‘Behold! what I have believed, I now see! what I have hoped for, I possess! what I have desired, I now embrace! my lips and my heart confess thee. For thee my inmost being longs. Behold, now to thee I go, the only and true God, who, with thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and with the Holy Spirit, livest and reignest forever and ever’.

These are the words recorded as having been spoken by St Agnes as she approached her martyrdom. They resonate down the centuries with power. May St Agnes pray for us. We ask that her total givenness may encourage our own, and may God bless you this day.