Today is St. Raymond of Penyfort's feast day. He wrote something that makes you think; maybe it even gives you hope.
*...all who want to live righteously in Christ will suffer persecution.
So when you don't go along with the crowd, or don't think like the current culture, or you seem to think that you don't fit in, you are blessed. *May you never be numbered among those whose house is peaceful, quiet and free from care...Your purity of life, your devotion, deserve and call for a reward; because you are acceptable and pleasing to God your purity of life must be made purer still, by frequent buffetings, until you attain perfect sincerity of heart. If from time to time you feel the sword falling on you with double or treble force, this also should be seen as sheer joy and the mark of love.
May the prayers of Saint Raymond free you from concern of what others think.
* From a letter by Saint Raymond of Penyafort, Monumenta Ord. Praed. Hist. 6, 2, Romae 1901, pp. 84-85
