Living Stone

Today is the Feast Day of San Lorenzo Ruiz, our first Filipino saint, and I chose to draw him on my journal.

Poor San Lorenzo, he is beset by bags under his eyes! But that is the least of his problems! San Lorenzo was martyred for his faith. He was asked: "If we let you live, will you renounce your faith?"

And Saint Lorenzo Ruiz answered: “That I shall never do because I am a Christian and I shall die for God, and for Him I will give many thousands of lives if I had them. And so do with me as you please."

He and his companions in Japan were tortured, hung by their feet and submerged in water, needles pressed between their fingernails, beaten, etc. He died after suffering two days on the gallows in 1637, still professing His love for God.

I pray that none of us will be tested like that, but that in our daily lives, we may find the strength and courage to follow God, to be His disciples, to build His Church as His living stones.