In Saxony , Boniface encountered a tribe
worshipping a Norse deity in the form of a huge oak tree. Boniface
walked up to the tree, removed his shirt, took up an axe, and
without a word he hacked down the 6 foot wide wooden god. Boniface
stood on the trunk, and asked, "How stands your mighty
god? My God is stronger than he." The crowd's reaction
was mixed, but some conversions were begun.
One tradition about Saint Boniface says that he used the
customs of the locals to help convert them. There was a game in
which they threw sticks called kegels at smaller sticks called
heides. Boniface bought religion to the game, having the heides
represent demons, and knocking them down showing purity of spirit.
Letter by Saint Boniface
In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandons ship but to keep her on her course.
Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God's strengthening aid and say to him: "O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations."
Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the help of Christ. For he is all-powerful, and he tells us: "My yoke is easy, and my burden light."
Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let us die for the holy laws of our fathers," so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them.
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