"O, Jesus, my feet are dirty. Come even as a slave to me, pour water into your bowl, come and wash my feet. In asking such a thing I know I am overbold but I dread what was threatened when you said to me, 'If I do not wash your feet I have no fellowship with you.' Wash my feet then, because I long for your companionship. And yet, what am I asking? It was well for Peter to ask you to wash his feet; for him that was all that was needed to be clean in every part. With me it is different; though you wash me now I shall still stand in need of that other washing, the cleansing you promised when you said, 'There is a baptism I must needs be baptized with.'" Origen

Origen, one of the earliest Christian theologians, was born in Africa, probably at Alexandria, toward the end of the second century. He endured terrible suffering for the faith after his arrest in 250 during the Decian persecution. Many of his writings, which provoked great controversy during his lifetime and after his , have been lost but we do know that he was a great scripture scholar who worked to secure a more reliable text of the Old Testament by careful comparison of the Hebrew and Greek versions.
Desmond Tutu from his African Prayer Book