This is one of those most cherished pictures back about 6 years ago with little Simon... Mary had just been born the month before. It was a nicish spring day with no jacket and a stocking cap and a popcicle being shared by both dog and boy! It is kind of a photo story of spring... Well, winter is just starting to hit us here with a nice few inches of snow and cold temps, so this is not in keeping with what we are experiencing here now... I just thought it was super special and that is in keeping with the glorious feast day it is today - the Feast day of St Agnes! Susan went to Rome to visit Maria for a couple weeks over Christmas, when Maria was studying there for her sophomore year at ST Thomas... she pondered many saints and chose St Agnes as her patron saint over all of them. I have come to appreciate the gift of St Agnes to the world from heaven! She is the go to person when it comes to protecting our purity! She was young, wealthy and beautiful... and had given herself totally to Jesus as his Bride! Men wanted to marry her, but she refused them all. She was put into a house of prostitution, to try to break her, and to force her to give up her purity, but the only man, who tried to touch was struck blind, and she left there pure and untouched! She then walked to her execution as a Bride walking down the aisle at her wedding..."St Agnes went to her death as to her wedding banquet, trusting that Christ, the bridegroom with whom she kept faith in this life, would keep faith with her in the life to come." see http://www.magnificat.com/ It so strikes me that she is there at the foot of Christ, with all his amazing saints, and she is the one that can intercede for all of us... that have been thrust into this "house of prostitution!" I am so aware of the youth, especially, that are left alone in their bedrooms with computers and TVs and all the access they have to impure images and ideas, and even predators that are lurking here and there in chat rooms or probably even facebook... It is an epidemic, and we must be aware as parents of what they are up to... but also it would be great to inform them of St Agnes, and pray to her regularly, and ask her to keep us pure as she was in the midst of such blatant evil and filth! St Agnes, we pray to you on this your feastday - walk with us, and show us the path of purity and true love!
How Simon loved for the dog to chase the cat - Thomas...Entrance Antiphon for mass today: "Behold, now she follows the Lamb who was crucified for us, powerful in virginity, modesty her offering, a sacrifice on the altar of chastity." Wow! this is amazing to read at the beginning of mass! It is so much of what Hallel is doing as a Bride of Christ , and for her to be in the Community of the Lamb, which is formed with the idea of the Lamb that was so weak and slain for our sins... Jesus! Hallel now with her new name has a new feastday - the All Saints Day- "They gave me this feast day because all the saints are gathered around the throne forever singing their praises - "Halleluia to the Highest Heavens!" - and we think of them all together on All Saints Day! But I have no doubt that she is rejoicing with St Agnes today and remembering her year in Rome and the times that she visited her Cathedral and reminded us all the January 21sts since then that this was the special day of days... St Agnes feastday! When John, Nancy and I were gathered in France and waiting for Susan to come out in her new habit and change her name... we were expecting her to be Little Sister Agnes - but with Hallel... Agnes is certainly there front and center with all the other out of this world saints - many of whom that Hallel has embraced almost as much as St Agnes! I am thinking of St Therese, Blessed John Paul II, St Augustine, and on and on!
"Almighty and ever-living God, who chose the weak in the world to confound the strong, mercifully grant, that we, who celebrate this heavenly birthday of your Martyr St Agnes, may follow her constancy in faith..." From the collect in mass today. Jesus, thank you for the gift we so badly need in this impure world - ST Agnes! We are so in need of her reminder to us and intercession for us as we strive to be reborn into purity, and to turn away from all the evil that beckons us! We ar tarnished from all the influences that surround us, but it isn't too late to come back to you and seek to be cleansed in the waters of life and love..."The Lamb who is at the center of the throne will lead them to the springs of the waters of life." Rev 7: 17 We know that we are given the grace of healing and forgiveness and then the army to walk beside us into a better and more righteous life of being small and humble and pure follower of YOU, Jesus! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"I love you, Lord, my strength, my rock, my fortress, my savior." Psalm 18:1
"Certain moralists delight in depicting the path to happiness, which incidentally the path to heaven, as not only straight and narrow but dark, treacherous and impassable, with the result of human initiative dries up, and courage is sapped at the onset... Hard it is and beset with danger, but we are not asked to walk in it blindly; with Christ in our heart we see every step of the way. Light, Saint Paul tells us, is armor, the feet set in Christ's crimson footprints are shod in flame." Caryll Houselander (1954)
May we find purity and joy in life like that of innocent children!!!!!!!! St Agnes, hear our prayer!
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