Feast of St. Agatha

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Thursday, 5 February 2026 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded that as Christians, all of us as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own beloved people, we have the calling and mission in the various ways that God had intended for us, so that we may be the ones to bear witness to His truth, His Good News, love and ways in our world today, in our respective families and communities. Each and every one of us are entrusted by the Lord with the unique talents, abilities and opportunities for us to make good use of in our various areas of responsibility so that we may be the ones to show the Lord to many more people and lead them all towards God and His salvation.

In our first reading passage today, we heard of the account from the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah detailing to us what happened at the time when King David of Israel, the famous King who led Israel to great triumph and victory of its many enemies, and brought Israel to its golden age, finally came to the end of his earthly life after a period of forty years reigning over Judah and the whole of Israel. And as David was going to the Lord and knew that his time was coming, we heard how he advised his son and heir, Solomon, the one whom God had revealed to David himself as the one to succeed him, in how Solomon ought to continue obeying the Lord, worshipping Him alone and leading the people righteously as their King as David himself had once done.

Through what we have heard in the first reading today and the accounts of the previous weekdays of the life and exploits of David as man and servant of God, and then as King of Israel, in all of his virtues and imperfections, we are reminded that we ourselves as God’s holy and beloved people, having been called to follow Him as well as His servants and disciples, each and every one of us should be inspired by the examples of David and his faithfulness to God, in how he has always strived to love God and his fellow men and women, in his conscious examination of his own actions, flaws and mistakes, and how he has always tried his best to be good and worthy of the Lord in all things. We too should therefore do the same in our own lives.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus sent out His disciples, two by two, centred upon His Twelve principal disciples, the ones later known as the Apostles, and the many other disciples whom He sent to carry out and extend His missions and works to more people and places. We heard how the Lord instructed them on what they ought to be doing in their mission, putting trust in the Lord instead of in their own resources, power and abilities. The Lord also told them all of the realities of what they may have to face in the midst of their missions, both the potential successes as well as the rejections and hardships that they may have to endure.

This is therefore a reminder to all of us as Christians that we should always strive to follow the Lord in what He has entrusted to each one of us to do in life. It does not mean that we must do exactly as what those disciples had done in the past, but rather we are called to do what the Lord had entrusted to us in our own unique circumstances, in the gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities that He had provided to us. We should do our best in our respective areas and places of responsibility, in whatever vocations that the Lord has called us to do, so that by our every words, actions and deeds, by our every efforts and endeavours, we may truly bear faithful witness to the Lord and glorify His Name at all times.

Today, all of us are called to be like David, the King of Israel, in humbling ourselves before the Lord and asking for His guidance and wisdom at all times, in living our lives virtuously and righteously, in embracing the Lord and His love wholeheartedly at all times. And today, we also have another role model to follow in our own lives as Christians, based on the examples set by one of our holy predecessors, whose feast we celebrate today. St. Agatha of Sicily, a renowned martyr and saint from the time of the Great Persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperors can indeed inspire us to be better Christians in true deeds and actions.

St. Agatha was born into a noble Roman family and she made a vow of holy and perpetual virginity, which she offered to God freely and wholeheartedly. Her great beauty was noted by a pagan Roman prefect named Quintianus, who did all he could to try to persuade and coax her to marry him. But despite his best efforts, his pressure and even threats, all those could not sway St. Agatha from abandoning her vow of virginity and her faith in the Lord. She remained resolute in her conviction and desire to follow the Lord, even when pressures and threats were piled up against her to conform to what the society demanded of her.

As that time coincided with the intense persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius, which was a particularly brutal period of intense persecution against Christians, the displeased and disappointed prefect reported St. Agatha to the authorities, and as the prefect Quintianus himself presided over the trial, he hoped that the threat of suffering and death would make St. Agatha to give up her stubborn resistance and refusal to abandon her faith in God. Instead, St. Agatha remained even more ardent in her faith and refused to give up, entrusting her fate completely to the Lord, not fearing the harsh persecutions and sufferings that would surely be hers for having stood up for her faith.

She prayed to the Lord saying, “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, You know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am Your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.” And despite the efforts the prefect tried to incarcerate, torture and make her life difficult, St. Agatha would not be swayed and she remained faithful to the very end. She was tortured with all sorts of punishments, and had her breasts cut, surviving a burning at the stake before eventually dying in prison, remaining faithful to the very end. Her great courage and faith, her enduring trust and love for the Lord even in the face of greatest hardships should indeed inspire us all to live our own Christian faith with greater sincerity and courage at all times.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from our Scripture passages today and from the life examples and inspirations from the life of St. Agatha of Sicily, holy woman and devout servant of God, let us all continue to commit ourselves with greater devotion and strength, and do our very best at every circumstances and opportunities so that we may indeed be truly faithful, zealous and worthy disciples of the Lord, in leading many more souls to the salvation in God. May God therefore bless us all and guide us all with His strength and wisdom at all times, that we may truly always be fruitful in our every efforts and endeavours for His greater glory. Amen.

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Thursday, 5 February 2026 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 6 : 7-13

At that time, Jesus called the Twelve to Him, and began to send them out two by two, giving them authority over evil spirits, and He ordered them to take nothing for the journey, except a staff : no food, no bag, no money on their belts. They were to wear sandals and were not to take an extra tunic.

And He added, “In whatever house you are welcomed, stay there until you leave the place. If any place does not receive you, and the people refuse to listen to you, leave after shaking the dust off your feet. It will be a testimony against them.”

So they set out to proclaim that this was the time to repent. They drove out many demons and healed many sick people by anointing them.

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Thursday, 5 February 2026 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Chronicles 29 : 10bc, 11abc, 11d-12a, 12bcd

May You be praised, YHVH God of Israel our ancestor, forever and ever!

Yours, YHVH, is the greatness, the power, splendour, length of days, glory; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is Yours.

Yours is the sovereignty forever, o YHVH; You are supreme Ruler over all. Riches and honour go before You.

You are Ruler of all; in Your hand lie strength and power. You are the One Who gives greatness and strength to all.

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Thursday, 5 February 2026 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Kings 2 : 1-4, 10-12

When David was about to die, he gave his son Solomon this instruction, “I am about to go the way of all creatures. Be strong and show yourself a man. Keep the commandments of YHVH your God and walk in His ways. Keep His statutes, His commands, His ordinances and declarations written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do and wherever you go.”

If you do so, YHVH will fulfil the promise He made to me : If your sons take care to walk before Me faithfully with their whole heart and their whole soul, you shall always have one of your descendants on the throne of Israel.”

Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. David reigned over Israel for forty years : seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat on the throne of David his father and his reign was firmly established.

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Monday, 5 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of God’s ever consistent and loving Presence in our midst. God has always been with us and He has never left us, no matter how much we have constantly caused Him to be angry at us because of our many wickedness, evils and sins. This is because of God’s ever enduring love for us, which He has always had since the very beginning of time. This love endures even when we have sundered ourselves off from His love and kindness, through our disobedience and sins. God has reached out to us, extending His love and compassionate mercy, which He has made ever ready to reconcile all of us to Him, for it was never His desire to condemn us to destruction.

In our first reading today, we heard of the moment recorded in the Book of Kings when King Solomon completed the building project of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, which would also become known as Solomon’s Temple. This was a grand project started and envisioned by Solomon’s father, King David, who had set aside and gathered large amount of resources in preparation for the building of the Temple and House worthy of God Himself to dwell in. We can get the details of all these and the preparations both in the Book of Chronicles as well as the other parts of the Book of Kings. After many years of construction and preparations, the Temple was finally completed and ready to be consecrated and dedicated to God, which was recorded in our first reading passage today.

King Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant, in the presence of all the elders and leaders of the people of Israel to the new Temple of God, as the key event and moment in the completion and preparation of the Temple of God as the place of Divine worship and as the place where God Himself dwells among His beloved ones, the people of Israel, whom He had first called and chosen from all the children of Adam and Eve. That Ark of the Covenant was indeed important aspect of this event, because throughout the time since it was crafted and made at the time of the Exodus, it has always been the tangible and real sign of God’s Holy Presence amongst His people. We heard of the details of the Ark of the Covenant, the golden Cherubim crafted on top of it, which was where God’s Presence descended upon and rested whenever He came among His people.

Within the Ark was contained first of all the two slabs of stone on which the Ten Commandments, the centre of all of God’s Law and commandments were stored. It also stored the manna, the heavenly bread by which God had fed the Israelites throughout their entire time in the desert during the Exodus. Last of all it also contained the Staff of Aaron, the staff of authority and sign of God’s power, through which God had performed many wonders and signs, in liberating the people of Israel from the slavery in Egypt. All in all, the Ark of the Covenant is the tangible, real and symbolic reminder of God’s Covenant and Presence in this world, His Presence and ever enduring love for His people, and that it had been brought to the new Temple built by Solomon signified the renewal of this Covenant.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard about the Lord Jesus amidst His ministry among the people of God, how He performed many miracles and healed many of the people who had come to Him with various ailments and sickness, troubles and difficulties. We heard how the Lord patiently cared for all of them, and how He healed all of those who came to Him. This is linked to what we have heard in our first reading today, because the Lord Jesus Himself is the bearer and Mediator of the New Covenant to be established between God and all of us mankind. He is the perfect manifestation of God’s Love, that God’s Divine Being has been manifested in the flesh, appearing and dwelling in our midst much as how He once descended upon us all through the Ark of the Covenant.

But the Lord Jesus has manifested to us God’s Presence in a much more real way, and far greater experience than what the people of Israel had once experienced through the Ark of the Covenant. But regardless, in both instances, God’s love and compassion, caring nature and attention to His beloved ones, all of us, have been shown. After all, He has sent us His own Beloved Son, to come into our midst, to be Emmanuel, God Who is with us, to be tangible, real and approachable in His love and grace, that through Christ, His love for us and ultimately His mercy and kindness have been revealed and shown to us. God Himself has come into our midst and He has shown it through real action, by dwelling among us just as He has always promised to us. This is a reminder for us all that we should indeed be faithful to Him, and do our best to live worthily as His beloved and holy people.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Agatha, a renowned saint and martyr of the faith who had lived her life worthily of the Lord, and whose actions and commitment to God, even through bitterness of sufferings and hardships, should inspire each and every one of us in how we should be living our own lives. St. Agatha was born in Sicily during the third century, when the Roman Empire was going through some upheavals and disturbances. She was born into a noble family and was approached by many suitors whom she rejected because of she had made a vow of virginity to the Lord, and the Roman prefect Quintianus, whose proposal St. Agatha had rejected, reported her to the authorities, as he knew of St. Agatha’s Christian faith.

At the time, it was the moment when a particularly intense persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius were occurring, and many Christians were tortured and put to death on account of their faith in God and their refusal to worship the Emperor or the pagan gods and idols. St. Agatha was arrested and persecuted greatly, by the same Roman prefect Quintianus, who hoped that St. Agatha would give in to his demands through the torture. However, St. Agatha remained firm in her faith in the Lord. She reaffirmed her faith in God through this powerful prayer, “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, You see my heart, You know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am Your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.” Eventually, she was martyred as a great example to all the other Christians who were inspired by her faith and courage.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore also be inspired by the faith of St. Agatha, in all her commitment to God and the courage she showed in resisting all the efforts to turn her away from the Lord. Let us all be strengthened in faith in the Lord, being always reminded that God Himself has willingly dwelled in our midst, and He has always been loving and compassionate towards us. Let us all place Him at the centre of all of our lives, and let us continue to live our lives worthily in accordance to what God has shown and taught us, that we may be truly exemplary and inspirational in our own way of life. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 5 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 6 : 53-56

At that time, having crossed the lake, Jesus and His disciples came ashore at Gennesaret, where they tied up the boat. As soon as they landed, people recognised Jesus, and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside.

Wherever He was, they brought to Him the sick lying on their mats; and wherever He went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace, and begged Him to let them touch just the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were cured.

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Monday, 5 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 131 : 6-7, 8-10

The Ark is in Ephrata, we found it in the fields of Jaar. Let us go to where He dwells and worship at His footstool!

Arise, o YHVH, and come to Your rest; You, and the Ark of Your might. May Your priests be arrayed in glorious mantle; may Your faithful ones shout in gladness. For the sake of Your servant, David, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed.

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Monday, 5 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Kings 8 : 1-7, 9-13

Then Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, as well as the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of YHVH from the city of David, which is Zion.

All the Israelites assembled near king Solomon in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month. When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests carried the Ark of YHVH and brought it up together with the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent.

After the priests and Levites had brought them up, king Solomon with the entire congregation of Israel that had assembled before him and were with him before the Ark, sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could neither be counted nor numbered.

Then the priests laid the Ark of the Covenant of YHVH in its place in the inner Sanctuary of the house – the Most Holy Place – underneath the wings of the Cherubim. The Cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the Ark, providing a covering above the Ark and its poles.

There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses placed there at Horeb, where YHVH made a Covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, such a cloud filled YHVH’s House that the priests could not continue to minister. Indeed, the glory of YHVH filled His House.

Then Solomon said, “YHVH has said that He would dwell in thick darkness. So the House I have built You will be Your House, a place for You to dwell in forever.”

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Saturday, 5 February 2022 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of God in the Sacred Scriptures we are reminded to put our faith in the Lord and to trust in Him, asking Him for strength and guidance in our respective journeys of life. We are all called to follow Him and to walk in His path, modelling ourselves and our lives based on all that He has taught us through His Apostles and disciples, and through all the holy men and women, all those who have dedicated themselves to walk in the path of the Lord.

In our first reading today, we heard of the time when King Solomon of Israel, the son of King David who succeeded him as the king over all the people of God, the Israelites. We heard how Solomon, who was then still young and inexperienced, asked the Lord for wisdom and guidance so that he might be able to follow in the great examples set by his father. He prayed for wisdom to be a good leader for the people of God, asking the Lord to show him the path forward as he took over the kingship and leadership from his father.

The Lord did not just grant Solomon what he had asked for, because he did not ask for more wealth, power or glory unlike what most people would have asked for. He humbly asked for wisdom and guidance to be a good leader for the people of God, and God gave him just that, a wisdom unsurpassed by others, which made him famous beyond the lands of Israel. At the same time, God gave Solomon wealth, power and glory unsurpassed and unmatched, and this made the kingdom of Israel to be a great kingdom at the height of its power.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the works of the Lord and His disciples as they went from place to place ministering to the people, proclaiming the truth of God and the Good News of His salvation. There were so many people following them and desiring to listen to the Lord that the disciples were often overwhelmed. They could not even have a proper time to rest. As we heard in our Gospel today, even when they finally managed to get away to a secluded place on their own, the people managed to figure out where they were going and went there ahead of them.

There, despite the tiring works that He had done earlier, the Lord still ministered to the people, teaching them and speaking to them, spending a lot of time with them. It was at that time when the disciples were likely given a time to rest while the Lord continued to work tirelessly, reaching out to His people. We saw in that occasion just how beloved each and every one of us are to God, and how fortunate we are to have been beloved in such a manner by the Lord. God has sent to us His only begotten Son to be our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Through what we have heard today, we have seen how God loves us, wants to be reconciled and reunited with us, that He reached out to us and bestow upon us His blessings and graces. However, more often than not, we are not able to grasp His love and efforts because we are too busy with our many preoccupations and worldly desires. We are often too busy thinking about our many concerns and plans in life to notice God and His presence in our lives, only remembering Him when we have need of Him, and forgetting Him when we do not need Him.

Today, all of us are called to be like Solomon, in humbling ourselves before the Lord and asking for His guidance and wisdom, so that we may discern carefully our path in life going forward from now on. And we also should model ourselves based on the examples set by one of our holy predecessors, whose feast we celebrate today. St. Agatha of Sicily, a renowned martyr and saint from the time of the Great Persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperors can indeed inspire us to be better Christians in true deeds and actions.

St. Agatha was born into a noble Roman family and she made a vow of holy and perpetual virginity, which she offered to God freely and wholeheartedly. Her great beauty was noted by a pagan Roman prefect named Quintianus, who did all he could to try to persuade and coax her to marry him. But despite his best efforts, his pressure and even threats, all those could not sway St. Agatha from abandoning her vow of virginity and her faith in the Lord. She remained resolute in her conviction and desire to follow the Lord.

As that time coincided with the intense persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius, which was a particularly brutal period of intense persecution against Christians, the displeased and disappointed prefect reported St. Agatha to the authorities, and as the prefect Quintianus himself presided over the trial, he hoped that the threat of suffering and death would make St. Agatha to give up her stubborn resistance and refusal to abandon her faith in God. Instead, St. Agatha remained even more ardent in her faith and refused to give up.

She prayed to the Lord saying, “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, You know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am Your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.” And despite the efforts the prefect tried to incarcerate, torture and make her life difficult, St. Agatha would not be swayed and she remained faithful to the very end. She was tortured with all sorts of punishments, and had her breasts cut, surviving a burning at the stake before eventually dying in prison, remaining faithful to the very end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all be inspired by the great examples set before us by the young King Solomon and by St. Agatha, the great Holy Virgin and Martyr. Let us all follow their examples in faith and commit ourselves to walk in the path of faith and grow ever stronger in faith and loving God more and more with each and every passing moments. Let us all seek the Lord with ever greater conviction and ask Him for guidance and strength that we may draw ever closer to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 5 February 2022 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 6 : 30-34

At that time, the Apostles returned and reported to Jesus all they had done and taught. Then He said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves into a remote place and have some rest.” For there were so many people coming and going that the Apostles had no time even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a secluded area by themselves.

But people saw them leaving, and many could guess where they were going. So, from all the towns, they hurried there on foot, arriving ahead of them. As Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.