MEMORIAL OF SAINT AGATHA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ FEBRUARY 5, 2024

NOVENA IN HONOR OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES [Novena Starts: February 2nd; Feastday: February 11th ~ Novena prayer below]

Greetings beloved family and Happy Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time!

Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | February 5, 2024 |

Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on February 5, 2024 on EWTN” |

Pray “Holy Rosary Novena From Lourdes” | February 5, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | February 5, 2024 |

Pray “Chaplet of the Divine Mercy from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | February 5, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteries VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |

Today’s Bible Readings: Monday, February 5, 2024
Reading 1, First Kings 8:1-7, 9-13
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 132:6-7, 8-10
Gospel, Mark 6:53-56

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY: MONTH OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD: The month of February is traditionally dedicated to the Passion of Our Lord in anticipation of the liturgical season of Lent. In this month, we begin to meditate on the mystery of Jesus’ sufferings which culminated in his death on the Cross for the redemption of mankind. Saints who had a special devotion to Christ’s passion include St. Francis of Assisi, who was the first known Saint to receive the stigmata; St. John of the Cross; St. Bridget of Sweden; and St. Catherine of Siena.

On this special feast day, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to remember our beloved late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the first memorial anniversary of his death. We pray for the repose of his gentle soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May the gentle soul of Pope Benedict XVI and souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯

Please let us continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in the Middle East, for an end to the current war in Israel-Palestine, and the Ukraine-Russia conflicts and for peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Amen 🙏

PRAYER FOR THE DEAD: In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life, you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil, and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen🙏

A PRAYER FOR PEACE: Lord Jesus Christ, You are the true King of peace. In You alone is found freedom. Please free our world from conflict. Bring unity to troubled nations. Let Your glorious peace reign in every heart. Dispel all darkness and evil. Protect the dignity of every human life. Replace hatred with Your love. Give wisdom to world leaders. Free them from selfish ambition. Eliminate all violence and war. Glorious Virgin Mary, Saint Michael the Archangel, Every Angel and Saint: Please pray for peace. Pray for unity amongst nations. Pray for unity amongst all people. Pray for the most vulnerable. Pray for those suffering. Pray for the fearful. Pray for those most in need. Pray for us all. Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear our prayers. Jesus, I trust in You! Amen 🙏

Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/

NOVENA IN HONOR OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES [Novena Starts: February 2nd; Feastday: February 11th]

NOVENA PRAYER: Most Holy Mother Mary, at Lourdes you asked us to do penance and to pray for the conversion of sinners. Obtain for each of us the grace of true repentance. Help those for whom we pray, and especially those who most need God’s mercy. Your Divine Son so loves every soul that He gave His life to pay the price for our redemption. Help us to return His love by making the sacrifices needed to keep his commandments. Most Holy Mother you offered your Divine Son to the Eternal Father when you presented Him in the temple; offer us to the Father as your other children; watch over us and guide us. Blessed Mother, obtain for me the grace I most need, and especially these favors that I ask in this Novena, if they be in keeping with God’s will. Amen.
O Immaculate Virgin Mary, preserved from the slightest stain of sin, and enriched with all the treasures of divine grace, I thank you for the many blessings I have received through your most powerful intercession. You know my needs, my trials, my sufferings. Mother of mercy, I beseech you to hear my prayer, and to obtain for me of your Divine Son the favors I seek in this Novena. (Here make your requests.)

THE MEMORARE: Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother; to thee I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen🙏(Add your daily Rosary)

Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes Link | https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-to-our-lady-of-lourdes-297

SAINT OF THE DAY: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr.

SAINT AGATHA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR: St. Agatha (231-251 A.D.) was an illustrious Sicilian virgin, noble by birth but more so by her heroic virtue, was martyred (at Catania in 251 during the Decian persecution) for refusing the solicitations of a Roman senator. At a young age she made the decision to devote herself to Christ, resisting every offer of marriage. Struck by her beauty and wealth, a magistrate named Quintanius desired to marry her. He plotted to use his political power to force her hand, and threatened to prosecute her for the crime of Christianity unless she accepted his sexual advances. When she refused, he forced her into a brothel. Even there, she refused to relinquish her chastity. Furious, Quintanius imprisoned and tortured Agatha, ordering her breasts to be cut off. Upon this barbaric treatment, God sent St. Peter the Apostle to Agatha in a vision, and he healed her wounds. St. Agatha’s torture continued, when she continued to resist, she was then thrown upon red-hot coals. At this point, a violent earthquake shook the town, caused her captors to flee, two walls collapsed, burying two of the governor’s friends in the debris. Quintanius, fearing that people would rise up in protest, had Agatha returned to prison half dead. Here she offered her dying prayer: “Blessed Agatha stood in the midst of the prison and with outstretched arms prayed to the Lord: O Lord Jesus Christ, good Master, I give You thanks that You granted me victory over the executioners’ tortures. Grant now that I may happily dwell in Your never-ending glory.” Thereupon she died of her tortures shortly after in 251 at Catania, Sicily.

A year after her death the city of Catania was in great peril from an eruption on Mount Etna. Pagans, too, were numbered among those who fled in terror to the saint’s grave. Her veil was taken and held against the onrushing flames, and suddenly the danger ceased. Her grave is venerated at Catania in Sicily. She is one of the seven women, besides the Virgin Mary, mentioned by name in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Her name is contained in Eucharistic Prayer I at Mass. St. Agatha is the Patron Saint of rape victims; torture victims; martyrs; single laywomen; sterility; nurses; wet-nurses; Bell-founders; jewelers; against breast cancer and diseases of the breast; invoked against earthquakes, fire, natural disasters; eruptions of Mount Etna; Catania, Italy; Palermo, Italy; Zamarramala, Spain.

“Jesus Christ, Lord of all things! You see my heart, You know my desires. Possess all that I am – You alone. I am Your sheep. Make me worthy to overcome the devil.” ~ St. Agatha

PRAYER: Lord God, St. Agatha always pleased You by her chastity and in the end her martyrdom. May she obtain for us merciful pardon for our sins. Amen🙏

PRAYER INTENTIONS: We thank God for blessing us all with the gift of His precious son, may we be saved by the ame of our Savior Jesus Christ! May the Lord grant us His grace as we continue to serve Him in spirit and in truth. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Agatha, we humbly pray for torture victims, the poor, the needy and the most vulnerable in our communities and around the world. For persecuted christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world. We pray for all those who are sick, we particularly pray for sick children, the mentally and physically ill, strokes, heart diseases, and those suffering from breast cancer and other cancers and terminal diseases. May God restore them to good health and grant them His Divine healing and intervention. May our Mother Mary comfort them, may the Angels and Saints watch over them and may the Holy Spirit guide them in peace and comfort during this challenging time. We pray for the safety and well-being of us all and our families. We pray for an end to war, political and religious unrest. We pray for peace, love and unity in our families, our marriages and our divided and conflicted world. For God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed and for all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. We pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life and for the Church ~ Amen🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:

Bible Readings for today, Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Mark 6:53-56

“As many as touched it were healed”

“After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and His disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized Him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside He entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him that they might touch only the tassel on His cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.”

In today’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus amidst His ministry among the people of God, performed many miracles and healed many of the people who had come to Him with various ailments and sickness, troubles and difficulties. The Lord patiently cared for all of them, and healed all of those who came to Him. Ordinary people of Galilee hurry to Jesus, once they recognized Him, with many of them bringing with them the sick on stretchers to wherever they heard He was. According to the Gospels, the sick were one of the groups that were most open to Jesus. They flocked to Him in large numbers. Those who were broken in body, mind or spirit wanted to draw upon God’s power that was at work in and through Him. They asked Jesus that the sick be allowed just to touch the fringe of His cloak. They believed that would be enough for them to be healed. It was above all those in need of healing who reached out towards Jesus and sought to touch even the fringe of his cloak. They reached out to him because they recognized Him as the source of life and healing. We ourselves very often reach out towards the Lord with greatest energy in those times when we experience our own need of healing, whether it is physical or emotional or spiritual healing. The struggles of life, the brokenness and suffering we experience in the course of our lives, can make us more aware of our need of the Lord and more open to his presence. It is often the cracks in our lives that allow the Lord’s light to enter and shine on us. It can sometimes be through our experience of the cross that we grow in our relationship with the risen Lord. The path to the Lord today for many people is often through their brokenness. When we are desperate, for whatever reason, we tend to approach the Lord with the greatest earnestness and passion. It is in our brokenness that we recognize our poverty and our need of the one who came as strength in our weakness, life in our death, light in our darkness. The darker times of our lives can leave us more spiritually aware by bringing home to us our need of the Lord. It is in such moments that we truly make our own that prayer which forms part of a well-know hymn ‘Help of the helpless, o abide with me’.
In the Gospel reading the sick wanted to touch the fringe of the Lord’s cloak; they wanted not only a personal contact with Jesus. For us today, it is above all in the Eucharist that we touch the Lord and the Lord touches us. It is there above all that we bring our brokenness before Him for His healing touch. The Lord can come powerfully to us in our weakness if, like the people in today’s Gospel reading, we hurry towards Him.

In our first reading today from the Book of Kings, King Solomon completed the building project of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, which would also become known as Solomon’s Temple. This was a grand project started and envisioned by Solomon’s father, King David, who had set aside and gathered large amount of resources in preparation for the building of the Temple and House worthy of God Himself to dwell in. The details of all these and the preparations are both in the Book of Chronicles as well as the other parts of the Book of Kings. After many years of construction and preparations, the Temple was finally completed and ready to be consecrated and dedicated to God, which was recorded in our first reading today. King Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant, in the presence of all the elders and leaders of the people of Israel to the new Temple of God, as the key event and moment in the completion and preparation of the Temple of God as the place of Divine worship and as the place where God Himself dwells among His beloved ones, the people of Israel, whom He had first called and chosen from all the children of Adam and Eve. That Ark of the Covenant was indeed important aspect of this event, because throughout the time since it was crafted and made at the time of the Exodus, it has always been the tangible and real sign of God’s Holy Presence amongst His people. The Ark of the Covenant, the golden Cherubim crafted on top of it, was where God’s Presence descended upon and rested whenever He came among His people. Within the Ark was contained first of all the two slabs of stone on which the Ten Commandments, the centre of all of God’s Law and commandments were stored. It also stored the manna, the heavenly bread by which God had fed the Israelites throughout their entire time in the desert during the Exodus. Last of all it also contained the Staff of Aaron, the staff of authority and sign of God’s power, through which God had performed many wonders and signs, in liberating the people of Israel from the slavery in Egypt. All in all, the Ark of the Covenant is the tangible, real and symbolic reminder of God’s Covenant and Presence in this world, His Presence and ever enduring love for His people, and that it had been brought to the new Temple built by Solomon signified the renewal of this Covenant.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded of God’s ever consistent and loving Presence in our midst. God has always been with us and He has never left us, no matter how much we have constantly caused Him to be angry at us because of our many wickedness, evils and sins. This is because of God’s ever enduring love for us, which He has always had since the very beginning of time. This love endures even when we have sundered ourselves off from His love and kindness, through our disobedience and sins. God has reached out to us, extending His love and compassionate mercy, which He has made ever ready to reconcile all of us to Him, for it was never His desire to condemn us to destruction. Let us all therefore also be inspired by the faith of the Saints and Holy men and women, particularly St. Agatha, whose feast we celebrate today, in all her commitment to God and the courage she showed in resisting all the efforts to turn her away from the Lord. Let us all be strengthened in faith in the Lord, being always reminded that God Himself has willingly dwelled in our midst, and He has always been loving and compassionate towards us. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace, as we all place Him at the centre of all of our lives, and let us continue to live our lives worthily in accordance to what God has shown and taught us, that we may be truly exemplary and inspirational in our own way of life. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen 🙏

Let us pray

My healing Lord, I thank You for the spiritual healing You continually offer me, especially through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I thank You for the forgiveness of my sins on account of You suffering on the Cross. Fill my heart with a greater desire to come to You so as to receive the greatest gift I could ever receive: the forgiveness of my sins. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Agatha ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this new year and praying for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and our world and for God’s Divine Mercy and Grace upon us all as during this Ordinary Time. Have a blessed, safe and grace-filled and fruitful week ~ Amen🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena 💖