January 21 Sant'Agnese. Prayer to ask for a grace

O admirable Sant'Agnese,
what great exultation you felt when at the tender age of thirteen,
sentenced by Aspasio to be burned alive,
you saw the flames divide around you,
leave yourself unharmed and rush instead against those who desired your death!
For the great spiritual joy with which you received the extreme blow,
by exhorting the executioner yourself to stick in your chest
the sword that was to make your sacrifice,
obtain for all of us the grace to sustain all persecutions with edifying serenity
and the crosses with which the Lord wanted to try
and to grow ever more in love of God to seal with the death of the righteous
a life of mortification and sacrifice.
Amen.