10 Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today, St. Agatha Day (Feb. 5, 2016)

Last updated on: February 5, 2016 at 2:18 pm by Kathryn Jean Lopez

10 Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today, St. Agatha Day (Feb. 5, 2016) 2016-02-05T14:18:20-05:00 Kathryn Jean Lopez

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"Jesus Christ, Lord of all things! You see my heart, you know my desires. I am your sheep; make me worthy to overcome the devil."–St. Agatha

— Franciscan U (@FranciscanU) February 5, 2016

2. “Her consecration to infinite truth and goodness in the person of Jesus Christ offered fulfillment so great that death itself could not deter her from possessing it.”

3. Blessed be God my salvation! (Today’s readings.)

John, in prison, is still on everyone's mind (MK6). Herod is prisoner of his fear and his oath; Herodias, of her grudges. John alone is free

— Msgr B Bransfield (@BrianBransfield) February 5, 2016

Stained glass detail showing Saint Agatha, from a window in St Patrick's Cathedral, New York https://t.co/6e3jVyhpRM

— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) February 5, 2016

5. From a homily from Fr. Steve Grunow:

Agatha was arrested, tried and convicted of treason and sentenced to be tortured (which included sexual abuse) and executed- she was burned alive.
She never wavered in her profession of the Church’s Faith.
Secure in the legal protections that are intended to protect our own profession of Faith from the power of the State, we might think that the sufferings of the martyrs are a matter of history. If we do, we are gravely mistaken. Our own religious liberties insulate us from the global experience of the Church, which is not one of freedom, but of persecution.
While we have found comfort in our religion, history will remember the time in which we lived as the era in which cultural genocide was carried out against the ancient apostolic churches of the Middle East; the Christians of Africa languished under violent threats and murderous rampages; in Asia churches were desecrated, destroyed and burned- and the list of atrocities goes on and on. All real. All happening during our lifetime.
What will history say about those of us, Christians, who were safe and secure? What were our concerns? Re-decorating our sanctuaries so as to conform to consumer expectations? Making sure our faith-based initiatives were generously endowed with surplus wealth? Quibbling about how to “modernize” and remain “relevant”? Will it be said of us that while our brothers and sisters in Christ were crucified, that we were distracting ourselves with a pseudo Christianity that we created to serve our needs and that demanded little or no sacrifice and no real cross?
These are hard questions to ask and even harder question to come to terms with. Pope Francis has repeatedly denounced what he calls a “self-referential Church” one that has “turned in on itself”. The spin given to this in the media is usually that there is corruption in the Church’s hierarchy that needs to be rooted out or that the Church has to modernize its outdated views so as to conform to secular prejudices. This is such a distortion and is simply a way we use to defer asking ourselves the hard questions about our own relationship with Jesus Christ and whether or not we take the Gospel’s insistence on repentance seriously or considering maybe that we are just playing with our religion or using it for our own benefit. It is easier to position the pope on the side of our causes than to actually listen to what he is saying.
Some will protest that there may be little we can practically do to help those Christians who languish under persecution, but perhaps the way we can help will be illuminated if we shift our focus away from ourselves and towards the peripheries where they suffer and where their mere existence as a Christian is a daily act of heroic witness.

6. Persecution Great and Small

Beautiful photo of the mosaic of St Agatha in the Lady Chapel of @WestminsterCath by @LawrenceOP. #prayforus pic.twitter.com/06Fq5MIR4X

— Westminster Diocese (@RCWestminster) February 5, 2016

8. Man Finds Hope in Catholic Faith After Suicide Attempt Jumping Off Bridge

9. From the Liturgy of the Hours on St. Agatha by Saint Methodius of Sicily:

My fellow Christians, our annual celebration of a martyr’s feast has brought us together. She achieved renown in the early Church for her noble victory; she is well known now as well, for she continues to triumph through her divine miracles, which occur daily and continue to bring glory to her name.

She is indeed a virgin, for she was born of the divine Word, God’s only Son, who also experienced death for our sake. John, a master of God’s word, speaks of this: He gave the power to become children of God to everyone who received him.

The woman who invites us to this banquet is both a wife and virgin. To use the analogy of Paul, she is the bride who has been betrothed to one husband, Christ. A true virgin, she wore the glow of pure conscience and the crimson of the Lamb’s blood for her cosmetics. Again and again she meditated on the death of her eager lover. For her, Christ’s death was recent, his blood was still moist. Her robe is the mark of her faithful witness to Christ. It bears the indelible marks of his crimson blood and the shining threads of her eloquence. She offers to all who come after her these treasures of her eloquent confession.

Agatha, the name of our saint, means “good.” She was truly good, for she lived as a child of God. She was also given as the gift of God, the source of all goodness to her bridegroom, Christ, and to us. For she grants us a share in her goodness.

What can give greater good than the Sovereign Good? Whom could anyone find more worthy of celebration with hymns of praise than Agatha?

Agatha, her goodness coincides with her name and way of life. She won a good name by her noble deeds, and by her name she points to the nobility of those deeds. Agatha, her mere name wins all men over to her company. She teaches them by her example to hasten with her to the true Good. God alone.

10.

#HomilyTweet: David, John the Baptist, and #SOTD Agatha all have left a legacy. What is yours? Let it be as a faithful servant of the Lord!

— James R. Gretz (@JRGretz) February 5, 2016

PLUS:

See the day of Agatha, virgin renowned, whom Christ has taken to Himself, and honored with a twofold crown. +Damasus pic.twitter.com/fODpNez5s2

— Msgr. Ronny Jenkins (@jenkinsronny) February 5, 2016

https://t.co/F4tnR03NP0 St. Agatha, pray for us! #Catholic pic.twitter.com/s0egWgaavC

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) February 5, 2016

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