Twelve Things that Caught My Eye with Persecuted Christians on My Mind Today (Feb. 16, 2015)

1. From the Coptic Church in Los Angeles:

We encourage our children to share their names rather than continue to post the videos and photos of their martyrdom. Our Holy Church depicts martyrs as victorious in Her sacred iconography. Thus, it is more suitable to remember their names in our prayers as those who were victorious over the world and the evil in the world rather than to focus on the gruesome depiction of their martyrdom.

1. Milad Makeen Zaky

2. Abanub Ayad Atiya

3. Maged Solaiman Shehata

4. Yusuf Shukry Yunan

5. Kirollos Shokry Fawzy

6. Bishoy Astafanus Kamel

7. Somaily Astafanus Kamel 

8. Malak Ibrahim Sinweet

9. Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros

10. Girgis Milad Sinweet

11. Mina Fayez Aziz

12. Hany Abdelmesih Salib

13. Bishoy Adel Khalaf

14. Samuel Alham Wilson

15. Worker from Awr village

16. Ezat Bishri Naseef

17. Loqa Nagaty

18. Gaber Munir Adly

19. Esam Badir Samir

20. Malak Farag Abram

21. Sameh Salah Faruq

2. Pope Francis:  Their only words were: ‘Jesus, help me!’. They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians.”

3.

4. In the previous link, Bishop Angaelos, from the Coptic Orthodox Church in London offers an ecumenical message:

Remember the sanctity of life. Every life … Look for humanity. Look for God’s creation.

5. BBC: Coptic Christian village devastated by Islamic State beheadings

6. What ISIS really wants.

7. Vowing to stay in Libya as witnesses of Jesus’s message of love.

8. Reuters: Westerners join Iraqi Christian militia to fight Islamic State

9.  David Cameron: “our efforts to defeat the monstrosity of Islamist extremism must not waver.”

10. On Coptic Christians in Los Angeles.

11. A Lenten message from Louis Raphaël I Sako, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad:

We, Christians are testimonies of hope, carrying a history, a civilization and a message.

We went through tougher situations than now, to remember, the massacres of Safarberlik a century ago, so we have to hold on and not to give up, and to renew our trust in the future.

He invites Muslims to fast in solidarity with Christians.

12.