Blessed Titus Brandsma, Pray for Us

A very warm renewed welcome to The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma. I'm Laurence England, author of That The Bones That You Have Crushed May Thrill and I have been elected Chairman of the Guild. I'm not a renaissance prince, so I'll keep this acceptance speech short. Boom, boom.

On a more serious note, like Richard Collins, I would like pay tribute to the previous Chairman. It will be hard to fill the shoes of Dylan Parry, whose drive and energy has kept the Guild going. Thank you and God bless Dylan for all his hard work. I hope and pray that God gives me the grace to be a good, dedicated and reliable Chairman for this wonderful enterprise - a Guild of Catholic bloggers known for our fidelity to the Successor of St Peter and to the Magisterium of Holy Church, love of the Catholic Faith and our desire to evangelise the World through the internet; to make Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Blessed Lady loved and known.

Faithful to the end: Blessed Titus Brandsma

As Catholics we live in interesting, if difficult times. Many storms now assail the Holy Church as secularism and unbelief increase especially in the West. Very little appears to be held sacred. Marriage, the building block of society and the family itself is under intense threat here and throughout the World. Our brothers and sisters in many parts of the World are being martyred. The sanctity of human life is disregarded and those in positions of power and influence wish to disregard it even more, when it is their solemn duty to defend it. The Church Herself is attacked as much from within as She is from without.

We can be assured that in such times, persecution of the Catholic Faith will come but in what way and as to the severity, we are still unsure. We do not know what the future holds, but we have in Blessed Titus Brandsma a patron who showed unwavering love for the Lord and who, because of his outspoken criticism of Nazism eventually paid the ultimate price out of love for God and his His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. May his model and example, his great love, give us the zeal and courage to write boldly and courageously in defence of the One True Faith, as evangelists and apologists who desire to be close to the Sacred Heart of our Jesus, always respecting and upholding the dignity of all human life, made, as it is, in the image and likeness of God.

Blessed Titus Brandsma, Martyr of Dachau, pray for us.