YES!

Trappist Martyrs of Atlas

What the Pope said:


The Lord invites us to allow ourselves to be consoled by Him; and this is also helpful in our preparation for Christmas. And today, the Pope said, in the opening prayer from the Mass, we asked for the grace of a sincere joyfulness, of this simple but sincere joy:

And indeed, I would say that the habitual state of the Christian should be consolation. Even in bad moments: The martyrs entered the Colosseum singing; [and] the martyrs of today – I think of the good Coptic workers on the beach in Libya, whose throats were cut – died saying “Jesus, Jesus!” There is a consolation within: a joy even in the moment of martyrdom. The habitual state of the Christian should be consolation, which is not the same as optimism, no. Optimism is something else. But consolation, that positive base… We’re talking about radiant, positive people: the positivity, the radiance of the Christian is the consolation. - VN

21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya.

How prophetic.  Just today another shooting.  In a cathedral in Brazil.  Story here.

The Pope from the camps ...

Pope Francis often seems to me to echo those who were imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps in WWII.

His message reminds me of the Christian witness of people like Betsy and Corrie Ten Boom, Fr. Delp, Bonhoeffer and others, such as Fr. Walter Ciszek, imprisoned by the Soviets.  In those desperate situations there surely seemed to be a deeper ecumenism of blood.

"How could the Father refuse the grace of unity, albeit still imperfect, to His children who suffer together and, in different situations, join in serving their brothers and sisters?”

“For all too long, your people have experienced troubles and violence, resulting in great suffering. This makes the proclamation of the Gospel all the more necessary and urgent. For it is Christ’s own flesh which suffers in his dearest sons and daughters: the poorest of his people, the infirm, the elderly, the abandoned, children without parents or left to themselves without guidance and education. There are also those who have been scarred in soul or body by hatred and violence, those whom war has deprived of everything: work, home and loved ones”.

“God makes no distinctions between those who suffer. I have often called this the ecumenism of blood. All our communities suffer indiscriminately as a result of injustice and the blind hatred unleashed by the devil." - Pope Francis