Stephen, full of power and grace

Could I ask, with the martyr St. Stephen, "O Lord, give me every disadvantage, every difficulty, every hardness. Send me out with no tools, no friends, no worldly hopes of vengeance or reward. Put me among the hateful, the violent, the diseased, the unstable"?

Musings on Calvary

Calvary is really about being a Christian, which means being willing to follow Jesus into the valley of the shadow of death, confident even in the midst of fear and pain that “thou art with me” (Ps 23:4).