Sts. Perpetua and Felicity are believed to have died on this date in the year 203 in Carthage. Perpetua, a young widow with a child… her slave, Felicity… and three others were imprisoned as Christians. The little band formed a community during their time togethe
r, a community Perpetua had not known with her own family, as her father, a pagan, had urged her to denounce Christianity. It’s said that they sang psalms as they went to their deaths.
Perpetua said to her father when he urged her to deny her faith: “I cannot be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.”
Community can be found outside our families, our parish, and our usual circle of friends. This Lent, endeavor to form community, even if it’s just for a morning or an evening, with people who don’t look like you, perhaps people at a homeless shelter or food pantry. Be a brother or sister to them… do your ministry with them rather than for them.
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