The Kidnapped Syrian Christians are being slaughtered.

-source-

The world - all of us - must pay attention to what is happening and come to their aid.

ISIS has killed the first Christians who are being held hostage in the governorate of Hassake in Syri, on the northeastern border with Iraq. The Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana, who reported the abduction last Monday, informed Aid to the Church in Need (a Pontifical Foundation of the Catholic Church, supporting the Catholic faithful and other Christians where they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need) that 15 of the hostages have been killed. “Many of them were fighting to defend and protect the villages and families,” Youkhana says.

In the village of Tel Hormizd one woman has been beheaded and two men were shot. There is currently no information about who the other executed captives are. 

Archimandrite Youkhana informs that at least 350 people have been captured by IS. In addition to the fighters mentioned above 81 people were seized from Tel Jazira, 21 from Tel Gouran, five from Tel Feytha and three from Qabir Shamiya. All of the above are being held in the Arab Sunni village of Um Al-Masamier. 

Also, 51 families from the village of Tel Shamiram have been taken – Archimandrite Youkhana adds: “The average is five persons per family”.He added that there was no news about where the families were being held: “Most probably they have been captured and transported to Mount Abdul Aziz, a nearby region controlled by IS.” 

Another source says there was an unconfirmed report that the mosque in the Arab Sunni village of Bab Alfaraj had called on people to attend “a mass killing of infidels” at Mount Abdul Aziz on 27 February. - Source

Prayer to Our Lady of Ransom

O God, Who by means of the most glorious 

Mother of Thy Son 

was pleased to give new children to Thy Church 

for the deliverance of Christ's faithful 

from the power of the heathen; 

grant, we beseech Thee, 

that we who love and honor her as the foundress 

of so great a work 

may, by her merits and intercession, 

be ourselves delivered from all sin 

and from the bondage of the evil one. 

Through the same Christ, our Lord.

Amen

Our Lady Help of Christians

Auxilium Christianorum

Virgin of Lepanto.*

May 24 is the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. The prayer Ave Maris Stella is a very powerful prayer to Our Lady which obtains her protection promptly and powerfully.  I pray it every morning.

Ava Maris Stella
Hail, thou Star of ocean,
Portal of the sky !
Ever Virgin Mother
Of the Lord most high !

Oh ! by Gabriel's Ave,
Uttered long ago,
Eva's name reversing,
Stablish peace below.

Break the captive's fetters ;
Light on blindness pour ;
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.

Show thyself a Mother ;
Offer Him our sighs,
Who for us Incarnate
Did not thee despise.

Virgin of all virgins !
To thy shelter take us :
Gentlest of the gentle !
Chaste and gentle make us.

Still, as on we journey,
Help our weak endeavor ;
Till with thee and Jesus
We rejoice forever.

Through the highest heaven,
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son, and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.

*I love this image of the Blessed Virgin dressed in battle array - her very image inspires courage and hope.

Many times, defeat seems inevitable, and the temptation is to say: “She promised, but it has not happened. To the contrary, everything became worse.” Real heroism is to trust even in the worst of conditions. It is to refuse to cede to the temptation, and to reply: “The worse it becomes, the closer we are to her intervention, because Our Lady does not lie, and I know that this voice that speaks within myself is hers.” - On Our Lady, Help of Christians

Pray the Rosary every day.

Syrian Priest-martyr, Fr. Fadi Haddad

Such an awful story...

In an act of courage 43 year old Father Fadi Haddad set off by car to negotiate the release of one of his parishioners, who had been kidnapped. A week later, it became clear that the parish priest from Qatana, some 20 kilometers south-west of Damascus, had paid the highest price. On Oct. 25th, his lifeless and mutilated body was found on the side of a road. Qatana had been terrorized by radical fighters, locals told Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “‘Extremists went through the streets shouting ‘Alawites to the grave, Christians to Beirut’. They want to kick us out”. A pastor who often provided Haddad with Bibles and who met him a few days before he was kidnapped told us ‘Father Fadi’s superiors had asked him why he kept traveling back and forth between Qatana and Damascus. He responded: ‘I cannot not serve Jesus, I need to help people, that is why I have to move around.’

Christians in Syria say the particularly gruesome death of Father Fadi - his eyes had been gouged out - marks a turning point for them. Before, Christians were caught up in the war in the same way as Kurds, Druze, and all other ethnic groups. Also, a part of the Christian community in Syria has been actively supporting President Assad, thus being an actor in the civil war. - Story
 

Priests, please be priests like Fr. Fadi.  Don't write books and serve Mammon...  Be priests.  The Church needs full-time priests.