Good deeds done for God

"Every good deed that is done for God is universally good for
everything and everyone. Deeds that are not seen to benefit everything
and everyone, however, are done on account of man, as the present
matter itself demonstrates. For example, those who build reliquaries
and adorn churches seem to be doing good. If they imitate the justice
of God, if the poor benefit from their goods and if they do not
acquire their goods through violence against others, it is clear that
they are building for the glory of God. If they fail to observe God’s justice... and if the poor never benefit from their goods and if they
acquire their goods from others by means of violence or fraud, who is
so foolish not to understand that they are building for human respect
rather than for the glory of God? Those who build reliquaries in a
just manner ensure that the poor do not suffer as a result of it. For
the martyrs do not rejoice when they are honored by gifts for which
the poor paid with their tears. What kind of justice is it to give
gifts to the dead and to despoil the living or to drain blood from the
poor and offer it to God? To do such things is not to offer sacrifice
to God but to attempt to make God an accomplice in violence, since
whoever knowingly accepts a gift which was acquired by sinful means participates in the sin."
--Author unknown, from the 5th century (excerpt from an incomplete
Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, HOMILY 45)

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2 September – St Solomon Le Clercq FSC

MARTYR and Religious Brother – St Solomon Le Clercq FSC (born Guillaume-Nicolas-Louis) Martyr, Religious Brother of the De La Salle
Brothers, Teacher (Born at Boulogne, France 14 November 1745 –
Martyred 2 September 1792). Beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and
Canonised by Pope Francis on 16 October 2016. Patronage – Persecuted Christians. Attributes – Cassock, Palm.

St Solomon was the son of a wealthy wine merchant. In 1767 he entered
the novitiate of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, taking the
name Solomon. Solomon went into hiding when religious orders were
outlawed during the French Revolution. He was martyred, along with
nearly 200 hundred others, during the September Massacres of 1792.

In August that year the Legislative Assembly had closed all Catholic
schools in Paris and outlawed the wearing of religious habits or
vestments in public. On 18 August the Assembly suppressed all Catholic institutions and religious orders. Priests had to swear an oath to the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which had taken over the Church, or
leave the country. Some 25,000 priests left.

In the first week of September, between 1,247 and 1,368 people were
killed in what became known as the September Massacres. Blessed
Solomon was arrested, taken to a Carmelite monastery which the
authorities had converted into a prison, and executed on 2 September.
He was among nearly 200 Catholics who refused to abandon their faith;
they were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926.

Once the monarchy had been overthrown early in the French Revolution,
the next target was the Church. In 1790 the Civil Constitution of the
Clergy gave the state complete control over the Church in France. In
order to continue to function, priests and religious were forced to
take an oath to support the constitution. Most of the Brothers refused
and so were forced gradually to abandon their schools and communities. Eventually the Institute was deprived altogether of legal status in
France.

Brother Solomon was secretary to Brother Agathon, the Superior
General, after having been a teacher, director and bursar. He always
showed a great love for people and a great attachment to his work.
Having refused to take an oath, he lived alone in Paris in secrecy We
still have many of his letters to his family. The last one is dated 15
August 1792. That very day he was arrested and imprisoned in the
Carmelite monastery, which had become a prison, together with several
bishops and priests. On 2 September, almost all the prisoners were
killed by sword in the monastery garden. He was beatified on 17
October 1926, together with 188 of his fellow martyrs. He was the
first one of our martyrs and also the first Brother to be beatified.

The miracle that would lead to his eventual sanctification was
investigated in the diocese of its origin in Venezuela from 19 January
2011 to 29 September 2011 and was sent to the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints for further investigation. The consulting medical
board approved the miracle on 3 March 2016 while theologians approved
it the following month on 5 April 2016. The C.C.S. approved the
miracle on 3 May 2016 and passed it onto Pope Francis who approved for Leclercq’s canonization on 9 May 2016. Normally in the process of canonization, two miracles attributed to the saint are needed – one
for beatification, and one for canonization. However, the miracle
necessary for beatification in the case of martyrs can be waived,
since martyrdom itself is considered a miracle of grace.

The miracle being attributed to the intercession of Blessed Solomon
Leclercq, declared by the medical consultant of the Sacred
Congregation for the Causes of Saints and approved by Pope Francis, is
the inexplicable cure of a Venezuelan girl who had been bitten by a
venomous snake.
The date of canonization was decided at a gathering of cardinals on 20
June 2016 and the canonisation itself was celebrated in Saint Peter’s
Square on 16 October 2016.
The postulator at the time of canonization was Rodolfo Cosimo Meoli.

https://anastpaul.com/2017/09/02/

“I’m Solomon Le Clercq
and I want,
I want to sign,
to say that I’ll die,
I’ll die a happy man
if Jesus is at my side
and I say:
I want to live for Jesus,
I want!
I want to die for Jesus,
I want!
To live and to die
a real man of God!
To live and die a real
Brother from God!”
--ST SOLOMON LE CLERCQ

“As for us, we hold, to what we believed,
ten and twenty years ago;
to what our forefathers believed,
one hundred years ago
and one thousand years ago
and to that which,
the whole Catholic world,
has always believed.”
--ST SOLOMON LE CLERCQ

Bible Verse
But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are
healed. (Isaiah 53:5) DRB

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God our Father,
through the prayers of our Martyrs
who bore faithful witness to the end of their lives,
inspire us to give of ourselves in joyful sacrifice.

Empower us with your Spirit
that we may grow in wisdom and integrity of character
and develop a true sense of values
through following Christ our Lord. Amen.

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