For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. Matthew 16:25
Iraqi Christians (2007)
Frequent Targets
Church leaders are frequently targeted by Islamist militants in Iraq to send a message to Christians that their faith is not welcome in the country. On Sunday 3 June 2007 a minister and three deacons were shot dead as they drove away from their church in Mosul, northern Iraq, after the evening service. They were about a hundred metres from the church when the gunmen opened fire.
Ordinary Iraqi Christians are also killed by militants; the week before the shooting, Christian couple Hazim and Amal were beheaded by an Islamic militant.
O God, who hast appointed unto men once to die, but hast hidden from them the time of their death: Help us to so live in this world that we may be ready to leave it; and that, being thine in death as in life, we may come to the rest that remaineth for thy people; through him who died and rose again for us, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Parish Prayers (no. 867)
O sweet and blessèd country, the home of God’s elect!
O sweet and blessèd country, that eager hearts expect!
Jesus, in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest,
Who art, with God the Father, and Spirit, ever blessed.
Bernard of Morlaix (fl. 1146)
Translated by John M. K. Neale (1818-1866)