Saints of the Church

And from Touchstone, a reminder of what Christ calls us to do in the Great Commission even at the risk of our own lives, as the 23 kidnapped South Korean church volunteers (two have been killed) in Afghanistan can attest:

. . . I've been going through lists and readings about saints of the church. After a while, you realize something you always knew but still seemed far away in "tradition": we stand in spiritual company with those who bent their necks to the sword, gave their bodies to the flames, and clung to the Cross of Jesus under excruciating tortures. These are not pious fictions from yesterday and long ago; and today, as you read this, a brother, a sister in Christ, carries the Cross by which we have all been saved. Forget the martyrs and you forget Christ. They are, after all, the primary "witnesses," and, in the words of the Orthodox prayer at First Hour, the "first fruits of creation."

Read it all and also IRD's story on the hostage situation.