SJL 
An Icon of The 21 Martyrs after the Coptic style of writing icons.
After Fr. Melanson’s prayer prior to to the Eucharist yesterday, many asked about the getting a copy of his text. For those unfamiliar, last Sunday marked one week since ISIS terrorists martyred 21 Coptics Christians who were working in Libya. Coptic Christians, or simply Copts, are Egyptian Christian who trace their ancestry all the way back to the first century with St. Mark the Evangelist. The passage which Fr. Melanson read was written by American author Ann Voskamp and is as follows:
Lord God, it’s been 7 days now since the world first saw The 21,
Since their sacrifice stirred us to live like they kneeled,
to withstand like they stood fast
to be bold like they believed,
to love like they died — Christ-like.
It’s been Sunday to Sunday, 7 days to let their martyrdom
fan into flame a wildfire of Gospel-love in the Kingdom,
To let the way they turned to You in the end,
Cause us to return to our First Love now,
To let the way they actually died for their faith
Fuel us to actually live ours.Lord, it’s been 7 days since the 21 died
for being People of the Cross:
Cause us to wake and live like people of the Cross now.
As they did not recant of their love of Christ,
let us repent of our lukewarm love for Christ.As they kneeled on those shores and sacrificed their lives to You,`
let waves of revival make our lives living sacrifices to You —
And let the blood of the committed martyrs
be the seed of a revived, committed church.In the name of Jesus’ —
the only One who has ever Loved us to death,
And back to the Real and Forever life.
The website 21Martyrs.com contains the names of all 21 martyrs as well as a call to commit to pray at 7:03 each day for the next 40 days.