Eat Life - Drink Life

"'Unless you eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, you shall not have life
in you,' says the Lord. Eat life - drink life. You will then have
life, and life is complete. Then the Body and Blood of Christ will be
life for each person under this condition: what is eaten visibly in
the Sacrament be spiritually eaten and spiritually drunk in truth
itself."

--St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermon 102,2)

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June 5th - St. Boniface, Martyr, Apostle of Germany

Born in Crediton, Devonshire, England, 680; died at Dokkum, Friesland,
in 755. Boniface, baptized Winfrid or Wynfrith, determined at the age
of five that he wanted to be a monk after listening to visitors from
the monastery. He began his education when he was seven at the
monastery school near Exeter and, at 14, graduated to the abbey at
Benedictine Nursling (Hants) in Winchester. There he studied under
Winbert, became a monk, and eventually became director of and popular
teacher at the school. He wrote the first Latin grammar produced in
England.

Although Christianity had already reached into Germany before him, St.
Boniface deserves to be called its apostle because it was he who
organized the German church. “Germany,” in his time, included the
domains of the Frankish monarchs, the present Belgium and Holland
among them.

Brilliant though he was as a teacher, Winfrid yearned for the mission.
In 716, he tried his wings as a missionary to Frisia in the present
Holland. Since conditions were adverse there, he returned to Nursling
and was elected abbot. But his heart was still in the mission field,
so he soon resigned his office, and going to Rome in 718-719, he asked
Pope St. Gregory II to commission him formally to preach to the German
peoples. The pope gladly complied, giving him a new Latin name,
Boniface.

Boniface first went to Thuringia, in north central Germany, and sought
to persuade the leaders to promote and reform the Church. Then he went
back to Frisia for two years to work with St. Willibrord, the English missionary at Utrecht, and to study his methods. In 721, he entered
Hesse, a deeply pagan district north of Frankfort. His gentle approach
to the Hessians won many converts, and he established a monastery
among them as a symbol of Christian presence. Then he returned to Rome
to report on the religious situation in Germany.

This time, Pope Gregory consecrated Boniface a bishop (722), with
authority to organize the German church. Armed also with the
all-important safe-conduct of the Frankish ruler, Charles Martel, he
returned to Hesse. There on the advice of the Hessian Christians, he
personally chopped down the oak of Geismar. This dramatic destruction,
with impunity, of their sacred tree, moved many pagans to embrace the
Catholic faith. The bishop then went on to Thuringia.

Admiring the zeal and loyalty of Boniface, the Holy See raised his
rank to archbishop in 732 and named him papal legate in 738, with the
duty of setting up dioceses throughout Germany and convoking councils
for the enactment of norms and reforms. In 747, the pope assigned him
a see, the diocese of Mainz, and designated him primate of Germany.

Boniface had founded a monastery at Fulda in 744. One of the secrets
of his success in Germany was the setting up of many abbeys. Not only
were they bulwarks of the Faith; they also housed many Englishmen and Englishwomen whom he invited to people them. This English personnel
served to further the missionary work. One fact that favored the whole
German enterprise was that the Anglo-Saxon language, then spoken by
Englishmen, was not all that different from the Germanic tongues
spoken in Frisia and in “upper” Germany.

Even after he had been assigned a fixed see and the German primacy,
Boniface, though now on in years, was still a missionary at heart. In
752, indeed, he resigned the diocese of Mainz and set out on one last missionary journey to Frisia. At first his efforts met with success,
and he scheduled a ceremony of confirmation for new converts at Dokkum
in northern Holland. However, while he and his party were there
preparing for the rite, they were beset on June 5, 754, by a crowd of
pagan Frieslanders. Archbishop Boniface refused to allow his
attendants to defend him. He urged them to trust in God and welcome
the grace to die for the faith. When the pagans attacked, they
massacred him and his 53 companions.

The body of this revered leader was brought back in stages to the
monastery of Fulda. His tomb there has ever since been regarded as the
center and heart of German Catholicism.

Boniface is considered the apostle of Germany (Bavaria, Franconia,
Hesse, Thuringia) and the Netherlands (Freisland), Amanburch,
Fritzlar, and Fulda. He is venerated at Exeter, Nutshulling
(Winchester), and Ventnor. He is the patron of brewers and tailors
(Roeder).

–Father Robert


Saint Quote:
Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare our souls for trial. .
. . Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor
paid servants who run away before the wolf.
--Saint Boniface

Bible Quote:
 "I urge then, first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving should be offered for everyone, for kings and others in
authority, so that we may be able to live peaceful and quiet lives
with all devotion and propriety.  To do this is right, and acceptable
to God our Savior: he wants everyone to be saved and reach full
knowledge of the truth."  [1 Timothy 2:1-4]

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A Prayer For Parents

O my God, I beg of Thee to bless my good parents.
I ask Thee to reward them for all they have done
for me. Help them in their labors, console them in their
sorrows. Help me to be kind to them, to respect
them, and always do their will. Bring both of them
 and me to Thy blessed home in heaven,
that we may always be truly happy together with Thee.
 Amen.

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