Pornchai Moontri: The Duty of a Knight - To Dream the Impossible Dream
. . . Editor's Note: The following is a guest post written by Pornchai Moontri. . . . I was a teenager when I went to prison. Over the years, I was sent back to solitary confinement over and over, for up to three-and-a-half years at a time, because I was so hostile. The longer I was there each time, the more inhuman I felt and became. Living for years on end in solitary confinement joined with the guilt I felt for the life I took during a struggle when I was 18 years old. So I just gave up on myself as a human being. I sank to the very bottom of the prison I was in, and stayed there. Then in the spring of 2005, after almost 14 years in and out of solitary confinement, I was told that I was to be shipped to another prison in another state. I sat for 10 months alone in my cell wondering about whatever hell was coming next, and I told myself I didn't care what comes next. Then one day, guards in riot gear came and chained me up. . . .
The Conversion of Saint Paul, And the Cost of Discipleship
. . . Saint Stephen, the first martyr in the Christian world, was stoned to death. Stephen was one of "The Seven" appointed to serve tables - the traditional role of a deacon - in the Church at Jerusalem. He was brought before the Sanhedrin to answer for placing final authority in Christ instead of in the high priest and Temple. The mob was stirred up against him by the Sanhedrin, and he was stoned. No one present at the stoning of Saint Stephen could have possibly predicted the transformation of Saul into the Apostle Paul. Consider this one passage and feel its chill: . . .