Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Meet St. Agatha.  Today is her feast day.  Agatha was a young Sicilian noblewoman who was viciously raped and tortured to death under the Decian persecution in ARSH 251.  St. Agatha is commorated in the Canon of every Mass (the Canon is the fixed prayers from the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) to the Pater Noster (the Lord’s Prayer).  The invocation of St. Agnes comes after the Consecration, while Our Blessed Lord is upon the Altar.  In the Mass of the Ages, this comes at the NOBIS QUOQUE PECCATORIBUS…  In the Novus Ordo, well, I guess it is hit-and-miss.  The English translation of the Latin is:

To us also, Thy sinful servants, confiding in the multitude of Thy mercies, vouchsafe to grant some part and fellowship with Thy holy Apostles and Martyrs; with John, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecily, Anastasia, and with all Thy Saints, into whose company we beseech Thee to admit us, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences.

One of St. Agatha’s tortures was to have her breasts cut off.  Hence, she is almost always pictured holding a plate with her two severed breasts upon it.  She endured incredible tortures, and was healed at one point by a miraculous appartition of St. Peter himself (pictured above).  Finally, after enduring more rape, torture with fire and mutilation, St. Agatha died from her torture in prison.

I especially like the Collect:

O God, Who among other wonders of Your power have given the victory of martyrdom even to the gentler sex, graciously grant that we who commemorate the anniversary of the death of blessed Agatha, Your Virgin and Martyr, may come to You by following her example.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

And, of course, the Gospel is Matthew 19: 3-12, in which Our Lord declares marriage to be indissoluble.  Because marriage between man and wife – indissoluble – is the image pointing to the greater reality of Christ’s espousal to His Church – indissoluble. It’s amazing the things a person can do and the sufferings one can bear if one knows and believes that they are espoused to God Almighty, and that He will never, ever abandon them.  What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

St. Agatha is very close to Our Lord in heaven and thus has great intercessory sway with Him.  As we move closer to the Counter-revolutionary World War wherein the full demonic power of the Freemasonic-sodomite Anti-church, Marxism, islam and the animalistic and hell-spawned depravity of the rap/hip-hop culture will be turned loose upon the western world, ask St. Agatha to pray for you that you might be courageous in the face of any coming rape and torture, and die an exemplary and holy death, if it so happens that you should meet that fate and be thus martyred.  I know I sure do.

St. Agatha, pray for us!