Welcome to our Rosary Meditation. It is Christmas Day. I'm blessed to be joined for a wonderful evening with my wife, my Habibi, my children, John Sarah Gray, Savior, and Teresa, with my son-in-law, Nick, with my parents' art and earlier. We've had great conversation.

Now we're going to pray the rosary together.

So let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

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

And let's unite our rosaries together tonight for all those loved ones who have strayed away from the faith.

I have always found it striking almost a dissonant note that we celebrate the martyrdom of St. Stephen on the day after Christmas.

So much for the joy of Christmas, right?

This day seems out of place because we don't understand the purpose of pain and suffering in the Christian life.

The plan of God is to invite us to take up our own cross united to the cross of Jesus and help him save souls from hell and the world from self-destruction

in Acts chapter 6 we have the record of the martyrdom of St. Stephen.

Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people.

But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria, who were members of the synagogue called the synagogue of Friedman and others from Cilicia and Asia

they found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom and because it was the spirit that prompted what he said.

They were infuriated when they heard this and ground their teeth at him.

But Stephen filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God

and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

I can see heaven thrown open, he said,

and the son of man standing at the right hand of God.

At this all the members of the council shouted out

and stopped their ears with their hands.

Then they all rushed at him, sent him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their

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