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St. Cecilia I went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of The Immaculate Conception here in Washington DC  last week to celebrate Mass the TV Mass. Afterward I went to the crypt church and took a series of pictures of the beautiful mosaics of the women of the Scriptures and early Church. Among them are Agatha, Agnes, Anastasia, Anne, Brigid, Catherine, Cecilia, Lucy, Margarita, Perpetua, Felicity, and Susanna.At the right is a mosaic of St. CeciliaThe Mosaics date to 1927 and were designed and installed by Ravenna Mosaic Co, of St. Louis. They are  the backdrops for the...

Vatican City, Jan 21, 2010 / 10:44 am (CNA).- Today Pope Benedict celebrated the feast of the martyr St. Agnes by blessing a group of lambs in the Urban VIII Chapel of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. Every year on January 21, the Pope blesses a group of lambs which are traditionally less than a year old. The lambs are raised by the Trappist Fathers of the Abbey of Three Fountains in Rome. They are then sheared, and the wool is woven into palliums by the Sisters of St. Cecilia. The palliums will be given to the new metropolitan archbishops...

VATICAN CITY — Reporters in the Vatican press office felt baaaad this morning; they thought they were going to get to see closed-circuit footage of Pope Benedict XVI blessing two live lambs.Instead we got a sound feed of the ceremony that took place in a small room adjacent to the Vatican audience hall.Last year Pope Benedict blessed the lambs in Rome's Basilica of St. Agnes. (CNS photo/Reuters) Today is the feast of St. Agnes, a Roman martyr, and it’s the day the pope traditionally blesses two lambs raised by Trappist monks near Rome.The lambs are sheared and the wool...

January 21, 2006 Memorial of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr Psalm: Saturday 6 Reading I2 Sm 1:1-4, 11-12, 19, 23-27 David returned from his defeat of the Amalekites and spent two days in Ziklag.On the third day a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.Going to David, he fell to the ground in homage.David asked him, “Where do you come from?”He replied, “I have escaped from the camp of the children of Israel.”“Tell me what happened,” David bade him.He answered that many of the soldiers had fled the battle and that many of...

January 21, 2005Memorial of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr Psalm: Friday 6 Reading IHeb 8:6-13 Brothers and sisters:Now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministryas he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second one.But he finds fault with them and says:Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathersthe day...

January 21, 2004Memorial of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr Psalm: Wednesday 6 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading I1 Sm 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 David spoke to Saul:"Let your majesty not lose courage.I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine."But Saul answered David,"You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him,for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth." David continued:"The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear,will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine."Saul answered David, "Go! the LORD will...