Sainted Religious Lay Brother
Today we celebrate our Feast Day, and recall how our brother St. Martin de Porres lived his life filled with the Holy Spirit, in union with the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, let us reflect a moment on his death.As we think about our own life of ministry, a part of our active life that we sometimes engage in with a mixture of motives, let us remind ourselves of something that we can surmise about Martin, from what we actually know. I think we can surmise that whatever he was doing, from the moment he woke up each morning, the reality of the "end for which he was created" was never far from his conscious thoughts. I would venture to say that this contributed significantly to the peacefulness of his death.
It was about nine o'clock at night, November 3, 1639, when without a tremor, without a sound, Martin's soul left the body which had been such a docile and heroic instrument of virtue, and entered the kingdom of eternal happiness. . . . There was a moment of silence, while Archbishop Felician de Vega traced the sign of the cross over his friend. Then Father Saldaña (Prior) began the prayers which are recited when the soul has just left the body. . . When the last "Amen" had been said, the archbishop tried to say a word of consolation to the community, but emotion choked him. All he could say was, "Brethren, let us learn from Brother Martin how to die. This is the most difficult and important lesson" (St. de Porres: Apostle of Charity by Giuliana Cavallini, pp. 195-96).
St. Martin DePorres pray for us!
