Jonathan Daniels

Today is the feast day of Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian murdered during the civil rights struggles of 1965. He died protecting a young black child from vigilantes. He was 26 years old when he died. This is from a very good Daily Office website:

The 1965 murder of Jonathan Daniels, a seminarian at Episcopal Divinity School and civil rights volunteer who gave his life for a Black girl named Ruby Sales in Hayneville, Alabama, galvanized the Episcopal Church, turned it away from the Establishment as “America’s First Church” and made it what it is today. He is the only seminarian ever honored with sainthood.

Holy Spirit, let me be aware of your presence and that of countless others, as together we pray your Divine Office in love. Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, “I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite.”Isaiah 57:15

And I highly recommend this particular Daily Office website for your prayer life. It has all of the readings for the day and tracks particular feast days like today.