Every night before Compline, I read the martyrology, the list of saints whom we celebrate the following day.
These saints bear witness to the promise of the Lord that the gates of hell will never prevail against His Church (Matthew 16, 18). The Roman pagans are gone, the Arians are gone, the Soviets, the Nazis. But the church remains and will remain for ever, because she is the Body of Christ, the Living Lord, whom death can never defeat.
These are among my thoughts today as we celebrate St Gorazd of Prague, shot by the Nazis on September 4 1942. (Our picture shows him at his trial.) May he pray for us that we may be found faithful in our generation and so share with him the crown of everlasting life.