Welcome to our daily rosary meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

T.S. Elliot once wrote a play about St. Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop who stood up for the church against

the King of England and was martyred in the very cathedral where he was saying Mass.

T.S. Elliot imagines the temptations St. Thomas Beckett must have suffered as he was waiting for the king's men to come and kill him.

First, of course, was the temptation just to flee?

Second, maybe the temptation to compromise with the king instead of opposing him.

There might also have been the temptation to lead a kind of political revolution

instead of being a spiritual witness, but then comes a fourth temptation.

And this temptation is very strange, because it tells St. Thomas to do what he is already resolve to do, remain and face martyrdom, but this

temptation encourages him to be martyred for the glory of it because he will be lionized.

He'll become a popular hero because his fame will live forever.

When St. Thomas Beckett hears this final temptation, he declares,

the last temptation is the greatest treason to do the right thing for the wrong reason.

So what do you do when that temptation comes to you?

The temptation to do the right thing for the wrong reason.

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallow would be your name,

Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven.

Give us to stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against

us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, Amen.

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