5 Feb – Memorial for St. Agatha, virgin and martyr
We have little reliable information about this martyr who has been honoured since ancient times, and whose name is included in the canon of the Mass. Young, beautiful and rich, Agatha (d.250) lived a life consecrated to God. When Decius announced the edicts against Christians, the magistrate Quinctianus tried to profit by Agatha’s sanctity; he planned to blackmail her into sex in exchange for not charging her. Handed over to a brothel, she refused to accept customers.
After rejecting Quinctianus’ advances, she was beaten, imprisoned, tortured, her breasts were crushed and cut off. She told the judge, “Cruel man, have you forgotten your mother and the breast that nourished you, that you dare to mutilate me this way?” One version has it that St. Peter healed her. She was then imprisoned again, then rolled on live coals; when she was near death, an earthquake struck. In the destruction that followed, a friend of the magistrate was crushed, and the magistrate fled. Agatha thanked God for an end to her pain, and died.
Legend says that carrying her veil in procession, taken from her tomb in Catania, has averted eruptions of Mount Etna. Her intercession is reported to have saved Malta from Turkish invasion in 1551.
- Patron Saint Index
Heb 12:4-7,11-15
Mk 6:1-6
“Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a whole community.
In any city where there’s a decent population of Chinese diaspora, the Lunar New Year celebrations will by now, already be in full swing. This year, I decided to make the trip from America to Asia, to spend Lunar New Year with my mother’s side of the family. This is the family that I grew up with; aunts, uncles and cousins who knew me as a child, and during my awkward teenage years.
Going back to one’s childhood home is always a complicated and emotionally fraught endeavour. You never know quite what to expect, or how to reconcile the person you used to be, with the person you are now. You are the same person, yet you are also not. You’ve led many lives, and the one where they knew you, was just one of them. Anyone who has forged their own path away from their childhood home, who has made homes in many places, will have grappled with this. With some people, this ‘homecoming’ is a wonderful thing. People embrace you and remember only the good things; they are overjoyed to see you, and to be reunited. With some other people, it is the ‘dissonance’ that is their focus; how you have changed, how your values are so foreign now, how you’ve forgotten yourself and lost your roots. And then, there is also yourself that you have to struggle with. Who you are, the persona you inhabit, is often a function of where you are in the world. Geography matters, especially when you are adaptable and have built lives in many places. Who are you when you are ‘home’ for the high holidays, especially one that puts so much emphasis on filial love? Are you the dutiful daughter or the prodigal child, or a bit of both?
I have no good answers for any of the existential questions above. I am home because the family I grew up with is getting older. I am getting older too. And whatever reservations I might hold in the quiet corners of my heart, none are going to be worse than the regret I know I will feel, from not seeing someone I love, or once loved, before Time takes them from me. 2025 is the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac. And like the Snake, I would like to shed the old resentments and unforgiven slights that have held me back. All growth is painful; but as Christ showed us, to fully transform and inhabit the self that He has planned for us, we sometimes need to be able to shed the things that no longer serve us, to let go of old wounds, and be at peace with who we are.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)
Prayer: We pray for a safe passage to all who are traveling this Lunar New Year, back to their families. We pray that all reunions are peaceful ones, or if not, then that animosities take a backseat to the joy of homecoming.
Thanksgiving: We give thanks to God for His love, His providence, His guidance and His shelter, as we go about on our respective journeys home to our families. May He watch over all our comings and goings.
OXYGEN 
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