Monthly Archives: January 2026

St. Agnes, January 21st.

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Church of St. Agnes, Rome

Church of St. Agnes, Via Nomentana. Rome

Agnes, a popular Roman woman martyr of the 3rd century, ranks high among the seven women mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer. “Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia…”

That prayer goes back to St. Gregory the Great in the 6th century. Some say his mother and aunt may have promoted the women, all strong women who died for their belief. They come from all parts of the church of their time. Felicity and Perpetual are from North Africa, Agatha and Lucy from Sicily, Agnes and Cecilia from Rome, Anastasia originally from Greece.

Details of the story of Agnes, from 5th century sources, may be questioned, but the essential facts about her are true.

St. Agnes, Via Nomentana

A young Roman girl of 13 or so,  Agnes was put to death because she rejected the offer of a highly placed Roman man to become his bride. Incensed, he tried to force Agnes to change her mind; eventually she died for continuing to refuse him.

Women were expected to marry young in those days, to marry men chosen for them, and to have two or three children. They were to produce children for Rome, especially soldiers needed for the empire’s many wars.

Agnes’ refusal then to marry one of Rome’s elite was a dangerous decision. With no support from family or friends, alone in a male-dominated society, at a time suspicious of Christians and their beliefs, the little girl sought strength in Jesus Christ. She was a martyr put to death for her faith.

The Golden Legend, a favorite saint book  from the Middle Ages, says that Agnes was true to her name. She was a lamb (Agnus) who followed the Good Shepherd. Though young, she followed truth, never turning away from it. God gave her strength beyond what’s expected for her years.

The story says they put Agnes among the prostitutes found near the racecourse then on the Piazza Navona in Rome. God warded off those who tried to rape her. A church in her honor stands today in the busy piazza; another church over her grave is on the Via Nomentana in Rome. (above)

They finally killed her with a knife to her throat. Heavenly signs surrounded Agnes even then, her story says, assuring her that her faith was not in vain. The One she loved was with her as she struggled.

 

Agnes, the prayer for her feast says, is an example of how God chooses “what is weak in this world to confound the strong.” The young girl was stronger than her powerful killers.  “May we follow her constancy in the faith, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

Martyrdom of Agnes

The Soldier Saints: Saint Sebastian

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January 20th is the feast of Saint Sebastian, a young Christian from Milan who joined the Roman army in the 4th century as foreign armies began attacking Rome’s frontiers. Like others, he entered military service to save his country from invaders.

A good soldier, Sebastian rose quickly in the ranks. Diocletian, Rome’s finest general and then its unchallenged emperor, appreciated able, brave men. Above all, he wanted loyalty; Sebastian seemed to be everything he wanted.

Yet, he was a Christian. No one knows why, but the emperor, on good terms with Christians early on in his career, suddenly turned against them. In 301 he began purging his army, ordering Christian officers demoted and Christian soldiers dishonorably discharged. The emperor lost trust in them.

Then, Diocletian began persecuting the entire Christian population of the empire. It’s not known how many Christians were killed or imprisoned or forced into hard labor in the mines; it was so ferocious it was called the “Great Persecution.”

As the persecution was going on, sources place Sebastian, not yet dismissed from the army,  in Rome, then under the jurisdiction of Diocletian’s co-emperor Maximian. Here he faced the dangerous situation that caused his death.

Christians were being arrested and imprisoned, and Sebastian was among the soldiers arresting and guarding them. Rather than doing a soldier’s job,  Sebastian did what a Christian should do: he saw those imprisoned as Christ in chains. The whispered words, the small kindnesses, the human face he showed to those in the harsh grip of Roman justice was his answer to the call of Jesus: “I was a prisoner, and you visited me.”

How long he aided  prisoners we don’t know, but someone informed on him. The rest of his story– a favorite of artists through the centuries– says that Sebastian was ordered shot through with arrows by expert archers who pierced all the non-fatal parts of his body so that he would die slowly and painfully from loss of blood.

He was left for dead, but he didn’t die. Instead, he was nursed back to health by a Christian woman named Irene and, once recovered, went before the authorities to denounce their treatment of Christians.

They immediately had him beaten to death.

He was buried by a Christian woman, Lucina, in her family’ crypt along the Appian Way, where an ancient basilica and catacombs now bear the soldier saint’s name. You can visit that holy place today.

The early church revered soldier saints like Sebastian because they helped people in danger, even giving up their lives to do it. They used their strength for others. When soldiers asked John the Baptist what they should do, he answered simply “Don’t bully people.”  The temptation of the strong is to bully the weak.

The soldier saints did more than not dominate or bully others, however; they reached out to those in the grip of the powerful. Sebastian’s great virtue was not that he endured a hail of arrows, but that he cared for frightened, chained men and women in a Roman jail–a hellish place.

Soldier saints like Sebastian recall a kind of holiness we may forget these days. They remind us that it’s a holy task to stand in harm’s way on dangerous city streets, in unpopular wars and trouble-spots throughout the world so that others can be safe. It’s holy, but dangerous, to confront injustice and corruption in powerful political or social systems and take the side of the weak.

Christianity is not a religion that shies away from evil and injustice. Like Jesus, a Christians must not be afraid to take a stand against them. Christians in the military are not bound to follow unjust commands. We pray to the Lord, then, for more soldier saints.

Magdala: “a nearby village”:Mark 1:33-36

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After a tumultuous first day of ministry in Capernaum, Jesus left the following day for other places in Galilee, Mark’s Gospel says.

“Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’ He told them, ‘Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.’ So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.” (Mark 1,36-39)

Was one of the nearby villages Magdala?

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Magdala, or Migdal, a prosperous Jewish port city in the first century. was just five miles south of Capernaum on the south-western part of the Sea of Galilee. Some of the city has been uncovered recently by archeologists and the discovery opens another window into the gospel story.

Magdala’s economy was built on fishing and, in fact, it was the center of a highly developed industry on the Sea of Galilee in Jesus’ day. Written sources have it that salted fish from Magdala was sold in the surrounding areas and even as far as Rome;  recent findings offer a further look at Magdala’s economy and its sophisticated techniques for storing and preparing fish for market. As a flourishing Jewish center on the Sea of Galilee, it was an obvious place for Jesus to visit.

The Jewish historian Josephus may be exaggerating when he says there were 40,000 people in Magdala, but certainly it had a good-sized, prosperous population in the time of Jesus. Christians recognize it as the home of Mary Magdalen.

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New excavations in Magdala and also in Bethsaida on the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee help us understand the world of Jesus and what he did there. For example, there are two newly excavated synagogues at Magdala from his time.  Did he stand in a place like this and teach and cure? Probably.

The recent findings also invite us to look again at Jesus’ disciples. What kind of people were Peter, Andrew, James and John, and the other Galilean fishermen whom Jesus called to follow him? They’re often described as “poor” “ignorant” fishermen, tagging along, open-mouthed, before the wonders Jesus worked and the words he spoke.

But Galilean fishermen seem more resourceful and knowledgeable than that. They knew the world around the Sea of Galilee. That world  was more complex than we might think.  On its western shore were mostly Jewish communities; on its eastern shores were the gentile cities of the Decapolis.

Jesus goes first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but then he crosses over to gentile world. Who takes him to this different world but savvy fishermen who know the places and the peoples around the sea?

They were certainly not ignorant. At one point in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells Peter that he’s thinking like a human being, trying to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem to face suffering and death. In fact, Peter and the rest were quite good at human thinking, quite confident in their own opinions and thoughts. In the gospel Jesus constantly challenges their “human thinking” with the thinking of God. .

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Where did he meet them? Mark’s gospel says it was along the Sea of Galilee. A mosaic of the call of the disciples in the new center at Magdala suggests it may have happened here. Another mosaic suggests that the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, may also have taken place here.

Speculation, maybe.  It’s a good guess that Jesus met  Mary Magdalene here and released her from the seven devils  that messed up her life. She became a disciple.

Mark’s gospel doesn’t limit the followers of Jesus to twelve. He only mentions the twelve once in his gospel. In Mark’s and Luke’s gospels, a wide range of people become followers of Jesus, from the fishermen of Galilee, tax-collectors like Matthew, to women like Mary Magdalene and Johanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Cusa. Women were with  the twelve, Luke’s gospel says:

“Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.” (Luke 8,1-3)

Herod Antipas’ capitol, Tiberias, was only a few miles from Magdala.

Like so many ancient cities, Magdala had its good days and days of decline. It was probably destroyed during the Jewish revolt in 68 AD. Only a few places in the city were left standing when the Crusaders arrived in the 12th century, then it disappeared in the earth.

The Legionaires of Christ bought the property along the Sea of Galilee in 2004 intending  to build a 300 room hotel on the site, but in preparing the building site they uncovered the ruins of ancient Magdala. Construction stopped and the archeologists stepped in.

“For the Rev. Juan M. Solana, it was the spiritual equivalent of striking oil,” a New York Times article from May 14, 2024 said. “When he set out to develop a resort for Christian pilgrims in Galilee, he unearthed a holy site: the presumed hometown of Mary Magdalene and an ancient synagogue where experts say Jesus may well have taught.”

Lectionary and Saints

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Our daily liturgy gives us scriptures to read and saints to celebrate. This week in our lectionary we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark and the 1st Book of Samuel. Today we remember Fabian, an early pope and  martyr, and Sebastian, a soldier saint and martyr.  Tomorrow we have Agnes, a young girl and early martyr. 

Our lectionary readings are not chosen haphazardly. After the feast of the Baptism we began reading each day from the Gospel of Mark, the first of the gospels to be written, an appropriate reading for following Jesus as he begins his ministry in Galilee. 

The saints point out how others have followed him. . The three martyrs we remember this week are examples of some who were put to death in persecutions that took place in the early church. Fabian was put to death at the beginning of the Decian persecution (250) because he was a church leader. The Roman strategy was to kill church leaders and their followers would scatter. 

Sebastian was a soldier saint martyred in the Diocletian persecution. From what we know, Christians were highly regard by the emperor when he first came to power, but then he turned against them,  especially the officer class. Like Sebastian, many of them holding influential positions in the empire were put to death for their supposed disloyalty. 

Agnes was not killed in a general persecution like Fabian and Sebastian.  She died because Christians were legally vulnerable in the centuries before Constantine. The Romans were suspicious of them. Agnes a victim of a powerful Roman man who used the Roman judicial system to punish a young Christian girl who  would not let him have his way with her. 

   

Praying for Christian Unity

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We celebrate a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity every year from the 18th to the 25th of January.

Pope Francis, speaking about ecumenism, said that like the Magi, whom tradition represents as representatives of diverse cultures and peoples, Christians today are “challenged to take our brothers and sisters by the hand… and move forward together.”

Some of the journey together is easier than others, the pope noted, like works of charity together, for example. which draw us closer not only to the poor but to one another.

On the other hand, the journey toward full unity is sometimes more difficult, which “can lead to a certain weariness and temptation to discouragement.

Pope Leo has taken up the same cause dear to Pope Francis. He has called all the Christian churches to celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of Christianity in Jerusalem in the year 2033.

The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.” (Decree on Ecumenism n.1). Ecumenism affects the mission of the church, because the division of Christians prevents the preaching of the gospel and deprives many people of access to the faith” (Ad Gentes, n. 6). Divisions among Christians cause a confusion that hinders people from accepting the gospel today.

Passionist Father Ignatius Spencer, an early pioneer in ecumenical activity, strongly urged more prayer together. Might be a good idea to consider . How can we do it? How can we prepare for the year 2033?

Why? : Mark 2:18-22

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Many flocked to Jesus as his ministry began, but a growing number found him hard to understand. That’s what Mark’s Gospel indicates in our lectionary readings this week.

Scribes from Jerusalem say he has a demon, the Pharisees begin to plot with the Herodians, the followers of Herod Antipas, about putting him to death. (Wednesday) When they hear about him in Nazareth, his relatives say, “No, he doesn’t have a demon. He may be out of his mind,” They come to bring him home. (Saturday. 2nd week)

Besides leaders and people from his hometown, ordinary people begin to distance themselves too. They may be people we hear in Mark’s Gospel, (Monday) who question him “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” (Mark 2, 18-22) Jewish leaders, his own family and ordinary people of Galilee found his message, especially his message of the Cross, hard to understand.

They weren’t ready for new wine, they preferred the old. Nor were they ready for the death he would meet.

Commentators see Mark’s gospel as a Passion Narrative with a prelude. Mark’s early stories predict the Passion of Jesus who will die alone, forsaken by many who flocked to him at first. Forsaken even by his friends.

The Passion of Jesus is a mystery beyond human understanding, Mark’s gospel teaches. Mark wrote his gospel, commentators say, to help the Christians of Rome caught in an unexpected, brutal persecution by Nero in the mid 60s.. A senseless, arbitrary persecution left Rome’s Christians confused and wondering what it all meant. Many abandoned their faith or, like the three small figures in our illustration above, seem lost before the one hanging before them. They were shocked by the tragic suffering they did not see coming. Why? They couldn’t understand.

It was so before you, Mark teaches the Romans then. It was so before you, Mark teaches us today.

The Passion of Jesus in Mark

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Mark’s account of the baptism and temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is the most succinct of the four gospels.  Only five sentences.  The heavens open at the Jordan, the Spirit, like a dove, descends on Jesus, the voice from heaven declares him “my beloved Son.” It’s  quickly over. “At once” the Spirit drives him out into the desert.  Jesus is tempted by Satan for forty days. 

Is that literally forty days, or more likely does it indicate a lifelong experience Jesus has, as some commentators say?

The heavens open at the baptism of Jesus, all the gospels say, but more than other gospels Mark indicates that baptism calls us to participate in the Passion of Christ. In baptism we enter the body of Christ and become children of God and heirs to God’s kingdom, but we are called also to suffer with him.

We should remember this as we begin reading Mark’s account of the triumphant victory of Jesus over Satan as he starts his ministry in the synagogue at Capernaum. It continues  that first day  with his cure of Peter’s mother-in-law and the crowds that come to his door with their sick till the end of the day. 

He wins the crowds over with his teaching and miracles, but it does not last. 

As chapter 8 of Mark ends, Jesus asks his disciples who do people says he is. “You are the Messiah” Peter answers, but when Jesus announces he is going to Jerusalem where he will be rejected and killed and raised up, Peter does not understand.

We face God’s thinking in Mark’s gospel,  which we often do not understand.  Mark’s gospel has been called “ A passion narrative with an extended introduction.” It is written for disciples who are slow to understand the mystery of the Cross.

Most commentators say that Mark’s gospel was written in Rome and meant for the Christians of that city who suffered in the first great persecution of the church by Nero after the fire that consumed the city in 64. Keep them in mind as we hear Mark’s gospel.

Our experience may often be somewhat like theirs.

2nd Sunday a: Listening

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Hear I am, Lord, I come to do your Will

When I was a little boy, my mother would get letters from her cousin Rosanne,  in Ireland, and she would show the letters to me. I noticed sprinkled through the letters were the letters, “DV”.  What’s “DV”mean, I asked my mother?

That means “God willing”,  my mother said. “Deo volente” I learned later in Latin. 

And so when Rosanne wrote “Mary is looking for a job in Glasgow, DV “ she meant “Mary is looking for a job in Glasgow. God willing may she get it.” “ We hope the weather get’s warmer for Danny’s graduation, DV”  meant “We hope we have good day for Danny’s graduation, if it’s God’s will. The letters “DV” were a filter putting her life into another perspective, the filter of God’s will.

You don’t see much of that perspective today. We tend to see life through the filter of politics, or economics, or psychology  or just plain chance. We need to see God’s will at work in our lives and in the world today.

What’s God’s will?  We pray in the Our Father, “Your will be done.” We believe God wills our good. God wants the best us. God calls us his friends, his children. We are children of God. That’s what we are. We haven’t seen it yet, but that’s what we are.

Pope Leo is reflecting on the Second Vatican Council in his Wednesday audiences this year, and last Wednesday he began reflecting on divine revelation. God revealing himself. God calls us friends, the pope says, quoting the words of Jesus to his disciples. 

 “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15).

But we are so unequal, how can we be friends of God. Our knowledge is so limited, how can we be friends with Someone whose wisdom is unlimited.  “We are not equal to God, but God himself makes us similar to Him” be sending his Son to us. “Friendship is born between equals, or makes them so”. (Pope Leo )

We can hear God speaking to us as friends, as children of God, in the scriptures we hear in our liturgy today. God speaks to us as Father. Our prayers remind us who we are. 

We were servants called by God to be something more, our first reading from Isaiah tells us. God calls us to a destiny far beyond our imagination and a mission higher than we  can ever see ourselves. We’re formed as servants in the womb,  but “It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant…I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

In our gospel reading today, John the Baptist speaks of how he came to know Jesus in the baptism at the Jordan where the Holy Spirit made him known. And John was filled with joy.  (Jn 3:29).

Like John the Baptist, we are called to know Jesus as God’s Son through the waters and graces of baptism and the Holy Spirit given to us. We called to know him now in word and sacrament, and as we know him we rejoice. 

“Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will”  That prayer from the psalm in today’s liturgy, could we take it with us and say it this week? 

We need to pray to deepen our friendship with God. “Only when we speak with God can we speak about him”, Pope Leo said in Wednesday reflection. Only when we speak with God can we know ourselves and our dignity as God’s children..    

Anthony of Egypt: January 17

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January 17th is the memorial of Anthony of Egypt, one of the early saints of Egypt who is recognized as the father of monasticism. He influenced St. Athanasius and St. Augustine, as well as modern spiritual authors like Thomas Merton.

Anthony offered himself as a martyr during a 3rd century Roman persecution of Christians in Alexandria, his biographer St. Athanasius says, but they ignored him, and so he embraced the martyrdom of every day.

There’s a martyrdom every day, and temptations that have to be faced daily, Anthony realized. But don’t fear the trials that come. That was Anthony’s advice to those seeking his counsel. Artists like Martin Schongauer (above) portrayed Anthony surrounded by his temptations, but the saint is not afraid. Know your temptations, he said, and God will lead you from them.

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Anthony’s life helped many, among them St. Augustine, to steer through the challenges they faced. Here’s a simple version of Anthony’s battle with temptation as Athanasius described them:

“Those who follow Jesus should expect temptation and Anthony experienced a range of them over the hundred years of his life. The devil knocked regularly on the door of his heart, assuming different faces and making different suggestions, but this shy, gentle man was not conquered.

“In the early years Christ called him, he often thought: ‘Have I made a mistake?’ The days were so slow and monotonous, nothing important going on. ‘Am I doing anything with my life?’ he wondered.

“One day, weary of it all, he left his house and opening his arms wide he cried to heaven: “Lord, what should I do?” For awhile, nothing but silence. Then, Anthony heard someone moving behind him. Turning, he saw someone like himself, getting up from his bed, saying his prayers, eating his meals, doing his work, welcoming some visitors, and finally saying his prayers and going to sleep. Just as he did everyday.

“God’s angel was answering his prayer, Anthony realized. He was beginning to think ordinary life held no meaning. But that’s where treasure is; life is holy ground. Ask God to see it, and don’t give up. Anthony went back to his ordinary life again.

“Other temptations beset Anthony. Sometimes he worried about his health. If he got sick, who would care for him? He had chosen to live for God alone. Wouldn’t it be better to have a family to support you? He gave so much to others and kept so little for himself. Wouldn’t it be better to be a rich man? Lustful thoughts sometimes filled his mind.

“Temptations swept over his soul like dust storms, causing confusion and uncertainty. But in the storms, Anthony learned another lesson: Christ is always with you.

“One restless night, Anthony was almost pulled to pieces by violent temptations. Monsters and demons were everywhere, flying through his room shouting and screaming, ready to kill him. He was about to give up hope when a beautiful light shone through the roof of his house and the demons disappeared. In the peaceful light, he saw Christ.

“Lord, where were you when I was being tried?” Anthony said.
“I was right here all the time you struggled,” Jesus replied. “My hand was on you as your helper.”

“After that ordeal, Anthony experienced peace for a while. Then, one day he heard a knock at his door and, opening it, saw a little man grinning from ear to ear, bowing to the ground before him as if he were king.

“You are a saint, Anthony,” he said ingratiatingly. “Everyone says so. People say you’re wiser and better than anyone on earth. So, tell me everything you can and everything you know; you’re just perfect.”

“Anthony slammed the door in the little man’s face. “You’re more dangerous than any temptation I’ve had, because you want me to believe I’m God, and I’m not. You are the temptation of pride.”

“Gradually over the years, people discovered this man with so much hard earned wisdom. Soon , from everywhere people were seeking his advice and his prayers and his healing for themselves or someone they loved. Because he knew himself so well, Anthony knew their hearts too.

“One constant message he repeated again and again to those who came to him, ‘Don’t be afraid, live joyfully in God’s grace. Never give up. God delivers us from temptation.’”

Many came from the great Egyptian cities to live like Anthony. Communities of dedicated Christians sprang up in the Egyptian desert, and they inspired a similar movement over the Christian world. Benedict of Nursia and others like him would lead the monastic movement into Italy and Europe.

For Anthony’s influence on Monasticism, see Martin of Tours, Benedict of Nursia,

Listening to Prayers

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“Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” Those words of the Prophet Samuel remind us to listen. One way to pray is to listen to God in our prayers. Besides listening to the scriptures and the homilies we hear, we also need to listen to the prayers we say . This is especially true of the Eucharistic prayer and the prayers of our liturgy. We get used to prayers we say repeatedly; we need to listen to them.

I recorded an audio file of the 2nd Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs and you can listen to it at the end of this blog, if you wish. Listen and reflect on the words. The Eucharistic prayers help us understand the mystery we celebrate.

Think about the words of the prayer and ask yourself what they mean. Take the dialogue that opens every Eucharistic prayer, for example:

“The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Lift us your hearts.

We have lifted them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.

It is right and just.”

The Lord is with us as we pray and and lifts up our hearts to the divine presence. That presence expands our vision of life and broadens our awareness of who we are. We thank God.

What do we thank God for? Certainly for the blessings of our life, but we don’t stop there. In God’s presence we become aware of  the blessings of creation and redemption given to us by God, our Father, through Jesus Christ.

The Eucharist calls us into a large world, infinitely larger than our own time and place. If fact, it brings us into the context of eternity. We’re in touch with the beginnings of our universe and reach out to the end of time, when God’s kingdom will come. We belong to this great world as children of God. We have been blessed with a promise far beyond our imagination.

We receive this promise through Jesus Christ whose love we recall in the gifts of bread and wine and the other signs of our prayer. He is present; remember him.

Here’s an audio of a Eucharistic Prayer