The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood.

Edmund Campion was a man on fire! He couldn't be stopped. As a Jesuit and a missionary, he was a man convinced of who called him, who he was, and the task at hand. Nothing was going to get in his way! 

"And touching our Society, be it known to you that we have made a league—all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practice of England—cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted: So it must be restored."

This reminds me of the Gospel Quote:

Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ -- can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence;  as scripture says: For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered?

Rm 8:35-37

What about us? What's our mission? Are we convinced?

As a side note, please comment if you have any suggestions on the logo.

A Hero's Defense of the Faith - Edmund Campion's Ten Reasons

Edmund Campion came to England a fugitive but an apostle determined to preach the truth. His first writing upon arriving from Rome was his Brag, but The Ten Reasons were his last and most deliberate defense of his heroic mission to England and to his faith. The conclusion of that work. What fire!

Gold, glory, pleasures, lusts. Despise them. What are they but bowels of earth, high-sounding air, a banquet of worms, fair dunghills. Scorn them. Christ is rich, who will maintain you: He is a King, who will provide you: He is a sumptuous entertainer, who will feast you; He is beautiful, who will give in abundance all that can make you happy. Enrol yourselves in His service, that with Him you may gain triumphs, and show yourselves men truly most learned, truly most illustrious. Farewell.

Campion, the Priest

Campion, the Hero

Great Quote from the Brag

CampionProject: the first half of "What's up with the title?"

What the blog about, anyway? Why is it called the CampionProject? The two-part title doesn't seem to have to do with the content. Once in a while, I want to post directly related to the title to fix this, and this time about the first word - Campion.

As I mentioned blog explanation, it's about renewing our vision of man, his destiny, his happiness, and thus ourselves. But how?

Edmund Campion: The Hero

Edmund Campion become Catholic and gave up a promising career at Oxford and an invitation to Queen Elizabeth's court. His parents had converted to Protestantism, and he was studying for Anglican priesthood at the time.

Ordained an Anglican deacon, he could take no more. He had to become Catholic and left for Dublin and eventually Belgium where English seminarians were training during the persecution. There his missionary spirit drove him to the Jesuits in Rome and eventually to Austria for his novitiate and training.

Edmund Campion: Priest in Hiding

Today we remember St. Edmund Campion. 430 years ago today he was hung drawn and quartered. The first of a few posts about his life and death. Edmund Campion: priest, hero and martyr!


Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_DxP69sFAw.

A Blog

It seems like I have been meaning to write this forever. God had a plan, and the idea occurred to me on a trip to England last December. But how to make it happen?

How to explain the Campion transformation?! What made a sickly old man into a pillar of strength and hope - like John Paul II? How can we explain the radical change in the life of St. Edmund, John Paul II, or any other?

An Idea

Me in front of Westminster

I walked into the huge stone vaulted ceiling, and it seemed like I was stepping back in time. Hard to believe what this hall had seen in the previous centuries, but my mind went back to November 14, 1581. Edmund Campion stood his ground as he was convicted for treason. But in his own words, “The plain reason of our standing here is religion and not treason.”

Edmund Campion was an incredible Catholic, Christian, but above all, he was an incredible man. We need figures like this today. So often we look to musicians, athletes, or movie stars that aren’t even worth our admiration.

But I can hear the words of another man also spoken in England echoing in my ears:

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. 

Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places.

The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. 

God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. (17 September 2011)

Benedict XVI said this to the youth on September 17, 2010. What the world needs today are men and saints! What we need are men and saints! This might sound crazy, but this is what we need to think about, talk about and live out if we are going to be happy.