De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

While reading the following text a couple of weeks ago from the Office of Readings I could not help but think of the situation being endured by today's Christian martyrs in the Middle East and parts of Africa such as Nigeria. Pope Francis has himself said that we are in the midst of World War Three and he would seem to be correct, with Christians now  prime targets - powerless victims of rampant evil.  A sermon by St John Chrysostom For me, life means Christ, and death is gain. The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus. What are we to fear? Death? Life to me means Christ, and death is gain. Exile? ‘The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord. The confiscation of goods? We brought nothing into this world, and we shall surely take nothing from it. I have only contempt for the world’s threats, I find its bles...

Here's another post on the persecution of Christians from the Catholic Herald , written by a "staff reporter" and originally published on June 3rd this year: Vatican official says 100,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith Bishop Uzoukwu of Minna, Nigeria, at a funeral for victims of a Christmas church bombing (Photo: CNS) More than 100,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith, and millions more face bigotry, intolerance and marginalisation because of their beliefs, a Vatican official has said. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to US agencies in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council that “credible research” by Massimo Introvigne, a former representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, on combating intolerance and discrimination against Christians, “has reached the shocking conclusion that an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of s...