challenges us to have a voice.

In a pluralistic society like the United States, how do we work together all sorts of expressions into an indigenous whole? How do you unite instead of divide?

Pray for the Congo. The legacy of racism, slavery and colonialism have a long half-life.

Elizabeth Fry — October 12

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. — Hebrews 13:3

All about Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845)

Elizabeth Fry was a pioneering campaigner for better conditions in prisons during the the long reign of Queen Victoria in England (the “Victorian Era”).

She was born Elizabeth Gurney in 1780, in Norwich, England to a prominent Quaker family. Her father was a partner in Gurney’s Bank, and her mother was a relative of the Barclay family, who founded Barclays Bank. After her mother died when she was 12, she took an active role in bringing up her other siblings. When Elizabeth was 18, she was influenced by the humanitarian message of William Savery, an American Quaker who spoke of the importance of tackling poverty and injustice. She was inspired to help local charities and a local Sunday School, which taught children to read. When she was 20, she married Joseph Fry, who was a tea merchant and a Quaker. They moved to London where they had eleven children.

Elizabeth was a strict observant; as a Quaker Minister she didn’t engage in activities like dancing and singing. However, she was well connected in London society and often met influential members of the upper-middle classes of London.

newgate
The infamous Newgate prison before demolition

Around 1812, she made her first visit to Newgate Prison, which housed both men and women prisoners, some of who were awaiting trial. Fry was shocked at the squalid and unsanitary conditions in which she found the prisoners. She saw how the environment fermented both bad health and violence. In 1813, she wrote:

“All I tell thee is a faint picture of reality; the filth, the closeness of the rooms, the furious manner and expressions of the women towards each other, and the abandoned wickedness, which everything bespoke are really indescribable.”

She spent the night in prison to get a better idea of what conditions were like. She sought to improve conditions by bringing in clean clothes and food. She also encouraged prisoners to look after themselves better; for example, she suggested rules that they could vote on themselves. She felt her mission was:

” … to form in them, as much as possible, those habits of sobriety, order, and industry, which may render them docile and peaceable while in prison, and respectable when they leave it.”

She would put a better-educated prisoner in charge and encourage them to cooperate in keeping their cells cleaner and more hygienic. Fry felt one of the most important things was to give prisoners a sense of self-respect which would help them to reform, rather than fall into bad habits and become re-offenders.

She wrote a book Prisons in Scotland and the North of England (1819) and encouraged her fellow society friends to go and visit the prison to see conditions for themselves. She told her readers:

“It must indeed be acknowledged, that many of our own penal provisions, as they produce no other effect, appear to have no other end, than the punishment of the guilty.”

Elizabeth Fry reading to the prisoners in Newgate jail in 1816, accompanied by JJ Gurney, Dorcas Covetry, Thomas Fowell Buxton, and Samuel Gurney.

In 1817, she founded the Association for the Reformation of the Female Prisoners in Newgate; this later became the British Ladies’ Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners. It was one of the first nationwide women’s organizations in Britain. The aims of the organization were:

“to provide for the clothing, the instruction, and the employment of these females, to introduce them to knowledge of the holy scriptures, and to form in them as much as lies in our power, those habits of order, sobriety, and industry which may render them docile and perceptible whilst in prison, and respectable when they leave it.”

In 1818, Fry became the first women to give evidence at a House of Commons committee, during an inquiry into British prisons. In 1825, she published an influential book:  Observations of the Siting, Superintendence and Government of Female Prisoners. It gave details for improving penal reforms. Fry’s unique contribution was her willingness to bring up an unpopular topic others left untouched. She she also insisted on practical steps to improve prison conditions.

As well as campaigning for better prisons, Fry also established a night shelter for the homeless, after she encountered a young boy dead on the street. In 1824, she instituted the Brighton District Visiting Society, which arranged for volunteers to visit the homes of the poor to offer education and material aid. She also established a nursing school, which later inspired Florence Nightingale to take a team of nurses, trained in Fry’s school, to Crimea. She was supported in her work by her husband, but after he went bankrupt in 1828, her brother, a banker, stepped in to provide funds and support.

Fry became well known in society; she was granted a few audiences with Queen Victoria who was a strong supporter of her work. Another royal admirer was Frederick William IV of Prussia. In an unusual move for a visiting monarch, the king went to see Fry in Newgate prison and was deeply impressed by her work. The Home Office Minister Robert Peel was also an admirer. In 1823, he led in passing the Gaol Act which sought to legislate for minimum standards in prisons. This went some way to improve conditions in prison in London but was not enforced in debtors prisons or local gaols (jails) around the country.

At the time, it was unusual for a woman to have an active public profile and move out of the confines of the home. Particularly in the early years, Fry was criticized for neglecting her role as mother and housewife. Lord Sidmouth, the home secretary preceding Peel, rejected her criticisms of the prisons. In this regard, she can be seen as an important figure in giving women a higher profile in public affairs. She could be seen as an early feminist and forerunner of the later suffragists, who campaigned for women to be given the vote.

More

From Biography online

From Christian History magazine

Nice extra facts: “Why Mrs. Fry Willingly Went to Prison.”

One minute video:

Book: Betsy: The Dramatic Biography of Prison Reformer Elizabeth Fry

On the 5 Pound note.

What do we do with this?

Conviction causes us to take risks. Maybe you don’t have the intelligence, imagination and courage of Elizabeth Fry, but what do you have? What is a need you can enter today? Who can you comfort? Who is in “jail” in some way and you can remember them and suffer with them?

Francis of Assisi — October 4

Europe, Forerunners (33-1226)
St. Francis Renouncing his Worldly Goods by Giotto, c.1320, Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

Bible connection


Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life. (Matthew 6:25-7)

All about Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

Francis of Assisi was born around 1181 and died in his forties on October 3, 1226 (but his feast day is Oct. 4 for various reasons). He was born as John Francis (son of) Bernard (Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone) to a wealthy cloth merchant. He enjoyed a luxurious and wordly lifestyle in his youth.

He fought as a soldier for Assisi. But while at war, he had the first of many experiences that called him to a life of poverty, community and restoration of the church. Shortly after he returned to Assisi after a battle, he began to give witness of his newfound Love in the streets. Soon a group of young men were travelling with him. His influence generated the Franciscan order, the Order of St. Clare and the Third Order Franciscans.

Francis impacted thousands of people during his relatively short ministry. He was seen as a beacon of light during a period of corruption and darkness in the Church. He is still highly regarded and still gathering followers today.

S.Francesco speco.jpg
The oldest surviving depiction of Saint Francis is a fresco near the entrance of the Benedictine abbey of Subiaco, painted between March 1228 and March 1229.

Here is part of the biography of his early years from the Catholic Encyclopedia

Not long after his return to Assisi, whilst Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian’s below the town, he heard a voice saying: “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” Taking this behest literally, as referring to the ruinous church wherein he knelt, Francis went to his father’s shop, impulsively bundled together a load of coloured drapery, and mounting his horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart of some importance, and there sold both horse and stuff to procure the money needful for the restoration of St. Damian’s. When, however, the poor priest who officiated there refused to receive the gold thus gotten, Francis flung it from him disdainfully. The elder Bernardone, a most niggardly man, was incensed beyond measure at his son’s conduct, and Francis, to avert his father’s wrath, hid himself in a cave near St. Damian’s for a whole month. When he emerged from this place of concealment and returned to the town, emaciated with hunger and squalid with dirt, Francis was followed by a hooting rabble, pelted with mud and stones, and otherwise mocked as a madman. Finally, he was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound, and locked in a dark closet.

Freed by his mother during Bernardone’s absence, Francis returned at once to St. Damian’s, where he found a shelter with the officiating priest, but he was soon cited before the city consuls by his father. The latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gold from St. Damian’s, sought also to force his son to forego his inheritance. This Francis was only too eager to do; he declared, however, that since he had entered the service of God he was no longer under civil jurisdiction. Having therefore been taken before the bishop, Francis stripped himself of the very clothes he wore, and gave them to his father, saying: “Hitherto I have called you my father on earth; henceforth I desire to say only ‘Our Father who art in Heaven’.” Then and there, as Dante sings, were solemnized Francis’s nuptials with his beloved spouse, the Lady Poverty, under which name, in the mystical language afterwards so familiar to him, he comprehended the total surrender of all worldly goods, honours, and privileges. And now Francis wandered forth into the hills behind Assisi, improvising hymns of praise as he went. “I am the herald of the great King”, he declared in answer to some robbers, who thereupon despoiled him of all he had and threw him scornfully in a snow drift. Naked and half frozen, Francis crawled to a neighbouring monastery and there worked for a time as a scullion. At Gubbio, whither he went next, Francis obtained from a friend the cloak, girdle, and staff of a pilgrim as an alms. Returning to Assisi, he traversed the city begging stones for the restoration of St. Damian’s. These he carried to the old chapel, set in place himself, and so at length rebuilt it.

The Little Flowers of St. Francis sealed the image of Francis which was ultimately passed down. The order went through a predictable fracturing after he died. The original spirit was suppressed by the church and by members who wanted more conformity to established monastic practices. The Little Flowers, compiled at the end of the 1300’s, collects some tales that were stashed in attics or hidden from the authorities and included some new stories by a series of authors. Some of your favorite stories come from this book (free to read online) and from the Giotto paintings in the Basilica in Assisi.

More

Biography from the National Shrine in San Francisco. [link]

The movie: Brother Sun, Sister Moon trailer. [Buy or rent on Prime]. Francis is pictured as a representative of the spirit of the 70’s and the desire of young people for something greater than the corrupt institutions of church and state were offering.

The great conversion scene from the movie (careful, he gets naked):

Another movie: The Flowers of St. Francis, a 1950 film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Federico Fellini. This captures the spontaneous and joyful spirit that St Francis embodied. Here is another more recent Italian TV movie.

A fan mashed LeeAnn Womack with scenes from another movie Clare and Francis [or YouTube] to prove how his story is timeless. [link]

The newest of many favorite books about Francis: Francis of Assisi and His World, by Mark Galli, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, by Richard Rohr, The Road to Assisi by Jon Sweeny, Editor, The Last Christian by Adolf Holl.

Hans Kung, the great Catholic theologian, writes a great post about the first pope to take the name Francis.

What do we do with this?

“Francis’ all-night prayer, ‘Who are you, O God, and who am I?’ is probably a perfect prayer, because it is the most honest prayer we can offer.”—Richard Rohr in Eager to Love

Francis has become so well known for relating to animals that most people think of him as a birdbath. But he was a wild and creative radical, deliberately unsuited for a garden. He took the way of monasticism, added joy to it, the restoration of loving relationships, and connection to the earth. Consider his example of simplicity, submission, community, and his mission of building the church. How can you and we find our own version of a radical restoration of a deteriorating church?

Candida — October 2

Asia, Forerunners (33-1226)
Bishapur, Palace, Mosaic of a lady with flowers
Mosaic of a lady with flowers — Bishapur Palace (ca. 260 CE)

Bible connection

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 5:10

All about Candida (ca. 280)

The Sassanian Empire lasted from 224-637, mainly in present-day Iraq and Iran. The ruins of  Ctesiphon, its capital, are about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Its leaders generally championed Zoroastrianism. Nevertheless, Christianity steadily grew, partly due to deportation of several hundred thousand Christian inhabitants of Roman Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia by Shapur I (240-270 AD), the king who famously captured the Roman Emperor Valerian in 260.

New cities and settlements were built in fertile but sparsely populated regions such as Khuzistan (east of the Tigris/Euphrates delta in Iran) and Meshan (the delta area in Iraq). Many Christians were employed in big construction projects. The city of Ahvaz (now an Iranian city of over a million people) soon became a significant cultural and educational center with its famous library and University of Gundishapur, home to scholars from all over the empire, including many Christians and Jews. The university is still operating — it is about a 3-hour drive east from Basra in Iraq. The area also became the center of silk production with many Christians involved in every aspect of production.

During the reign of Vahran II (276-293AD) persecution against Christians erupted. One of  Vahran’s Christian concubines, Candida (also Qndyr’ or Qandira), was caught up in it. She became one of the first Persian Martyrs.

The persecutions were supported and even promoted by the powerful Zoroastrian high priest Kartir who in one inscription declared that Ahriman (the adversary of the main Zoroastrian deity, Ahura Mazda) suffered great blows:

“and the Yahud (Jews), Shaman (Buddhists), Brahman (Hindus), Nasara (Nazarenes), Kristiyan (Christians), Makdag (Baptists) and Zandik (Manicheans) were smashed in the empire, their idols destroyed, and the habitations of the idols annihilated and turned into abodes and seats of the gods.”

The following excerpt is from the translation of Candida’s martyr story by Sebastian P. Brock in “A Martyr at the Sasanid Court under Vahran II: Candida” — Analecta Bollandiana 96 (1978), 167-181.  According to Brock, Candida’s dialogue with the king is embellished, but he does not doubt the basic historicity of the record.  Regardless, the account is a reminder that Christian faithfulness often entails persecution. If we love Jesus there will be suffering.

Here are excerpts from The Martyrdom of Candida that give you the gist of her story:

Because of her astonishing beauty the king, on seeing [Candida], became enamored of her and gave orders that she should enter his bed-chamber; and he took her as a wife . . .

The blessed girl held on to her faith because she had been brought up by her parents as a Christian, and so she preserved her modesty and her faith intact. Even when she had the title of a king’s wife she demonstrated her true faith in God all the more, and she used to preach her Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, openly to her companions and maids.

It was then that a pretext for her enemies was found, and they plotted to lay an accusation against her on the grounds of her faith, – for all her companions conformed to the king’s will and religion. And because they could find nothing else against her, apart from the pretext of her faith in God, they found an opening against her (in this), and spoke against her to the king, telling him: The one whom you love more than all the rest of us does not conform to your way of thinking but serves her own god and invokes him. Her companions accused her with these words, and when the king learnt this, he gave orders that she should enter his bed-chamber. Because of his love for her, he asked the believing girl in a wheedling way: What is your religion?

She told him: I learnt the truth and the faith from my parents; for I am a Christian, and I serve my Lord Jesus Christ, and I confess God his Father. I have nothing else beside his holy name. The king said to her in answer: You see how I love you above all my other wives, and you have honor in my kingdom, be obedient to me and abandon your religion in favor of mine; worship the Sun and the Fire, and honor the Water, so that my love for you may increase and I shall add to the honor you receive and make you chief queen in my realm.

The blessed girl…courageously and with joy told him: “Keep your honors, and give your position of authority to your wives who conform to your religion; for I believe in the true God, and I will not abandon Jesus Christ, or forsake his religion . . . I will not do your will in this, because the God whom I serve is the God of gods and Lord of lords who made heaven and earth and everything that is in them. In this I shall not be led astray, for all things created are guided by his decree.

Because the king’s love for Candida was so great, he was patient at her words, and kept on asking her many times in cases she might conform to his will. The more he used blandishments on her, the greater courage did she acquire, astonishing the king with the living words of the scriptures.

When he saw that all his blandishments were unsuccessful and that he could not turn her from her faith (in this way), he turned to terrible threats against her, hoping that she might abandon her firm position (or the truth), and swore by his gods that if she did not do his will he would destroy her in a horrible way.

On hearing these words from the king, she put on against him the armor of the strength of Christ and told the king: “Just as your blandishments were unable to bring me down from the truth of my faith, neither will your threats lessen my intent. Do with me whatever you like; don’t hold back, for I believe in my Lord Jesus Christ; he give me endurance against all your threats, and bring me to the kingdom of heaven.”

Then the wicked man gave orders that she be put in irons, and he had her hands and feet upon in fetters: a collar was put round her neck, and he gave orders that she should be given just enough bread and water to keep her alive, in case she might be frightened and do the king’s will . . . He learnt, however, that she was increasing all the more in her service of Christ and in the firmness of her faith, with the result that she was not even eating the food that was sent to her, but was serving (God) in prison in prayer and fasting.

When the king heard this . . . he said to her: “Aren’t you ashamed to prefer irons to gold, to seek ill-treatment in place of luxury, and to desire prison rather than the palace?” But the handmaid of Christ told the king in a loud voice: “These irons that you see me in are more desirable than a necklace of your pearls, because I have been thrown into them for the sake of Christ. Ill-treatment of (my) love for him is preferable to me than (all) your luxuries, and prison for his name’s sake is much better than your palace.”

With these words she inflamed the king’s anger. He gave orders that she be stretched out. They removed the irons and stripped the clothes from her body, and stood her stretched out naked in front of him, while four men flayed her. When they had struck her so many times that her blood ran, the king gave orders that she be put in the collar and taken around the city in chains, in case she might feel shame over the disgrace of her nakedness . . . When they had taken her around the city during the whole day, her courage increased all the more.

The king then ordered (one of) her breasts to be cut off . . . When they did this to her and made her go round the city streets, the blessed girl still gave thanks and praise to her Lord . . . When he saw her he said “Aren’t you ashamed at all this? Give in to me and I will give orders for you to be healed, and you shall have your (old) position of honor.” But the blessed girl told him: “You have no greater honor than this to give me, for you have already honored me with two different honors: first you have stripped me naked and flayed me, and secondly you have given me this gift from my own body into the palm of my hand.”

The king said to her: “If you rejoice in these gifts, I will give you another. At which he gave orders that her other breast be cut off . . . .

Here the manuscript begins to deteriorate

But the face of this disciple of Christ was radiant with joy, and her mouth was full of laughter and praise. She said with a loud voice: “I am going to (my) wedding feast [     ] sing for me with songs of thanksgiving [     ] and with hymns [     ] today, but in the world which does not pass away I have been betrothed . . .

Candida’s story was preserved in Nicomedia (an area in Turkey east of what is now Istanbul), a central area for the early development of the church. In that part of Syria, Christians emphasized reverence for martyrs. The Martyrdom of Candida  is part of a manuscript with two other Nicomedian martyr accounts. The Chronicle of Seert (ninth century) preserves the only other record of her story. Given how scarce surviving records are, hers must have been considered an important story to remember.

The story of Candida follows the the general structure of the new genre of martyrdom stories developing in Nicomedia. 1) the Christian is brought to the attention of the authorities. 2) They are tempted to abandon their faith. 3) They are charged, often because they refuse to worship the empire’s deity. In the case of women, their refusal to marry is often the crime (as a threat to the economy and family, and to the subjugation of women). 4) The interrogation results in vehement refusal to comply. 5) The martyr is tortured and eventually killed. The narrative is sprinkled with miracles.

Candida does not have a saints day in the church, nor do we know her death day, so we placed her on Zoroastrian Jashan of Mihr (Celebration of Mithra), also known as Mehregan, October 2.  This celebration  was observed by the 4th century AD and a form of it continues today. In a predominantly Muslim Iran, it is one of several pre-Islamic festivals that continue to be celebrated by the public at large.  Mithra was Roman Emperor Constantine’s (272-337) god until he added on Christianity.

More

Present-day lovers of Iran map out the legend of the Sassanian Empire:

Scholarly article on Candida.

History of the Early Church in Persia [Link].

Video that goes beyond her era:

What do we do with this?

Let your mind wander to Iraq and Iran. The territory where the two nations meet has always been a battle ground. Rome, then Europe, then the U.S. have been successive invaders from the “west.” In the middle of the turmoil, Christianity took root and survives. One of the reasons it became attractive was because women of faith, like Candida, violated oppressive societal norms from the highest status to the lowest. Their innate freedom to be their true selves inspired faith in the Savior who freed them.

Consider how you look at the Middle East. Are all your thoughts clouded by the politics of empire or seeded with the inspiration of faith?

As with all the martyrs who are part of our transhistorical body, Candida’s death begs the question, “How do I resist the worship of the domination system’s gods?”

William Seymour — September 28

North America, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Read Acts 2:14-21

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

All about William J. Seymour (1870-1922)

William Seymour died of a heart attack on September 28, 1922. He is widely considered the Father of Pentecostalism. He followed the Holy Spirit and developed a belief in the ecstatic spiritual gifts (entire sanctification which manifests in prophesy, speaking in tongues, and other expressions), even before he was gifted. When he was gifted, he needed to preach what he experienced.

He was first locked out of the California building to which he had been invited to speak. He eventually found another place to minister and soon developed a following that outgrew that building after a remarkable evening of God’s presence. He proceeded to find a larger place to preach and worship in Los Angeles. It was on the dirt floor in what became the famous building on Azusa St. that the Pentecostal revival began.

In a short time God began to manifest His power and soon the building could not contain the people. Now the meetings continue all day and into the night and the fire is kindling all over the city and surrounding towns. Proud, well-dressed preachers come in to “investigate.” Soon their high looks are replaced with wonder, then conviction comes, and very often you will find them in a short time wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them and make them as little children. ― William Seymour, The Azusa Papers

To Seymour, tongues was not the only message of Azusa Street: “Don’t go out of here talking about tongues: talk about Jesus,” he admonished.

The greater expression of barrier breaking, Acts 2 tongues might be how blacks and whites were in one church. Seymour rejected racial barriers that plagued the Church at that time. Blacks and whites worked together in apparent harmony under the direction of a black pastor, a marvel in the days of Jim Crow segregation. One commentator said: “At Azusa Street, the color line was washed away in the Blood.”

What’s more, Seymour installed women as leaders (notably Lucy Farrow, a formerly enslaved woman and the niece of Frederick Douglass), which was almost universally opposed at the time. Seymour dreamed that Azusa Street was creating a new kind of church, one where a common experience in the Holy Spirit tore down old walls of racial, ethnic, and denominational differences.

Seymour quotes

  • I can say, through the power of the Spirit that wherever God can get a people that will come together in one accord and one mind in the Word of God, the baptism of the Holy Ghost will fall upon them, like as at Cornelius’ house.
  • So many today are worshiping in the mountains, big churches, stone and frame buildings. But Jesus teaches that salvation is not in these stone structures–not in the mountains—not in the hills, but in God.
  • The Pentecostal power, when you sum it all up, is just more of God’s love. If it does not bring more love, it is simply a counterfeit.
  • Many people today are sanctified, cleansed from all sin and perfectly consecrated to God, but they have never obeyed the Lord according to Acts 1, 4, 5, 8 and Luke 24: 39, for their real personal Pentecost, the enduement of power for service and work and for sealing unto the day of redemption. The baptism with the Holy Ghost is a free gift without repentance upon the sanctified, cleansed vessel. “Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Cor. 1: 21-22). I praise our God for the sealing of the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption

More

Azusa Street Revival [link]

The Azusa Street Project movie (2006) [link]

A great theater note on the Gospel at Colonus enlightens us about ecstatic spiritual gifts. [link]

What do we do with this?

Seymour would probably simply ask us to consider his observation: “Many people today are sanctified, cleansed from all sin and perfectly consecrated to God, but they have never obeyed the Lord according to Acts 1, 4, 5, 8 and Luke 24: 39, for their real personal Pentecost, the enduement of power for service and work and for sealing unto the day of redemption.” What would you say about yourself?