"But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Mt 5,44)
“As soon as you declare yourselves to be my servants, you must expect to be persecuted. I was persecuted all my life long. When I was born, Herod wanted to put me to death; I had scarcely begun to preach when my fellow men wanted to kill me; hardly had I escaped from their hands than I found myself exposed to the snares of the Pharisees and Herod [Antipas], who pursued me from town to town and daily, for three years, set new traps for me to cause my death...
“You must accept these persecutions with joy, as precious signs of being like me, as a way of imitating your Beloved. Bear them peacefully, knowing that, if these things happen to you, it is because I permit them to, and that they will not touch you except in the measure that I allow – I, without whose consent, not a hair of your head is able to fall. Accept them... welcoming all that happens, since all that happens brings about the glory of God in one way or another. Suffer them courageously, offering your sufferings to God as a sacrificial holocaust for his glory... Suffer them while praying for your persecutors since they are God's children, God desires their salvation, and because I will give my blood to save them. I myself have set you an example of prayer for all men, for our persecutors and our enemies.”