“Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are” (Jn 17:11).
After telling the story of the martyrdom of Perpetua the Roman matron, and the slaves Revocatus and Felicitas, in the beginning of the third century, Professor Henry M. Gwatkin says: “There is something here even more significant than the lofty courage of Perpetua, which forms the front of the story. From first to last she never dreams that Revocatus and Felicitas are less than her equals and companions in Christ. Enthusiasm might have nerved the matron and the slave apart; but no mere enthusiasm could have joined their hands in death.…we watch the mighty working of the power of another world in which not only the vulgar fear of death is overcome, but the deepest social division of the ancient world is entirely forgotten.”
Lord, answer this petition of Yours in me today, so the world may believe that You were sent by Your Father (v 21)!