Braver than the World!

From the Letter by Ignatius to the Church at Rome saying goodbye and asking them not to intervene in his upcoming martyrdom. 

How good it is to be sinking down below the World's horizon towards God, to rise again later into the dawn of His presence!
For my part, I am writing to all the churches and assuring them that I am truly in earnest about dying for God- if only you yourselves put no obstacles in the way. I pray, leave me to be a meal for the beasts (Rome's Colosseum), for it is they who can provide my way to God.
Let them not leave the smallest scrap of my flesh, so that I need not be a burden to anyone after I fall asleep.
So intercede with Him for me, that by their instrumentality I may be made a sacrifice to God.
I am chained to half-a-score of savage leopards (in other words, a detachment of soldiers),
How I look forward to the real lions that have been readied for me! All I pray is that I may find them swift. I am going to make overtures to them, so that, unlike some other wretches whom they have been too spiritless to touch, they may devour me with all speed. And if they are still reluctant, I shall use force on them. You must forgive me, but I do know what is best for myself. This is the first stage of my discipleship; and no power, visible, or invisible, must grudge me my coming to Jesus Christ. Fire, cross, beast-fighting, hacking and quartering, splintering of bone and mangling of limb, even the pulverizing of my entire body - let every horride and diabolical torment come upon me, provided only that I can win my way to Jesus Christ!
All the ends of the Earth, all the kingdoms of the World would be of no profit to me; so far as I am concerned, to die in Jesus Christ is better than to be monarch of Earth's widest bounds! He who died for us is all that I seek; He who rose again for us is my whole desire.
Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips, and the world in your heart, my friends.
Here and now, as I write in the fullness of life, I am yearning for death with all the passion of a lover. Earthly longings have been crucified; in me there is left no spark of desire for mundane things, but only a murmur of living water that whispers within me, 'Come to the Father'. There is no pleasure for me in the meats that perish, or in the delights of this life; I am fain for the bread of God, even the flesh of Jesus Christ, who is the seed of David; and for my drink I crave that Blood of His which is love imperishable.
Remember the church of Syria in your prayers; it has God for its pastor now, in place of myself, and Jesus Christ alone will have the oversight of it - As I write this, it is the twenty-fourth of August. Farewell now until the End, and wait with patience for Jesus Christ.