By Kenya Sinclair (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Father Jacques Mourad is a Syrian priest who was captured in May. He believed he would die for his faith and told Italian TV 2000 "This is the miracle the Good Lord gave me: while I was a prisoner I was waiting for the day I would die, but with a great inner peace. I had no problem dying for the name of Our Lord; I wouldn't be the first or the last, just one of the thousands of the martyrs for Christ"
He was one of two men captured on May 21 when militants entered the Monastery of Mar Elian in Al Qaryatayn. Mourad described his captivity, saying, "The first four days we were in the mountains, locked up in the monastery's car we were captured in. On Aug. 11 we were taken to near Palmyra, where there are 250 other Christian prisoners from the city of Al Qaryatayn."

Catholic Herald - catholicherald.co.uk A church dedicated to Christians who were murdered by militants allied to ISIS  is to be built in Egypt.Twenty-one martyrs were beheaded on a beach in Libya in February. Work began on the foundations of the new church in the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Samalout earlier this year.

Bishop Paphnutius of Samalout said: “We are extremely proud of our martyrs. Although they were forced to kneel before their executioners, they were the stronger. Their murderers were the weaker, despite their weapons. Why would they have concealed their faces otherwise? It could only have been because they were afraid. Our sons by contrast were very strong and called on our Lord until their very last breath.”

Eleanor Goldberg

huffington post

Syrian children are at risk of becoming the “lost generation,” an issue that’s of particular concern among girls who are being forced to wed at staggering rates.

In Lebanon, 24 percent of Syrian refugee girls are getting married before they turn 18, according to a study by the University of St. Joseph in Lebanon. Impoverished parents there often see no choice but to find husbands for their daughters, even though resorting to such measures puts the girls at serious health risks, in addition to denying them education and economic opportunities.