A true and faithful witness

The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, 

I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:6

Lord Christ, let me not be put to shame.
Christ, I beseech you,
    let me not be put to shame.
Christ, come to my aid,
    have pity upon me,
    let me not be put to shame.
Christ, I beseech you, give me the strength
    to suffer what I must for you.
Dativus the Senator martyred in the Diocletian persecutions, c. 304

This is the end,
    but for me
It is the beginning
    of life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer hanged at Flossenburg Concentration Camp, 1945

Blessed be the God and Father
    of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who of His great and abundant goodness ,
    willed that I should be a partaker
of the sufferings of His Christ
    and a true and faithful witness
of His divinity.
Ignatius of Antioch executed in Rome c. 107

From Prayers of the Martyrs, Zondervan, 1991. I hadn't had this book down from the shelf in a long time but its relevance to current events drew my attention.