Blessed THOMAS ABEL, Priest to Blessed JOHN FOREST, Franciscan

PERSEVERANCE

"COUNT not your tortures, my son, for that is to add pain to pain; but rather, as St. Paul says, ' Reckon the sufferings of this time not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.' Romans viii, 16.To which may well be added what the Prophet says to our Lord : ' For a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday which is past.' (in fact, Psalm 89:4) If you bear patiently the tortures that are inflicted on you, doubt not of your reward. O blessed and thrice happy reward which God gives to those who fear Him ; hence we pray, ' Lord, reward Thy servant.' But only on the condition, ' I have kept Thy words.' If, therefore, there is a reward for keeping the words of the Lord, keep them, my son. But you will ask, 'How long?' To the end! For our Saviour says, ' He that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved.' Therefore, neither the tortures of thirty-seven days, nor of a thousand years, but the last end will crown your combat. Think you, my son, that we shall run together, and drink of the same chalice ? A greater combat awaits for me ; but for you lighter sufferings remain. Whatever they be, act manfully, our Lord supporting you. Farewell."

" He that shall endure to the end, he shall be saved."—MARK xiii. 13.

Blessed THOMAS ABEL, Priest to Blessed JOHN FOREST, OSF

HOW LONG, O LORD?

Biographies of Thomas Abel and John Forest

"ALTHOUGH human nature is terrified by the intensity of tortures, yet our faith demands and requires us to bear them. I said, ' My foot is moved because Thou hast turned away Thy face from me. Thou turnest away Thy face from me, and I became troubled ; troubled, I say, because the pain of the tortures which I desire is prolonged, and at the same time I am humbled ; humbled, and not raised up, because not drawn to my Saviour ; not drawn, because I am burdened with the weight of my sins* burdened and not refreshed by Him. What, then, profits my condemnation, if there be longer to wait ? Wherefore, I ask ? Because you have not availingly implored the mercy of God. For I know how much the prayer of the just man weighs before God. Because with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption. In Thee have our fathers hoped; they have hoped, and Thou hast delivered them for the sake of David, Thy servant. Why, then, is there not an end put to these tortures ? I have now suffered seven and thirty days, and I find no rest. But my hope is that we shall die together by the same punishment."

" He that shall endure to the end, he shall be saved."—MARK xiii. 13.

+ Blessed THOMAS ABEL, Priest, 1540

AT LAST

QUEEN CATHERINE'S confidential chaplain, and one of her defenders in the divorce case, he had languished some six years in prison, hoping for the end. The news of B. Forest's "greater combat" had doubtless reached his cell, but, far from intimidating him, served both to intensify his longing for the crown and at the same time to strengthen his patience in awaiting God's will. At last, in 1540, he, Richard Featherston, and Edward Powel, priests, and co-defenders with him of Queen Catherine in the divorce, were attainted for denying the King's supremacy and adhering to the Pope's, and on July 30 they were led out to execution. In grim mockery three Protestants—Barnes, Garret, and Jerome—who were attainted for heresy, were made to suffer with them, a Catholic and a Protestant being coupled together on each hurdle. On arriving at Smithfield the three Catholics were hanged, drawn, and quartered, and the three Protestants were burnt. A Frenchman who stood by, on beholding the strange exhibition of capricious cruelty, said to a friend in Latin : "They have quaint ways of managing things in England— those who are for the Pope are hanged, and those who are against him are burned."

Biography

Busy day at Smithfield

"Wait on God with patience ; join thyself to God and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end."—ECCLUS. ii. 3