{"id":39,"date":"2005-03-25T11:33:54","date_gmt":"2005-03-25T19:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/?page_id=39"},"modified":"2005-03-25T11:40:22","modified_gmt":"2005-03-25T19:40:22","slug":"st-telemachus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/?page_id=39","title":{"rendered":"St. Telemachus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nTelemachus – Martyred 391 – Feast Day January 1st
\nBy Chris Stefanick – Director of Youth Ministry –
\nDiocese of La Crosse<\/strong>
\n\"St.<\/p>\n

St. Telemachus was a monk who lived in the 4th century. He felt like God was telling him, “Go to Rome.” So He put all of his possessions in a sack (which for a 4th century monk was probably not much) and he set out for Rome. <\/p>\n

In Rome he found out that gladiators were fighting one another to the death in the Coliseum. He was amazed that four centuries after Christ this kind of thing could be going on – people killing each other in the name of entertainment. If I put myself in his place I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do. There were about 80,000 people watching the gladiators fight and loving it. (No doubt that many people in that crowd called themselves Christians.) I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be horrified but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably keep quiet and go about my business – get some pizza – hey I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in Rome! <\/p>\n

Telemachus ran into the Coliseum, right into the middle of the arena, and stood between two gladiators. (Picture this humble little monk standing between these two burly gladiators.) He shouted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the name of Christ stop this thing!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nBoth the gladiators and the crowd were filled with rage and killed him. Stoning him to death. <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6But something changed – people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes were opened to the sickness of what they were doing. That very night the Emperor Honorius got news of what had happened and banned gladiatorial contests forever. <\/p>\n

That was the last fight between gladiators in Rome. <\/p>\n

Innocent people were being put to death for the sake of the leisure of others. Sounds a lot like abortion doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? It also makes me think of the people living in poverty, working for pennies to make a few people rich.
\nMy friends – for evil and injustice to triumph in this world all that has to happen is for good people to keep their mouths shut and do nothing! <\/p>\n

Can little you stop all of the injustices and perversions in this world? Probably not alone. But out of the 6 billion people on this planet 1 billion are Catholics. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one out of every 6 people. <\/p>\n

What if every Catholic decided to just look out for 6 people? <\/p>\n

What if every Catholic, instead of saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what can I do?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to cause any controversy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the name of Christ, stop this thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to all of the evils and injustices we see in this world. <\/p>\n

The world would be a different place! <\/p>\n

St. Telemachus, pray for us that we would have the courage you had to work for Justice and Righteousness
\n– to work for the establishment of the
\nKingdom of God in this world! <\/p>\n

\u00ef\u20ac\u00bd Some Things to Ponder \u00ef\u20ac\u00bd
\n1)\tWhat strikes you the most about the story of Telemachus?
\n2)\tIf Telemachus were alive today, what are some things that might make him say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in the name of Christ stop this thing!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?
\n3)\tWhat stops so many Catholics from taking a stand against those things?
\n4)\tWhat stops you (fear of controversy? laziness? too busy?)?
\n5)\tWhat are some injustices & seriously messed up things happening close to home (in your school\/town\/city\/state)?
\n6)\tWhat can YOU DO about one of those things?
\n7)\tChallenge for the next week: DO IT!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telemachus – Martyred 391 – Feast Day January 1st By Chris Stefanick – Director of Youth Ministry – Diocese of La Crosse St. Telemachus was a monk who lived in the 4th century. He felt like God was telling him, “Go to Rome.” So He put all of his possessions in a sack (which for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":38,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-39","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmichaelspod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}