St. Florentius/World Day of Prayer for China

Marist Brothers of the Province of the United States of America hail Brother Marie Florentius, founder of Mt. St. Michael Academy and Central Catholic High School, as one of the province heroes, or saints, but little is known of his namesake, St. Florentius.  Evidently he was a very holy man, left as a hermit when his fellow monk, St. Eutychius, left their small monastery in Norcia, Italy. Florentius asked God to send him something to console him and a BEAR appeared at his doorway indicating that he was ready to serve him.  Florentius put him in charge of the sheep, and the bear dutifully shepherded them  in the fields during the day and brought them home at night.  Other monks, envious of the bear, killed him.  St. Florentius, in an a-typical outburst of grief, loudly expressed his hope that God would punish the evildoers.  Soon thereafter, the monks involved and died of leprosy.  Florentius repented his prayer for the rest of his life and died peacfully in the year 547.
Brother Florentius might not have been familiar with this story of the power of prayer, but certainly relied on it in his founding of two of our major schools, and it is a reminder to us that God does hear our prayers and acts on them.
And so it is that Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 established a World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, which has struggled against unfriendly governmental regulation since 1949.  Let us join with the rest of the Church to pray that the "Bear" of a government relent its hostility and become neutral, if not supportive of the Church by praying to the patroness of China, Our Lady of Sheshan:
Our Lady of Sheshan,, sustain all those in China, who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love.
May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world and of the world to Jesus.
In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high, offerirng him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love.  Help Catholics always be be credible witnesses to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the church is built.  Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever and ever. Amen.
Bro.; Rene