One Minute Reflection – 5 February – St Agatha (c231- c251) Virgin Martyr – 1 Corinthians 1 Cor. 1:26-31; Matthew 19:3-12 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“… A man shall leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they two shall be in one flesh.” – Matthew 19:5
REFLECTION – “What should you be saying to your wife? Tell her with great gentleness: “…I have chosen you; I love you and prefer you to my own life. Life in the present is nothing and so I perform all my prayers, intentions and every action, so that we may be granted to spend this life, in such a way, as to be reunited in the life to come, without further fear of separation. Our present life is short and tenuous. If it is granted us to be pleasing to God now, we shall be with Christ and, each other forever in unending happiness. It is your love that enraptures me more than anything else and I could not know, a more unbearable misfortune, than to be parted from you. Were I to lose everything and become poorer than a beggar, run the ultimate risks or undergo anything at all, it would all be bearable for me, so long as your love for me, holds firm. Only by counting on this love, will I hope for children.”
You must also match your conduct to these words… Show your wife how much you value living with her and that, because of her, you prefer being at home to the public square. Prefer her to all your friends and even to the children she has borne you and, let these be loved by you, for her sake…
Say your prayers together. Let each of you go to Church and, returning home, let the husband ask an account from his wife and the wife from her husband, concerning whatever was said or read … Learn the fear of God and all the rest will flow, as from a spring and your house will be filled with countless blessings. Let us aspire to those good things that are incorruptible and the rest will not pass us by. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all the rest will be added to you” (Mt 6:33).” – St John Chrysostom (347-407) Bishop of Constantinople, Father and Doctor of the Church (Homily 20 on the Letter to the Ephesians).
PRAYER – O God, Who among other wonders of Thy power hast given the victory of mMrtyrdom even to the gentler sex, graciously grant that we, who commemorate the anniversary of the death of blessed Agatha, Thy Virgin and Martyr, may come to Thee, by following her example.Through esus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).
AnaStpaul 