The Sign Of The Cross, The 21 Martyrs & Power of CommunionFire

The Coptic Orthodox Church Recognized the Martyrdom of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians - REUTERS
21/02/2015 12:54

SHARE: The Coptic Orthodox Church has announced that the murder of the 21 Egyptian Christians killed by the so-called Islamic State in Libya will be commemorated in its Church calendar. Pope Tawadros II announced that the names of the martyrs will be inserted into the Coptic Synaxarium, the Oriental Church’s equivalent to the Roman Martyrology. This procedure is also equivalent to canonization in the Latin Church.

Listen to Junno Arocho's report: According to terrasanta.net, the martyrdom of the 21 Christians will be commemorated on the 8th Amshir of the Coptic calendar, or February 15th of the Gregorian calendar. The commemoration falls on the feast day of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

Militants of the Islamic State released a gruesome video entitled “A Message Signed in Blood to the Nation of the Cross” in which they released a warning saying they were “south of Rome.” They then proceeded to behead the Christian men, some of whom were seen mouthing the words “Lord Jesus Christ” moments before their death.

While the killings have stirred fears of the Islamic State’s close proximity to Europe, they have also strengthened many in their faith.

In an interview with Christian channel SAT-7 ARABIC on Wednesday, Beshir Kamel, brother of two of the Coptic martyrs, even thanked the Islamic State for including their declaration of faith in the videos before killing them.
“ISIS gave us more than we asked when they didn’t edit out the part where they declared their faith and called upon Jesus Christ. ISIS helped us strengthen our faith,” he said. Beshir said that he was proud of his brothers Bishoy and Samuel, saying that their martyrdom was “a badge of honor to Christianity.”

Kamel’s interview with SAT 7-ARABIC went viral, receiving over 100,000 views within hours of its posting online. When asked what his reaction would be if he saw an Islamic State militant, Kamel recalled his mother’s response.
"My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties, said she would ask [him] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes because he was the reason her son entered the kingdom of heaven,” Beshir said.

Below, please find the most recent list of names of the 21 New Martyrs of Libya for use in prayers and publications.
Milad Makeen Zaky
Abanub Ayad Atiya
Maged Soliman Shehata 
Youssef Shukry Younan
Kirollos Boshra Fawzy
Bishoy Astafanous Kamel
Samuel Astafanous Kamel
Malak Ibrahim Sinyout
Tawadros Youssef Tawadros
Gerges Milad Sinyout
Mina Fayez Aziz
Hany Abdel Mesih Salib
Samuel Alham Wilson
Ezzat Boshra Naseef
Luka Nagaty Anis
Gaber Mounir Adly
Essam Baddar Samir
Malak Farag Abrahim
Sameh Salah Farouk
Gerges Samir Megally
Mathew Ayairga (from Ghana)

(Updated List of the Names of the New Martyrs of Libya was last modified: February 25th, 2015 by Fr. Moses Samaan)

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Copts form the largest Christian minority in the country, with an estimated 60,000 living there, but their status is increasingly precarious. The country's descent into civil war and chaos following the collapse of Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi’s dictatorship has seen the nation riven by rival extremist factions, with the government having little cotrol. Italy recently pulled their embassy staff out - the last EU power to do so.

Prior to the latest atrocity, in February of last year seven Copts were dragged from their homes in the middle of the night and shot in the streets east of Benghazi. There have been a number of other reported incidences – involving other extremist groups such as Ansar al-Sharia – of violence against Copts in the country.

After ISIS released a video on Sunday purporting to show the horrific execution of 21 Coptic Christians on the Libyan coast, prayers and condolences have poured in for the victims, their families and the Coptic church, with many on social media using the hashtag #CopticLivesMatter.

I'm Palestinian Muslim & Middle Eastern Christians are my brothers and sisters. No one should be persecuted for beliefs! #CopticLivesMatter

— نوران (@levantina_) February 15, 2015

Shocked by the mass killing, world leaders and religious figures have expressed their solidarity with Copts, already a persecuted minority before the killings.

In a statement, the Coptic church said that its leadership had "confidence that their great nation won’t rest without retribution for the evil criminals." During a speech on Monday to members of the Church of Scotland, Pope Francis decried the deaths. "The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out be heard. It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants," he said. "They are Christians!"

Sophia Jones Become a fansophia.jones@huffingtonpost.com
ISIS Boasted Of These Christians' Deaths. Here Are The Lives They Lived.Posted: 02/18/2015 4:56 pm EST Updated: 02/19/2015 4:59 pm EST

AL AOUR, Egypt -- Death is everywhere in Al Aour. When a video surfaced late Sunday showing Islamic State fighters beheading 21 men in Libya, it seemed no family here was spared. Thirteen of the victims hailed from this dusty Egyptian town, roughly three hours south of Cairo.

The men were laborers, gone for months on end, who sent home hard-earned money to feed entire families. They left their impoverished home in Egypt to work in Libya for a better future, despite the dangers. What they found instead was a militant group hell-bent on humiliating and harming them because they were Christian. While most of the people killed by the Islamic State have been Muslim, the group's recent propaganda video made a point to threaten Christianity as a religion. The fact that the 21 men were Egyptian made them even more sought-out targets: citizens of a country cracking down on Islamists both within its own borders and inside Libya.

On Jan. 3 at around 2:30 a.m. in the coastal Libyan city of Sirte, masked gunmen began knocking on doors, according to survivors. They were looking for Christians marked with traditional tattoos on their hands that identified them as Copts, an ancient Christian sect in Egypt. Some men were pulled from their beds at gunpoint. Others hid and prayed, only to later see their captured friends and family members decapitated in a widely circulated and highly produced Islamic State video.

But in this tight-knit village, these men will not be remembered for their brutal murders. They are remembered as beloved husbands, sons, brothers, cousins and friends. In death, their lives are celebrated.

Here are the lives of 4 as they lived, as told by family members.

Hani Abdel Messihah, 32

Magda Aziz, 29, holds the photo of her late husband, killed by ISIS, as she sits in her home in Al Aour, Egypt, on Tuesday.

Hani Abdel Messihah, 32, killed by ISIS in Libya, smiles with his young son in a worn photograph.

Hani loved his four children -- three girls and a boy, the youngest -- more than anything in the world, his family says. He was gentle and kind, always making a joke whenever he could. His wife Magda Aziz, 29, will forever remember his laugh.

"I felt like he was an angel," Magda said of her deeply devout husband. "There was a prayer in anything he said."

Hani desperately wanted to come home after eight months laboring in Libya. He was sick and tired of the relentless violence and the constant threat of kidnapping. But leaving was a difficult choice. There was money in Libya, unlike in Al Aour, money that he needed to support Magda and his children. But he finally decided to come home to his family, she said. He was killed before he ever got a chance to leave.

"He took care of all of us," Magda explains, weakly. The women around her nod in unison, passing around a faded photograph of the smiling father with his little boy.

"He was so kind," Magda says. "He gave us hugs and kisses."

Magda will never forget the last conversation she had with her husband. He called on New Year's wanting to speak with each of his children. The couple exchanged tender words. He asked if she wanted or needed anything -- he would try to get it to her, whatever it was. She remembers saying, "I want you safe." And he asked her to pray for him. She never heard from Hani again.

When she saw the video of his beheading on Egyptian television, her family cried so hard that she says neighbors called an ambulance. She doesn't talk much about how she feels now, apart from the fact that she's still in shock.

"I miss him," she says with a whisper.

Her three daughters sit around her, clinging to their mother. The oldest girl begins to weep as the younger two stare off, unable to comprehend the grief around them.

"Your dad is in the sky," a relative says, hoping to console the little girl. "He's in the heavens."

Yousef Shoukry, 24

Shenouda Shoukry holds up a photo of his brother of Yousef Shoukry (pictured right), a 24-year-old Coptic Christian beheaded by the Islamic State.

A mother and son mourn the loss of Yousef Shoukry.

Yousef was a quiet young man with the heart of a child, his family says. All he wanted to do was find a job and start a family.

But after leaving the army after high school, there were few job prospects. He couldn't live the life he wanted, his mother, Theresa, recalls, sitting in her home surrounded by family.

But the Libyan border wasn't too far, and many men before Yousef had gone to work there already. He decided to leave Egypt. His mother begged him not to go, but he wouldn't listen. She says that his faith gave him the courage to go to Libya in the face of danger. "I have one God, he's the same here and there," she remembers Yousef saying.

A steady stream of women walk into the room, all dressed in black. They reach out to comfort the grieving mother.

"He's a martyr," she says, holding her cross close to her heart. "I know he's in a better place."

Everyone in the family looked up to Yousef. His sister says he was curious and always in good spirits, despite the family's hard circumstances.

His older brother, Shenouda, 27, the middle brother of four, says he was always proud of him.

"He lived according to the book," he said, holding a photo of Yousef as a young soldier. "I can't remember something he did wrong."

Yousef always joked with Shenouda to hurry up and get married so it could be his turn. He was saving up to support a family.

The last time the family spoke with Yousef was when he called on New Year's. "I told him I'd pray for him," she remembers. "I said: 'May God make your life easier.'"

Theresa refused to watch the video showing her son beheaded. But her other son says he made himself watch it.

"I saw that he had strength in his last moments," the 27-year-old man said, insisting that there was a heavenly light shining on his brother's face, even after he was decapitated. "And that consoled me."

Towadros Yousef, 42

A Coptic Christian man holds up the ID of his brother, Towadros Yousef, who was murdered by the Islamic State.

Bebawi Yousef sits in a pew at the church in Al Aour, Egypt, on Tuesday during a ceremony mourning the loss of 21 Coptic Christians, including his older brother, who were murdered by ISIS.

Long before he was murdered by extremists, Towadros was sacrificing so that his family could live better lives. A year and a half ago, he traveled from his village of Al Aour to Libya. Far from the comfort and safety of home, the 42-year-old father of three -- two boys and a girl -- labored away to provide for his family.

He was an introvert, the quiet one in the room. "He wasn't one to make a lot of noise about anything," his brother remembers, smiling. But he was a fighter, determined to give his children a better life than he had.

"He was a really hard worker," his older brother, Bebawi Yousef, 34, says, sitting in the pew of a small church in Al Aour. "He loved working."

Life in Libya was difficult, to say the least, but it was worth it for Towadros to put food on his family's table. He was a family man, above all else.

"He was happiest being with his family and kids," Bebawi says fondly. "He was a kind person."

Bebawi remembers his last conversation with his brother with regret. Towadros called to see how everyone was and he said he wanted to come home, finally. He was ready. The doting father was worried that something bad would happen to him and he wouldn't be able to support his family anymore.

"We told him to wait," Bebawi recalls. "Because they were targeting Christians. We said, 'If you come now at New Year's, it's dangerous.'" The family thought he was safer staying put than traveling on the dangerous roads back to Egypt.

Up until the last moment, Bebawi was ready to do anything to help save his brother. He traveled from Al-Aour to Cairo to talk on an Egyptian television show to raise awareness about the case of the kidnapped Copts. Five minutes before going on air, he received the fateful call from his local priest.

"My condolences," Bebawi remembers him saying. "It's over. They've passed."

He can't believe that Towadros is gone. "I was trying to hold onto the last bit of hope," he says somberly. 

Maged Suleiman Shahata, 40

The brother of Maged Suleiman Shahata, a Coptic Christian killed by ISIS, shows a photo of his brother's ID card at a church in Al Aour, Egypt, on Tuesday.

Emat Suleiman Shahta mourns the loss of his brother who was beheaded by ISIS.

Maged was born into poverty and so were his children. But the father of three was determined to change their futures.

"My brother, the way they lived," he said, shaking his head at the family's poverty. "It was him and his wife and three children in one room together."

"That's how hard life is here," he said, sitting in a Coptic Church surrounded by mourners. "That's how hard he worked. He was fed up with having no money. There is no work in the south."

Maged ventured to Libya, like many others from his village, hoping to earn enough money to change his family's life. Maged was proud that despite their poor financial situation, his oldest daughter was in college. It made the long, hard, dangerous work in Libya worth everything.

Emad spoke with his brother just hours before he was kidnapped. He asked Maged about another group of Christians who had just been snatched up by ISIS, worried that it could happen to him, too. Maged's last words to him, he painfully remembers, were that his phone credit was out. "I didn't know what that would mean," he said, upset that he didn't get a chance to say goodbye or tell him how much he meant to him.

"He was a very sweet man," Emad said. "Easily embarrassed."

Emad mourns his brother's death, but he isn't consumed with hatred. Instead, he looks past the senseless killing and finds hope in his belief that Maged and the other 20 men are now in a safe place where no one can hurt them.

"We are proud that they went to the father in the sky," he said with a warm smile.

A banner showing the faces of Coptic Christians killed by ISIS hangs from the painted ceiling of the Coptic Church in Al Aour, Egypt, on Tuesday.

One week earlier… “A child shall lead them…
”Katherine Sobhy" the angelic girl who was martyred in Libya along with her parents.
The Coptic Orthodox family was martyred in Libya just a few weeks before 21 New Martyrs, because of their 15-year-old daughter’s unwillingness to wear the hijab at her school. Extremists stormed their home by night, killed her parents, and kidnapped the girl. When she resisted their advances, she was killed and left by the side of the road. They are truly worthy to be commemorated alongside the 21 New Martyrs. 

Their names are:
Magdy Sobhy Tawfeek
Sahar Talaat Rezk
Katherine Magdy Sobhy

Egypt Christians Murdered In Libya Tuesday, December 30, 2014 (2:45 pm)
By BosNewsLife Africa Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos

CAIRO/TRIPOLI (BosNewsLife)-- Christians in Libya have been plunged into mourning after a young Egyptian couple and their teenage daughter were reportedly killed for their Christian faith by suspected Islamic militants.

Magdy Sobhy Tawfiq, Sahar Talaat Rizk were married in 2000 and martyred along with their 13 year old daughter, Catherine December 2014.

Magdy Sobhy Tawfiq, Sahar Talaat Rizk, and 13-year-old Catherine died last week in the Libyan city of Sirte -- halfway between the capital Tripoli and Benghazi -- where they lived since 2001, according to family members.

Their human remains were expected in their home country Egypt on Tuesday, December 30, where a special prayer service was to be held in Mar Girgis Church in the Abu Naga area of Tanta city.

Magdy and Sahar were reportedly killed in the early morning hours of Tuesday, December 23 at the doctor's housing complex in Sirte where the Coptic Christian family stayed with Catherine and two younger daughters, aged 10 and nine. Catherine was taken from the family's home and her body was found in the desert outside the city on Christmas Day, December 25, added Christians familiar with the situation.

Rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) quoted Sahar Talaat Rizk's brother as saying that the Coptic Christian couple moved from Egypt to Libya in 2001, just shortly after they were married on July 20, 2000. "Magdy worked for two years at a Diabetes Clinic in Sirte before transferring to the Jarf Health Center" explained the brother, Tamer Talaat Rizk.

SAFETY CONCERNS

Though local people appreciated their medical work and free lectures given to students, militant Muslims threatened the family, added Michael Talaat Rizk, another of Sahar's brothers.

The couple was increasingly concerned about their safety "especially after their oldest daughter Catherine was threatened with death if she did not wear a veil," he added in published remarks.

"Some Islamic militants belonging to the Ansar Al-Sharia extremist group demanded that Catherine not go out from her home without wearing the veil and threatened her that they are going to kill her if she did not wear a veil," Michael Talaat Rizk claimed.

Despite the dangers, managers and local authorities allegedly declined to give Magdy Sobhy Tawfiq his passport and other necessary travel papers to leave Libya as his contract was not yet finished.

Soon it was too late to leave. "At 4:00 am on Tuesday, December 23, Doctor Magdy woke up to the knock on the door of the housing building," Samir Sobhy Tawfiq, Magdy's brother recalled. "He likely thought that there was a patient with an urgent case and was in need his help, but after opening the door, he found some armed masked men. The men attacked him and handcuffed him and put him into a chair."

YOUNG DAUGHTERS 

He said he had traveled to Sirte to care for the two youngest daughters who witnessed the incident.

"Sahar pleaded with the men to take the family's money (6,000 Libyan dinar or $4,500 USD) and jewelry and leave them alive, but money was not the reason they had come. Sahar then ran into the room to protect the three girls."

However, "They then entered the children's room and shot and killed Sahar there. Then they abducted Catherine, leaving the other two children behind. They also dragged Magdy outside and shot and killed him in front of the door of the Health Unit. They put Catherine into their car and fled,"

Samir said in comments published by ICC.

Magdy Sobhy Tawfiq bloodied body was found still handcuffed after he'd been shot and killed, according to a photo seen by BosNewsLife.

Daughter Catherine was found in the Libyan desert on Thursday, December 25, Samir added. "She was shot three times, twice in the head and once in the chest."

JESUS CHRIST

He said militants killed them "because they are Christians, they killed them because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ".

However, "My sister, her husband, and their daughter Catherine were martyred on the Name of Jesus Christ and that is the only thing that comforts us. We are sure that they are in the heaven now because they kept the faith and didn't deny the Lord Jesus Christ."

The attack was clearly not a robbery and was likely motivated by religion, confirmed local council chairman Yussef Tebeiqa in separate remarks to reporters. "Money left on the table and the wife's jewelry left at the crime scene were not touched."

The latest incident underscores growing extremism across Libya with Christians often being targeted by Islamist groups, according to rights investigators.

While the Christian family was attacked, a new United Nations report expressed concern over human rights abuses and the volatile security situation in Libya. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya condemned the attacks.

FOREIGN GUESTS

"These heinous murders, apparently committed for religious motives by unidentified gunmen, are totally rejected by the Libyan people and are alien to their tradition of tolerance towards religious minorities and hospitality extended to foreign guests," the Mission said in a statement issued Wednesday, December 24.

Coptic officials also condemned the violence and urged Egypt's government to improve protection of Christians. Fady Youssef, founder of Coalition of Coptic Egypt, said the Egypt's government had shown "passiveness, inaction, indifference and disregard for the rights of Egyptians abroad, particularly in Libya."

Tamer, Sahar's brother, also urged for government officials to apprehend those responsible, but also was encouraged by his faith. "I urge the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to demand the Libyan authorities to quickly investigate into this brutal crime and arrest the killers quickly and bring them to the justice," he said. "But I ask God to bring the rights of the martyrs. I trust Him, He is a just God."

As Libya, continues to be torn apart by militant Islamist groups fighting, "it is not just about claims of power, but also imposing their religious ideology and driving out or killing those who do not conform to their dictates," ICC commented.

Amazing Call In

channel SAT-7 ARABIC English sub-titles

The brother of two men who were executed by ISIS in an video that was released Sunday has suggested in an interview that he would forgive the killers.

Beshir Kamel, who said he is the brother Bishoy Astafanus Kamel and Samuel Astafanus Kamel, two of the 21 victims, called in to Christian channel SAT-7 ARABIC with the surprising message.

Translated into English by SAT-7 ARABIC, the man described his brothers and the 19 victims as martyrs. "Since the Roman era, Christians have been martyred and have learned to handle everything that comes our way. This only makes us stronger in our faith because the Bible told us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us," he said.

Grief and outrage has spread quickly in response to the deaths, giving rise to the hashtag  #CopticLivesMatter. In Al Aour, Egypt, HuffPost reporter Sophia Jones recently documented the sorrow of many victims' family members.

Kamel, too, is in mourning, but when program host Maher Fayez asked if he would be able to forgive the militants, he relayed an earlier conversation he had with his mother.

"My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties, said she would ask [the killer] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes because he was the reason her sons entered the kingdom of heaven."

"Dear God," Kamel prayed, "please open their eyes to be saved and to quit their ignorance and the wrong teachings they were taught."

h/t Christian Today

They were looking for Christians marked with traditional tattoos on their hands that identified them as Coptic Christians, an ancient Christian sect in Egypt. 


Death is everywhere in Al Aour. When a video surfaced late Sunday showing Islamic State fighters beheading 21 men in Libya, it seemed no family here was spared. Thirteen of the victims hailed from this dusty Egyptian town, roughly three hours south of Cairo.

The men were laborers, gone for months on end, who sent home hard-earned money to feed entire families. They left their impoverished home in Egypt to work in Libya for a better future, despite the dangers. What they found instead was a militant group hell-bent on humiliating and harming them because they were Christian. 

While most of the people killed by the Islamic State have been Muslim, the group’s recent propaganda video made a point to threaten Christianity as a religion. The fact that the 21 men were Egyptian made them even more sought-out targets: citizens of a country cracking down on Islamists both within its own borders and inside Libya.

On Jan. 3 at around 2:30 a.m. in the coastal Libyan city of Sirte, masked gunmen began knocking on doors, according to survivors. 

They were looking for Christians marked with traditional tattoos on their hands that identified them as Coptic Christians, an ancient Christian sect in Egypt. 

Some men were pulled from their beds at gunpoint. Others hid and prayed, only to later see their captured friends and family members decapitated in a widely circulated and highly produced Islamic State video.

But in this tight-knit village, these men will not be remembered for their brutal murders. They are remembered as beloved husbands, sons, brothers, cousins and friends. In death, their lives are celebrated.

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2015/03/the-lives-they-lived-meet-the-coptic-martyrs/#ixzz3Ts19wBun

How do the Orthodox Coptic Churches Worship? The center of the worship is the Table of the Lord. It is here that we enter through the curtain of Christ's Blood. The veil is opened by the word of the Cross. Begin in lowliness from repentance "Lord have mercy upon us" to transformation through partaking of the Eucharist. Coptic Christians sing the prayers! It looks formal and is taken seriously. 

Why are the Coptic Christians and Syrian Orthodox Christians so ready to lay down their life for the Lord Jesus? The rest of Christendom can learn much from this part of the Holy Body of Christ. From tattoos (the Mark of Christ vs. The Mark of the Beast) to the Qurbana and meanings symbolized throughout the divine liturgy creates the lifestyle of these believers. Worship is not an option. It is the reason for getting up to live for the Lord Jesus.  

The first video gives you a quick 10 minute glimpse.

The second video is a wonderful explanation of the Divine Liturgy. When you hear and see there is so much that lines up for those of us experiencing CommunionFire! From the "Need for the Creed" to the Table to the Flesh and Blood.  

This is very well done. "We give Him our whole self and He gives us His whole self." Close your eyes in reverence to Him who stands in our midst and feed upon His glorious presence!

Rev. Franklin Graham’s Warning About ISIS Killing 21 Christians Is CHILLING 
  By TPIWriter 

Reverend Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham, wasn’t pleased with President Barack Obama’s response to 21 Coptic Christians being slaughtered by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists. He believes a “the storm is coming,” and took his message to Facebook:

Here it what his eerie post said:

The militant Islamic terrorist group ISIS has released a video called A MESSAGE SIGNED WITH BLOOD TO THE NATION OF THE CROSS showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped in Libya. Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians? Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world? As we mourn with the families of those 21 martyrs, we’d better take this warning seriously as these acts of terror will only spread throughout Europe and the United States. If this concerns you like it does me, share this. The storm is coming.

As one person said in the comments section of his post, “Please tell me what the difference is between what these terrorists are doing in the name of Islam and what Hitler did to the Jews? Then tell me why the world is standing by and allowing this to happen and doing nothing! Have we not learned anything from the 1930’s and 1940’s?”

And another popular comment echoes the fear caused by ISIS’s evil deeds: “Seeing prophecy unfold before our very eyes. God help us!”

It is true that there is a double standard between Christianity and Islam. While Christianity is a religion of peace and is responsible for the intellectual growth of the civilized West, the “politically correct” crowd is quick to dismiss the inherently violent nature Islam shows itself to have. And Rev. Graham is sounding the alarms.

Read more: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/rev-franklin-grahams-warning-about-isis-killing-21-christians-is-chilling/#ixzz3Tojr9gj6

WARNING: The following video is gruesome, graphic and not for everyone. 

Please pray first and ask the Lord to give you His eyes and heart before you watch. It will change your life forever. This is not for the skittish. This is the video produced by ISIS. it shows the march to the shoreline, the resolution of the executioners and the leader of the executioners. There is one executioner per Christian. they are all decapitated at the same time. Heads are then placed on the shoulders. my description should be enough. It took me weeks to process the strength and faith to watch this. Needless to say I had a sleepless night. It is important for all of us to understand what our faith in Jesus involves. Sometimes there is the grace given to be martyred for Christ's sake, the Church and the world. When we see the love and peacefulness of the martyrs we see heaven's light upon them. St. Paul describes it as the ultimate Communion with Christ. "That I may know Him in the power of the resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering conformed to the image of His death."  Perhaps before considering watching true martyrdom from this year's headlines have a look at the stories of the first martyrs of the Church: 

http://www.communionfire.com/communionfire-blog-notes/martyrdom-of-the-first-apostles

ISIS Warning: Message Signed In Blood Coming Soon To ‘Nation Of The Cross’ Speculation as to who is the ‘nation of the cross’ spans from Denmark (flag with cross) to ‘community of Christendom' (all Christian nations). This announcement came after the Denmark attacks..

In August of last year, the leader of ISIS, al-Baghdadi, called the U.S. the ‘Defenders of the Cross’. That might seem a truly ironic designation to us, but the U.S., and the Western coalition in general, is usually referred to as “Crusaders” by ISIS.  

Denmark had received threats after the Paris attacks and before the attacks yesterday.

Yesterday they released a nine minute video named “A Message to France”, threatening France and Belgium, claiming ISIS-linked elements are stationed throughout the two European countries awaiting instructions to launch attacks.

ISIS also makes the direct threat to fly its flag over the Vatican.

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" The Jesus Prayer

These all died willingly for the glory of Jesus Christ because they all shared the Creed of Our Faith. In CommunionFire we now make a common proclamation of the Apostle's Creed before we sit down at the Table of the Lord. It is our personal declaration of faith; our spiritual 'tattoo' so to speak. 

Jesus died, rose and revived to bring us to His Table. Have the 'daily bread' (qurbana is the Coptic name) and drink from the cup of the new and everlasting covenant. We need revival every day is we want to have His life inside us. Jesus said, "If you do not eat my Flesh and drink my Blood, you have no life in you." To live for Jesus we are totally dependent on having His life in us, for without Him, we are as nothing.

There is no alternative to Communion the way Jesus told us. We sit with Him by His invitation to feed on Him, His Flesh and Blood, so that we might feed on His presence where He shares His love and life in new and fresh ways every day and shares His daily message with you. What He shares with you is the Living Bread and the Spirit of Life and it is personal. Then we can share with each other what He shares with us. That is where we experience true Communion with Him and by him with one another.

Eye has not seen nor ear heard what Jesus has prepared for those who love Him. Give all our heart and all your life to Jesus. He gave all He had because of His great love for you. His arms are open and ready to embrace you.