This is by a Facebook friend of mine (Matushka Ann Lardas) on today's saint, Xenia.

[I] am thinking about the first Christians, and how they lived in a world that was okay with infanticide and all kinds of deviance and took money from them to fund their own persecution, and yet they not only survived, they overcame. Why? Through the power of their very great love for God and for each other. When they were first killed, they had no way of knowing if there would ever be more Christians. But they didn't think about "legacy," they thought about salvation, and a nation and an empire and the world was transformed. Today's amazing St. Xenia was named for the martyr St. Xenia, a rich patrician who didn't want her family to stop her from being a Christian, so when the Romans arrested her and asked her name, she replied only "Xenia," meaning, "Stranger." We are strangers here. This world does not reflect or revere our values. But through love, we can be transformed, and in the process, a thousand souls can be saved around us.

Love is stronger than hate, and through Christ, life is stronger than death.