Novena Prayer to St. Agatha
Lord God, you showered heavenly gifts on the virgin Agatha.
Hear the prayers of those who recall her devoted life
and who ask her to intercede for them in their necessity.
(Mention your intention here...)
Help us to imitate her virtue during our earthly life
and enjoy eternal happiness with her in heaven.
Amen
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 3, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI today pointed to the testimony of martyrs and invited youth to open their hearts to the "heroism of sanctity."
In his traditional greeting to young people, the sick and newlyweds at the end of the general audience, the Pope noted the group of martyrs being celebrated by the liturgy this week. Today's memorial is that of St. Blaise and there are upcoming commemorations of St. Agatha on Friday and St. Paul Miki and his companions on Saturday.
"May the courage of these heroic witnesses of Christ help you, dear young people, to open your hearts to the heroism of sanctity," the Holy Father said.
"May it sustain you, dear sick people, to offer the precious gift of prayer and of suffering for the Church," he added, "and may it give you, dear newlyweds, the strength to imprint Christian values on your families."
St. Agatha- Pray For Us
Date... February 1, 2010
Starting time...9:45 am
Mood... Happy
Outside my window... SNOW!
I'm thinking... School smool
I'm reading... Some other Saint book
I'm listening to... The kitchen making noise
I'm wearing... White shirt, faux denim skirt, purple fuzzy scarf, purple bandana, & black tights
Yesterday, I... went for a walk in the snow
I'm excited for... no dual-enrollment today
I'm sad because... I'm not having dance today
I'm hungry for... biscuits which are in the oven.
The song stuck inside my head is... Jolly Old St. Nicholas
I want... Breakfast
I love... Snow
I loathe... doing school when there's snow outside.
This week, my goal is... To work harder
Did I meet last week's goal?... Yeah, kind of.
Ending time... 9: 48 am
We found this great new tea call ed "Tension Tamer", and ever since the beginning of the semester, it's taken about a gallon a day to keep me sane. I'm taking two duel enrollment classes this semester. Okay, okay, one of them, I admit, is Ballroom dance which is like the total easy A class. But Latin had gotten really,really hard. I've really had to buckle down and work. Bleh.
Also, my beloved beta fish, Alfie, passed away after two beautifully uneventful years. He survived over 60 hours in a mason jar in the car; he blew bubbles' he played, dead, and he will be sort of missed.
I'm really enjoying my Ballroom dance class. Right now, we're finishing with swing and getting ready to move on. Our professor is a very interesting guy. He is really a history teacher, but he's got this thing for dance. Some of the people in the class are already amazing dancers, and I love dancing with them. This is probably my favorite class ever.
I'm working on my college search and getting really, really stressed about it. I'm only interested in Catholic schools, and I've practically memorized the Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College. My top 3, at the moment, are Belmont Abbey College, CUA, U of Dallas
Anyway, that's my life right now.
First of all, the march for life. I went with my dad and about 100 other folks from school. We were on the bus were everyone had three seats to themselves and slept the whole time. I was way to wired to sleep and spent most of the trip talking to and throwing things at Leo (a dear friend of mine who was being unbearably annoying).The only really unfortunate thing that happened on the way to DC was somebody's choice of movie. We watched Juno. Yeah, don't watch that movie. Other than that our trip up was hunky dunky.
We pulled up in front of our hotel about 6 hours after we left the school (record time). We all climbed very stiffly out of the bus and ran for the hotel bathrooms. We checked into our rooms ate pizza and took off for the Shrine. The director of campus ministry and I managed to find about a foot and a half of floor space behind a column. I spent the entire Mass trying to pray, keep my belongings together, and not knock Brother so-and-so over. It was a very warm, interesting experience. Then we piled back on to the buses and headed back to the hotel, where we hung out for awhile before crashing for about three hours.
We all got up at five, ate breakfast, stumbled on to the bus, realized we'd lost a monk, found said monk, left hotel, and arrived at the Verizon Center. Leo got off the bus and immediately began trying to sell his ticket to the Youth Rally. The Youth Rally was awful. The music was all priase and worship played by a sentimental dad-aged guy. Fourtunately, after Communion, a schola from one of the Seminaries, and they were amazing! All I could think while they were singing was, "Okay, so we've got sentimental, middle-aged people doing this praise and worship this, then we've got these young, good-looking seminarians doing this. I really don' think ouor generation is into praise band Mass." It took like three hours too.
They finally let us out of the Verizon Center, and we headed for the actual march. We stood around in fronst of the Smithsonian for a reaaly long time, pretending to listen to speeches (it was too windy to hear). Then we began walking very, very slowly, and when we finally made it to the street, I realized the only part of our group I could see was an admissions staff member and a monk. So we started pushing and shoving through the crowd, trying to find our group. We hadn't found them by 3:20, ten minutes before we were supposed to leave, so we ran to the station. They didn't show up for another hour at least. My dad had only left four messages on my phone, and I had to text Leo to tell dad where I was. We left around six, and didn't get home until two. So, it was just like last year, only different.
Date... January 11, 2010
Starting time...12:20
Mood... stressed
Outside my window... The back porch
I'm thinking... why does college have to be so close
I'm reading... The Life of St. Gemma Galgani by Ven. Fr. Germanus
I'm listening to... Water running
I'm wearing... White shirt, long, flowy green skirt, purple, argyle knee socks, and long wooden bead earings.
Yesterday, I... Had so much fan at dance class
I'm excited for... Dance tomorrow
I'm sad because... my friend is having problems (prayers please!)
I'm hungry for... Chocolate
The song stuck inside my head is... I don't have one, thanks goodness.
I want... to get the scholarship it is almost impossible for me to get
I love... the idea of college
I loathe... having to do the work
This week, my goal is... To work a lot harder
Did I meet last week's goal?... no, not really
Ending time... 12:30
For the second year in a row I went with my school to the March For Life. I've got to say that if the goverment ignores this, they're blind. Approximately 3 or 400,000 people showed up. They marched from the Verizon center to the Supreme Court; they held up traffic and trains! Not intentionally, of course. They said millions of rosaries, divine mercy chaplets, and sang hymns. Tons of teenagers carried signs asking for an end to abortion. Ignore that Goverment!
For those planning on attending next year, what ever you do, do not go to the youth rally. It's awful.
