February 5, 2005, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr.

A reading from the letter to the Hebrews,

Brothers and sisters, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding

blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children. My son, do not disdain

the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him. For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines.

He scourges every son he acknowledges. Endure your trials as discipline.

God treats you as his sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

At the time all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,

yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness

to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.

Make straight paths for your feet. That what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.

Strive for peace with everyone and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God, that no bitter root spring up and cause

trouble through which many may become defiled.

The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm. The response is, the Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all my being bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all my being bless His holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

As the Father has compassion and his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear

him. But the kindness of the Lord is from eternity to eternity toward those who fear him,

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