St. Lorenzo Ruiz Novena & Speaking Presentation

This evening marked the first day of my parish's annual novena to St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the first native Saint of the Philippines.  There's a large community of us Filipinos in Kailua's St. Anthony of Padua Church and, for the past five years, a group of them have been organizing this novena.  The 9-day observance of special prayer culminates on St. Lorenzo's September 28th Feast Day with a Mass and a fiesta potluck.

This year my priest wanted to do something different and invited me to speak about the life of the Filipino Martyr so as to familiarize participants with his life and sacrifice.  For those not familiar with St. Lorenzo, he was a Tagalog native from Manila - a married layman - who traveled to Japan in 1636 with a small group of missionary priests.  Their timing could not have been any worse since they arrived in Okinawa at the height of Japan's persecution of Christians.

It goes without saying that Lorenzo and his companions ended up captured and were imprisoned for over a year before finally being tried in Nagasaki.  Despite repeated torture and bribes to abandon the Faith, he refused to deny his belief in Jesus.  As a  result, he was tightly bound with rope and hung upside down, while he slowly bled to death from small cuts made to his forehead.  It was a horrific way to die, but he persevered in the Faith until the end.

        

Left to Right: Novena participants

lining up for a procession into the Day

Chapel and statues of St. Lorenzo

displayed for veneration. 

Lorenzo Ruiz and 15 other martyrs of Nagasaki were all canonized in October 1987 to the joy and pride of the Filipino people.  Consequently, St. Lorenzo's Feast is celebrated not only in his homeland, but also in communities around the world where Filipino Catholics have a presence, which means a lot of parishes since us Filipinos are all over the place!  Kailua is no exception.

As already mentioned, the novena at my parish is being observed each evening for the next nine days.  The prayer service begins at 7:00pm in the Day Chapel and includes daily prayers and the Rosary.  All are welcomed (non-Filipinos, too).  St. Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us!