Morning Prayer with the Oblate Family – November 24th, Memorial of St Andrew Dung-Lac

With Mary Murphy

This morning we join Mary Murphy, President of the Legion of Mary in Ireland and overseas from the Legion of Mary Headquarters in Dublin for our morning prayer.

Today in the Church we remember blessed and saint martyrs of Vietnam: Andrew Dung-Lac and his 117 companions.

“Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.” – Saint Luke (21:12-19)

The words of the Holy Gospel we were just about to hear are perfectly fitting to the situation of so many martyrs from this Asian Country we are remembering today. Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions were persecuted, many times handed over to the prisons and before the governors, because of the Name of Jesus they believed and hoped in!

And it doesn’t mean they despised life. On the contrary!
This is the love for the life promised by the Lord which made them so strong to get through so many tribulations. It’s also the example of faith from their fellow Catholics: parents, siblings and neighbors which held them strong together: united in professing the faith in the salvation in the Blessed Name of Jesus.