The Fifteen Thursdays of St. Rita
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The Fifteen Thursdays of St.
Rita devotion -- i Quindici Giovedi di Santa Rita, in Italy -- takes
place on the fifteen Thursdays preceeding May 22, her feast day --
i.e., this devotion starts on a Thursday in February and continues on
for fifteen Thursdays -- until the last Thursday before May 22. Each of
these fifteen days begins with the same preparatory prayer followed by
a reading on the life of St. Rita, a reflection about the lesson of
that aspect of her life, and a final prayer.
These instructions and prayers1 can be downloaded in pdf
format: The
Fifteen Thursdays of St. Rita (45 pages)
First
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: Rita...Or the
Precious "Pearl" in a Desolate Land
Rita is a lovely name. It comes from the Latin "margarita" which means
"pearl." It was a providential name, seeing that in the fifteenth
century St. Rita was one of the most precious jewels of Holy Church.
She lived five hundred years ago, at the time of St. Joan of Arc. When
Joan was burned in Rouen, our Saint was probably about fifty years old.
In France there was a war that lasted a hundred years, the frightful
rivalry between the Gasconians and the Burgundians. In Italy things
were no better, as the Guelphs were for the Pope, the Ghibellines for
the Emperor.
At Rita's birth, the Church herself was divided. The "Great Schism" had
begun three years earlier. For forty years there were two Popes opposed
to each other and even three at the end.
The Mohammedans profited. Four years before Rita's death they took
Constantinople, and they spoke of n othing less than feeding their
horses in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.
Everywhere there was shameless debauchery. The clergy themselves were
very lax. Joan of Arc's trial was evidence of that.
It was then that God raised up a chosen soul, a truly precious "Pearl"
in this desolate land.
Cascia was a small territorial district of Italy, situated in the
Apennines. One of its hamlets was called Roccaporena. There Rita was
born, the Saint we love.
Reflection: The
Value of Saints in Our Lives
If the Church of Jesus Christ is holy, one reason is that she has
produced Saints in every age. Saints are the lightning rod of the
world. Happily for us, we are not isolated individuals. We form an
immense body called the "Mystical Body" of Christ. All of us are
members.
Among us there is a "common union" called the "Communion of Saints," a
union of all baptized people. If all lived up to their Baptism, that
would be wonderful. Regrettably, in this large "Body" there are many
spiritually sick members, who weaken the whole.
This weakness must be strengthened. And it is the Saints who are the
ones charged with this function. By their merits they enable the Body
to live in a more holy fashion. They also have a hand in keeping the
world in existence. We ought to acknowledge what they do and, above
all, thank them for it. Our first attitude toward them should therefore
be an attitude of acknowledgment and our first prayer a prayer of
praise and thanksgiving.
Not only are the Saints the counterbalance to the sins of the world;
they are also the witnesses of the Gospel. Their existence is like a
living lesson for all to see. They show us the human masterpiece that
can be achieved by following Christ and taking His message and counsels
seriously.
This is what St. Rita did: take the message seriously. In a century
that was particularly callous, with some others like St. Joan of Arc,
for example, she helped to save the people of her time: she showed them
the way of the supernatural.
The first thing we should ask of her is to save us also and help us
break away from whatever is irreligious in our daily life, We should
moreover ask her to show us how we must change if we are to be really
Christian.
Prayer: For a Return
to the Evangelical Life
O St. Rita, the Providence of God raised you up in the fifteenth
century to help save the Christian world from the lamentable state to
which it had fallen. Look at our times. They are scarcely any better.
Now and then we are divided by so much misunderstanding and, at times,
hatred. For us also the peril is at our door because of our sins. By
your merits, keep away from us and our children the frightful dangers
of war. Our misery consists above all in being so far removed from true
Christianity. Help us return to a life that is more in harmony with the
Gospels. By your example, make us understand that we must be converted
and live in charity as tue baptized people of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Second
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many graces You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: The Miracle of
the Bees
The father of our Saint was Antonio Lotti, and her mother was Amy
Ferri. Little is known about them beyond the fact of their reputation
for goodness, and that is enormous, especially at a time like theirs
when the small villages were painfully divided. Roccaporena was one of
the villages.
Antonio and Amy had no stake in the political quarrels that set Guelphs
against Ghibellines. On the contrary, they sought to calm spirits and
rivalries, so much so that they were nicknamed the "conciliators" or
the "peace-bearers" of Jesus Christ. Their daughter would learn from
them.
But over the years a secret sorrow had disturbed their tranquil joy.
They had no children. In their home none of the cries that awaken so
many echoes in the heart of parents had yet been heard. Many times they
had, to this end, addressed to God the most ardent prayers.
Just when everything had led them to believe that God wanted the
sacrifice of this legitimate desire, the unexpected happened, recalling
the birth of St. John the Baptist, the precursor of Jesus. To spouses
advanced in age God sent offspring, in this instance a baby girl. It
was probably the year 1381.
"Margarita" was the name given the baby at its Baptism in the Church of
St. Mary of the Commoners in Cascia. The name "Rita," under which she
was canonized, is a diminutive of the Italian "Margarita." Even in the
convent she was known as "Sister Rita." Today still she is known and
venerated in the whole world by this diminutive.
Tradition has it that one day the little girl was put in a wicker
basket and placed under a shade tree so her parents could go work in
the fields. A swarm of bees appeared and surrounded her. They entered
the mouth of the child and, without stinging her, deposited their honey.
A harvester happened to pass by. He had gashed his hand and was
returning to the village to have it taken care of. Seeing the swarm, he
made a motion with the wounded hand to drive them away. Suddenly the
hand was healed. The episode made a deep impression on the good people
of Roccaporena. The memory of it has been transmitted to posterity by a
fresco that adorns the little chapel built on the very spot of the
miracle.
The Church herself spoke of the event in the lessons of the Roman Breviary.
As for the bees, they followed Rita. After five hundred years the bees
still live on the grounds of the convent in Cascia. In the seventeenth
century Pope Urban VIII asked that some be brought to him in Rome. He
took one of them, tied a silken thread around it, and let it escape. It
returned to Cascia, or so it is said.
Today still, a touch of mystery hangs over these bees of St. Rita's
convent. They are a little larger than ordinary bees and have neither
stinger nor feeler. Eleven months of the year they remain shut up in
the holes of an old wall. The week of the Passion they come out of
their holes and always return to them during the octave of the feast of
the Saint.
We should regard this tradition -- more than as a historical fact -- a
symbol of what this infant would be: sweet and industrious.
Reflection: Blessed
are the Meek
Rita was to be a Saint of meekness. She had, so to speak, been
predestined to it by the goodness of her parents. In the midst of much
cruelty they were the "conciliators" of Jesus Christ. They worked to
put an end to all the hatred in the village of Roccaporena.
The parents of Rita took the beatitude about "peacemakers" seriously.
Note that this word means: those who "make" peace, who are its
artisans. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called
children of God" (Matthew 5:9).
And we, are we artisans of peace wherever we are: at home, at work, or
anywhere else? How do we handle our relations with one another? It
would do us no good to have a certain piety if at the same time we were
l ike people who deliberately create misunderstanding and, as the
saying goes, throw oil on the fire.
That Rita was predestined to be a Saint of meekness was also suggested,
at the time of her infancy, by the delightful miracle of the bees.
Honey has always been a symbol of meekness. Let us not forget St.
Francis de Sales affirming, from experience, that more flies are caught
with a spoonful of honey than with a barrel of vinegar.
Our Lord weight His words well when He said: "Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the land" (Matthew 5:5).
Prayer: For the
Spirit of Meekness
O St. Rita, deeply Christian parents inculcated in you the sense of
Christian goodness. Teach us to put it into practice. Obtain for us the
honey of meekness. We know that to acquire this virtue we must first be
capable of mastering ourselves. And we know very little about doing
that. We let ourselves be led by our antipathies, our prejudices, our
material interests. Help us change all that, you who were the Saint of
meekness. Amen.
Third
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: Education by
Image and Example
We know nothing very precise about the education the Lotti gave their
daughter. They certainly did not make her a woman of learning. One
simply cannot give what one does not have. At the time of the Lotti the
poor were probably unlettered, as were many people of modest means.
Besides, there was no schoolhouse in Roccaporena.
The great book of images that children studied was the church of their
village. Pictures, paintings, statues, stained glass windows, all
helped to excite their minds and hearts. The land of Rita, Umbria,
already was rich in native painters, who would soon give rise to the
Peruginos and the Raphaels.
Child that she was, Rita did not have eyes enough for the many wonders
mother Lotti explained to her. There were the Bible, especially the
Gospel narratives. There was also the beautiful Golden Legend of the
Saints and the legends of the Poverello, Francis of Assisi.
In the Bible and the legends Rita quenced her thirst for religious
knowledge. One "book," nevertheless, topped them all: the Crucifix, the
imposing Crucifix of so many Italian churches. It taught the child
everything: love of Jesus, hatred of sin, and the spirit of penance.
Nothing, unfortunately, is known about the First Communion and the
Confirmation of this exceptional child. However, we can surmise that
each such occasion must have strengthened her sense of generosity.
Rita was the sole caretaker of her aged parents, and almost all the
work around the house fell to her. As a reward her mother sometimes
offered to buy her a small item she could use at her washstand. The
little girl would graciously decline.
Like the monks living as solitaries in the caves around Roccaporena,
the so-called Hermits of St. Augustine, Rita loved solitude. Her
parents even let her have a small, secluded room. This she made over
into a chapel decorated with images of the Passion. Here she prayed to
Christ with all her heart, dreaming of becoming His bride by taking the
veil of a nun.
We shall see the detour Providence allowed her to take before making
this dream a reality.
Reflection:
Importance of a Catholic Education
There is a great difference between Rita's education and the education
of most children today. Times have changed for sure. In our day it
would be unthinkable to let a child remain unlettered. Children need to
be educated if they are to take their place in society.
However, it is regrettable that too many parents insist on their
children's instruction in matters that concern their future earthly
destiny and neglect their children's religious education, which they
regard as of little importance.
They take steps to get their child or children ready for First
Communion, an that is all to the good. But children keep growing. Will
their religious formation keep pace if no one helps them?
Teenagers may do well in secular studies yet remain on the level of a
ten-year old in religious education. Small wonder that some of them
give up all practice of their religions.
Christian parents must understand that one of their principal duties is
to provide for the religious education of their children. Normally they
should do so by choosing a Catholic school even if the choice involves
a monetary sacrifice. If cost puts a Catholic school out of reach for
them, they have the duty to supply the religious formation by other
means.
Our American parishes have CCD programs where Catholic children and
teenagers not in a parochial school are taught Catholic doctrine and
practice.
In any event, our little ones should always receive at home their first
Christian education. It is the parents' duty to teach their children
their first prayers and to speak to them about Jesus, about the Blessed
Virgin, about the beautiful stories in the Gospels, and about the lives
of the Saints. Parents should take them, when still very young, to the
church to visit our Lord and explain to them what the statues, the
pictures, and the Way of the Cross represent. This St. Rita's mother
did.
It is also the duty of parents to instill in their little ones the
meaning of sin (what turns us away from Jesus) and the meaning of the
state of grace (Jesus present in our hearts).
Parents, moreover, should ensure that their children are prepared for
their First Confession and their First Communion. Let them know that
this Confession and this Communion are not optional practices but
obligatory for them from the time a child is capable of making them.
Only a religious education of the kind described here can form true
Catholic Christians.
Prayer: To Ensure
the Religious Education of Our Children
O St. Rita, you had the great happiness of being brought up by truly
religious parents. Raise up among us many parents like yours. Let their
principal care be to lead their children to Jesus. Let them be aware of
their responsibility and have all the understanding and all the tact
they need to fulfill their roles. Humbly ask the Holy Spirit to help
mothers be solicitous for the faith and generosity of their children.
Let our little ones learn to be unselfish and devoted to others. Let
our teenagers be resolved to do their best, and let them be guided by a
true love for Jesus. May our Lord help them to remain upright and pure
in a world that is not. The temptations they will face are so many and
so great that their perseverance will seem at times to be compromised.
O Saint of most difficult cases, help the parents of today to educate
the Catholics of tomorrow. Amen.
Fourth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: A Dreaded
Marriage that Turns Out Well
Rita wanted to be a nun. That seemed to be her vocation, inasmuch as
the had always loved solitude and the life of prayer.
However, her aged parents wanted her to marry, perhaps because they had
increasing need of her and desperately wished to keep her in the
village.
Rita, ever docile, deferentially accepted what her parents called "a
good match."
Certainly, her fiance, Paul Mancini, was not the ideal spouse. But
possibly Rita's mildness could change his character for the better.
After all, even someone who has been the subject to a tormented youth
can become a good father.
It was important that a girl have a home. At this period, marriages
were made without consulting the young people involved and in accord
with the interest of the parents. Rita consented, smiling in order to
hide her tears.
Thus, at the age of eighteen Rita married Paul. The early years were
very hard for her. Her husband was a loud and violent man who at times
even hurt her. He is said to have been full of anger, vulgar, and
debauched.
However, the latest research has unearthed date that tend to
rehabilitate the man. He did not have all these vices, we are now told.
Yet it is no less true that the characters of the two spouses did not
interact very well. For example, marital authority was manifested by
the husband a little too harshly, frightening the timid Rita.
Moreover, Paul was a soldier in a troubled country, and his vocation
was more important to him than his home. When he returned there
battle-weary, he was often in a foul mood. Rita tried to compensate for
this by her patience and her delicate nature.
Little by little, the two spouses drew closer together. Paul put forth
efforts for the peace of the home, and the couple was relatively happy
for fifteen years.
Under the influence of his bride, Paul became a good Christian. Rita's
acceptance of the cross given her eventually brought conjugal happiness.
Therefore, it is with good reason that Catholics have made it a habit
to entrust difficult matrimonial situations to St. Rita. She had
experienced such situations and had succeeded in overcoming them by the
only true victory: that of love that ends up being shared.
Reflection: Example
of Heroic Patience
Sometimes God's ways are incomprehensible. Rita seemed to have a call
to the religious life, but Providence allowed her parents to direct her
to the marriage state.
This fact causes us to realize that God's plans are often much
different from ours. He is far wiser than we are. He sees situations
clearly in His Divine Wisdom, and we owe Him our trust.
Once God's will is clear, the only reasonable attitude is to submit to
it. St. Rita did just that: she submitted to God's will.
We now understand, in the light of this Saint's experience, why God
acted as He did. He wanted to give unhappy spouses a striking example
of heroic patience.
So many men and women today are suffering the painful consequences of
an ill-considered marriage. All too often these spouses, unlike Rita,
have only themselves to blame. They chose to ignore the advice given
them to think twice before getting married. Heeding only their passion,
they rushed headlong into a deplorable union.
When the time of illusions has passed, these spouses begin, too late,
to comprehend the mistake they have made. Often they react with
violence and ineptness. A struggle between two egotists ensues, and
then they can think of no solution but the abomination of divorce. With
that, their own two lives are shattered as well as those of their
children who are always innocent victims.
People presume to say that they "must start over." Sometimes even
parents who consider themselves devout Catholics give this shocking
advice and encourage their son or daughter to enter into a new union
outside the Church, which keeps them away from the Sacraments.
How much better to follow the example of St. Rita, the faithful wife.
She endured difficult times, but her suffering was not in vain. She not
only found the joy of a happy home but also saved her husband's soul.
She was indeed a "peace-bearer" of Jesus Christ: "Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the land" (Matthew 5:5).
Prayer: For Those in
Troubled Marriages
O St. Rita, make us understand that a vocation is not only a matter of
attraction. Enable us to see clearly that it is also a matter of
finding, in ordinary events, God's will for us and then accepting it
even if it seems to be baffling and contrary to our wishes. Teach those
called to the marriage state by the Lord to reflect deeply on the
delicate choice that will influence their destiny. Let them not be
deceived by their feelings; instead, let them look for the solid
qualities that keep a home united in the joy of the Lord. Teach unhappy
spouses the power of patience and mildness. Let them not give way to
discouragement but, like you, let them save both the happiness of their
home and the soul of their spouse. Amen.
Fifth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: Home Life and
the Service of Others
The little church in Roccaporena, where Rita was married, still stands
today. Also in Roccaporena can still be seen the Mancini House, where
Rita and her husband lived after the death of her parents. It is
possible that the two couples lived there together.
Engaged couples from many countries like to have their promises blessed
in the Mancini House, which has been made into a chapel. A precious
relic of St. Rita, her blood-stained cloak, is kept in the chapel. Her
wedding ring and her peasant rosary are kept in the convent in Cascia.
Rita's wedding ring represented at first the sacrifice she had to make.
Her sadness, however, was changed to joy and blessings by the
conversion of her husband. The rosary, like the blood-stained cloak,
tells the secret of this conversion. Did not our Lord say that some
categories of demons can only be driven out by prayer and penance?
Rita was always a praying soul. She had great devotion to the suffering
Christ. her rosary testifies to her devotion to Mary.
In the fifteenth century the method of the rosary was already
well-known and widely used. People prayed the Hail Marys and meditated
on the mysteries. The meditation is by far the main part.
We can easily imagine our Saint calling to mind the joys, the sorrows,
and the glories of Jesus and Mary. We can picture her comparing events
in her own life with the mysteries and drawing courage and hope from
them.
Rita was not content with prayer alone. She lived at a time when bodily
penances were much in favor. Sometimes they were practiced to excess,
as in the confraternities of Flagellants.
Rita wore a hair shirt. She also would scourge herself, which accounts
for the bloodstains on her cloak. To the official Lent, she would add
one and even two other "Lents" wherein she survived only on bread and
water.
Not far from the Mancini House in Roccaporena there was a kind of small
dispensary called the Lazaret. Here the sick poor were nursed by
kindhearted women. Rita was among those nurses. Her historians speak of
her increased generosity toward the poor. They add that "her husband
approved."
Reflection: The Need
for Penance
All through her married life Rita was a model for the sincere
Christian. What should be borne in mind, more than anything else, is
her spirit of penance. This is more worthy of reflection than her
meditative way of praying the rosary, or her heroic patience, or even
her charity toward the poor.
In our day, people do not like to hear of penance. The Church herself
has had to reduce our fast to almost nothing. Bodily mortification is
seldom preached.
Present-day materialism has made the body king. Nothing is denied it;
everything seems owed it. We seek comfort in all its forms. We seek it
in defiance of all decency. We seek the pleasures of the senses,
beginning with those of food and drink, on which so much is spent. A
comparable sum, if not more, is spent to keep abreast of the latest
fashions.
Crowning it all is unbridled sensuality. "Your body is yours alone!"
proclaims a pagan literature, relayed by immoral and degrading films.
Not a few succumb to temptation, and many adults abandon all religious
practice simply because, after their youth, Christian morality seems
too hard for them to bear.
Against this deluge of pagan influence, almost no one dares to protest.
Human respect paralyzes the people who should react and makes
speechless the people who should speak out.
One person, and only one, has put forth a call to bring back the
authentic Gospel; it is the Blessed Virgin. At Lourdes she repeated
"Penance, penance, penance!" At Fatima she let little Jacinta know that
"sins of the flesh are the sins that lead the most to Hell."
We who feel attracted to St. Rita should have the courage to examine
the abyss that separates us from her spirituality in the matter of
bodily penance. We should also ash her to help us practice some form of
penance regularly.
Prayer: To Foster
Mortification and Sacrifice
O St. Rita of Cascia, you took the Gospel of penance seriously. You
knew how to master the instincts of your body to keep it from
oppressing your soul. Help us, have pity on us. We too are swept up in
the torrent of materialism. Do not allow us to be lost in it, nor any
of the people we hold ear. Give us a high regard for mortification,
seeing that it is indispensable. In the present and the future we have
to defend ourselves against the contagion of evil. In the past there is
much we have to make amends for, we who sometimes say we have never
hurt anyone. Yet the truth is that by our sensuality we have hurt
ourselves. Shake off our torpor. Help us to free ourselves. Above all,
teach us to protect our young by instilling in them a love for God and
a desire for mortification and sacrifice. These are the price of their
purity, and we know very well that purity will be for them the sole
means of their perseverance in the faith. "Blessed are the clean of
heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew :8). Amen.
Sixth
Thursday
Life: Two Severe
Trials -- Deaths of Parents and Husband
Rita went through trials most people go through, particularly the loss
of dear ones in death. She was born of parents far along in years. Her
life as a teenager was entirely devoted to them. She provided for their
needs and made them happy when she agreed to get married.
It is probably that Rita and her husband lived with her parents at the
Mancini House. Living together inevitably causes some problems that
cannot be avoided. However, the frightful temperament of her husband
made the situation even more troublesome. Rita had to be an angel of
meekness to keep the house at peace and the parents comfortable in
their home. The situation lasted for three years, precisely the period
in which she was "the patient wife."
Antonio and Amy Lotti seem to have died a few days apart -- he on March
19, the Feast of St. Joseph; and she on March 25, feast of the
Annunciation. To us, going to heaven together looks like a touching
blessing of Christian love.
It is beautiful to see a husband and wife who, to an advanced age,
stood by each other for better or for worse. It is also beautiful to
see them blessed with going to the grave in close succession.
Rita missed her parents. She was cheered, however, by the change in her
husband around the time of their death.
After the change there were fifteen years of marital bliss. Then, one
evening, came the shocking news: returning home from Cascia, Paul was
assassinated. This tragedy remains enigmatic. For fifteen years this
man, formerly so cruel and fearsome to the neighbors, had given no one
any reason to hate him. No doubt, he was the victim of a vendetta.
Paul's assassination was an agony for his poor wife. To the shattering
loss of her human happiness was added a gnawing anxiety over her
husband's soul. She knew that a sudden death is always a dreadful
thing. The year was probably 1417.
Reflection: The
Danger of Sudden Death
Her parents and husband were among the people Rita loved most here on
earth. When she lost them to death, each loss was a severe affliction,
alleviated however by Christian hope.
Rita had faith ardent enough and logical enough to repeat what St.
Augustine wrote after the death of his mother, St. Monica: "We must not
mourn too much for our mother, because she did not die unhappy. She is
not even dead in the least. We are convinced of that."
We can imagine the veneration Rita must have had for her deceased
parents. They became the heavenly protectors of her home. Often she
spoke of them to her children, and often she took the children to the
grave of their grandparents as though on a pilgrimage to the grave of
Saints.
At prayer in common (meals, mornings, evenings) she undoubtedly invoked
her parents, at at Masses that she asked to be offered in their honor
the whole family was present. She offered them "in their honor"
provisionally: on condition that such prayers might still be needed for
the repose of their souls.
The death of her husband staggered Rita even more because it was such a
sudden death. Today, our faith is so weak that we could easily be led
to envy people dying suddenly. "At least they didn't suffer," we hear
it said.
Some people are senseless enough to think that a sudden death is not a
calamity. Yet nothing is quite so dangerous as to appear before the
Lord without having had time to think about it, to prepare for it, to
be sorry for sins and receive forgiveness.
Hence, the Church in the Litany of the Saints puts on our lips this
insistent supplication: "From sudden death, deliver us, O Lord.":
Prayer: To Obtain
the Christian Meaning of Death
O St. Rita, you had your kind heart pained by your various periods of
mourning. Obtain for us an understanding of the Christian meaning of
death. So easily we let ourselves mourn like people who have no hope.
Very often we think first of ourselves, of our great sorrow, sometimes
even of the material difficulties that follow the death of our dear
ones. We should, instead, think first of them and their new situation
on the threshold of Eternal Life, which is so mysterious for us. We
have been instructed in the faith and we know that God's judgment in
regard to our loved ones has already been carried out. If our dead are
in purgatory, we know we can help them get released and entered in "the
place of refreshment, light, and peace." Remind us, then, O St.
Rita, that in this respect one thing alone matters: that we avail
ourselves of all the means that God in His mercy has given us to bring
about their deliverance. Remind us that we can offer our poor merits
together with the infinite merits of the Lord and have the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass offered for them. The Eucharistic Christ then
serves as the living hyphen between us and our dear ones. With him, in
Him, and through him we remain united with the ones we call our dead
but who are more alive than we. The certainty of meeting again in
eternity then possesses our hearts. We have the feeling that families
here on earth are destined to be brought together again in heaven.
Humanly speaking, that is the greatest consolation. Help us, O St.
Rita, to attain this as fully as possible, in Christ our Lord. Amen.
Seventh
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: A Christian
Mother
Rita had two children, two sons. There was very little age difference:
perhaps they were even twins. They must have been born in the early
years of the marriage, since they were already young men when their
father died and Rita had been married for only eighteen years.
Tradition is not entirely in agreement as to their names. Apparently,
one was called John-James and the other was Paul-Mary. Rita was a young
mother with a lot of good sense. It never occurred to her to give the
children a non-religious name that may have been in style.
In this matter of names, Rita's times were less frivolous than ours.
When choosing a name for their children, people thought especially of
giving them a Patron Saint who could be an example to them on earth and
an intercessor in heaven.
Concerning her sons' education, we only know that in their early
childhood Rita used to take them to the "Lazaret: to visit the poor and
the infirm. Each visit was a real lesson in charity. Rita's way of
teaching the lesson is much better than simply teaching from a book.
The father approved of this method of education and helped his wife as
much as he could. When he felt a surge of anger, he would leave the
house so as to not scandalize the children. This should be recognized
as important, since care must be taken lest the young perceive some
hostility between their parents.
After their father's assassination, one lesson Rita could not get
across to her grown sons was the lesson of forgiveness. She herself had
made the heroic act of forgiving the murderers with all her heart.
After this merciful step and because of it, people said God made known
to her that her husband's soul was saved.
Instilling in her sons the same sentiments of mercy and forgiveness
proved impossible. The sons were very much like their contentious
ancestors and had grown up in a time of hatred. They were also carried
away by their false sense of honor under the guise of a "vendetta."
When Rita reminded them of the Lord's teaching: "Love your enemies...
Pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew :44), she felt she was not
understood, much less followed. She was afraid her sons might lose
their souls be believing they were honoring their father's memory.
Therefore, in an act of heroism, Rita formulated a prayer that was in
keeping with her Christian sentiments but crushed her mother's heart.
Indeed, she uttered those stupefying words: "Take them, my God, rather
than they offend You."
The prayer was heard; for a chronicler wrote that Rita's two sons "were
called to a better life." God took them home, and they died the
Christian way after renouncing their hatred and ill-will.
For the Saint of the Impossible, here was her first hopeless case. It
turned out very well indeed.
Reflection:
Forgiveness of Others
One of the most difficult forms of charity is to forgive offenses. We
have all suffered offenses. There is little comparison, however,
between what we have had to bear and what was weighing on St. Rita's
heart after her husband's assassination.
She remembered Jesus Christ on the Cross interceding for His
executioners: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"
(Luke 23:34). Perhaps we do not have enough love to model ourselves on
our Divine Lord and to react as He did.
Let us at least have intelligence enough to know where our interest
lies. Our Lord said and repeated in the Gospel that He would deal with
us the same way we had dealt with our neighbor.
If we want to be forgiven, then let us begin by forgiving others. As
the Apostle St. James wrote in his epistle (2:13): "Judgment is without
mercy to those who have not shown mercy; but mercy triumphs over
judgment."
We ought to reflect more on St. Rita's prayer regarding her sons: "Take
them, rather than they offend You." This was nearly like the prayer of
a queen of France, though she was not a Saint: "My son, you know how
much I love you," said Blanche of Castille to the young Louis IX, "and
yet I would rather see you dead at my feet than guilty of a single
mortal sin."
What a lesson for us and how praiseworthy it would be if, like these
truly Christian mothers (Rita and Blanche), we thought much more about
the soul of our children than about the health of their body.
Prayer: To Practice
True Charity
O St. Rita, raise up in our families mothers who are truly educators.
So many mothers around us only think of their children's physical life.
Others, it is true, also concern themselves with the intellectual
development of their children. Few mothers, however, do "the one thing
necessary," which is to guide their children to encounter the Lord.
Obtain for us, O St. Rita, what is sorely needed: many more mothers who
think first about helping their children live in a state of grace and
about instilling in them Godlike charity. Lord, You gave St. Rita the
grace to love her enemies. By her merits and intercession, enable us to
forgive those who have injured us and to so merit the reward promised
to the meek and the mournful. Grant, O my God, that by the intercession
of our Saint, we too may carry in our hearts the marks of Your charity
and constantly enjoy the benefits of lasting peace. Amen.
Eighth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: Knocking at
the Convent Door
The year 1417 was a sorrowful one for Rita. In the course of it she
lost her husband and both her sons. For the Church, it was a hopeful
year, bringing the end of the Great Schism.
Rita was thirty-sex; Joan of Arc was five. Rita seemed to be all alone
in the world. As a matter of fact, she was not alone. She as living
with her "dead," those who had returned to the Father and had become
her personal Saints. She talked to them, prayed to them, and asked them
for their advice.
Rita probably had a kind of homesickness for the religious life. She
has always lived in accord with the spirit of this kind of life.
Poverty, chastity, and obedience are its pillars. In her years as a
married woman she had tried to practice them as much as possible.
She was obedient to her aged parents despite the difficulty sometimes
encountered in keeping old people content. She was obedient to her
husband, even in the abusive years.
She practiced poverty, not from avarice or fear of being in want but
from a desire to give more alms. She practiced chastity in its conjugal
form, a type often more difficult than the chastity of the unmarried,
which is respected by so few Christians today.
Good as it was, for Rita life outside the convent was not sufficient.
She wanted to make a more complete gift of herself. The convent of the
Augustinian nuns in Cascia attracted her. When she applied for
admission, the convent, named after St. Mary Magdalene, turned her down.
The rejection had nothing to do with Rita's being a widow. In the
Church widows always have been a particularly cherished and assisted
class.
Something quite different was at work. In the convent in Cascia there
were nuns who belonged to the clan that was hostile to the clan to
which Rita belonged.
Rita would have to bring about a reconciliation between the two
parties. Only then could she enter the convent without bringing along
an element of division.
This seemed to be a superhuman enterprise. On the human level her case
did appear to be impossible.
The solution? It seemed to come from heaven. Rita had her advocates --
St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine, and St. Nicholas of Tolentine, who
had inspired her vocation.
By their help and intercession Rita overcame a seemingly impossible
obstacle: the hatred that separated many families of Cascia and that
had already caused the death of her husband. The spiral of vendetta had
to be stopped.
In order to put an end to these feelings of wrath and acts of
vengeance, the widow became a messenger of peace. With humility and
courage, she went from house to house, asking all the families who were
at odds to be reconciled with one another.
At the same time, she besought the Lord through the intermediary of her
"Saint Advocates." And God granted her this miracle of peace -- for
herself and her village.
Rita willed that this act of reconciliation should be committed to
writing and signed before a notary in accord with custom. And then,
with the signed agreement in hand, she was finally able to pass through
the formerly inaccessible convent of St. Mary Magdalene. Such is
historical fact.
However, this fact has been transformed into a legendary event by the
popular imagination. It has become a kind of "flight" of Rita --
accompanied by St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine, and St. Nicholas of
Torentine -- from the crag of Roccaporena to the cloister of the
convent.
Her heavenly "patrons" had presumably accomplished her entry despite
all doors being shut, and the religious community could no longer
refuse to give consent!
Reflection: Be
Reconciled with One Another
Nothing is impossible to those who work for reconciliation. From her
parents, Rita had come to understand admire the role of messengers of
peace and good relations. Peace is the subject of one of the Beatitudes
pronounced by Christ: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called children of God" (Matthew 5:9).
Like a butterfly, she lightly ascended and descended countless
stairways, both outside and inside homes, from the center of Cascia to
the most distant villages. She asked everyone in them to be reconciled
with her, a condition she knew was indispensable before consecrating
herself to God.
Such reconciliation is even more important than any kind of sacrifice
according to the words of our Lord Himself: "When you present your
offering at the altar and remember that your brother has something
against you, leave your gift at the altar and go and be reconciled with
him" (Matthew 5:23-24).
Therefore, we must be reconciled with our brothers in order to be truly
united with God. Then only will we be able to offer Him our praise as
well as our prayers and requests. And the Lord will in turn grant us
His grace.
Following St. Rita's example, let us be reconciled with one another:
spouses with each other; children among themselves and with their
parents, friend, and neighbors with one another. The peace in the world
that we so desire can only come when there is peace in our personal and
social lives.
Prayer: To Obtain
the Gift of Reconciliation
O my God, grant me the gift of reconciliation with members of my family
and with others. May I take the time to listen to everyone who has no
one with whom to speak. May I listen willingly to all who cannot
express themselves or who do not dare to do so, thus giving them the
opportunity to be heard. I could never hope to listen to everyone, but
I can adopt an attitude of listening toward everyone with whom I come
into contact. When I strive to listen to my neighbors, I do for them
what You, my God, have done for me. By Your grace, make me a messenger
of reconciliation. Amen.
Ninth
Day
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: The Miracle of
the Vine
With God's help, Rita entered the convent of St. Mary Magdalene in
Cascia. She as forty years old and already had a remarkable life as
wife and mother behind her. Just the same, she had to make her
novitiate.
For people with a strong personality the novitiate can be a trying
time. Superiors tend to test them by forming them in the virtues of
humility and obedience.
What is called "the miracle of the vine" may have happened during
Rita's novitiate. It is inspired by an old story found in an ancient
book, John Cassian's Conferences.
Cassian founded the monastery of St. Victor in Marseilles at the
beginning of the fifth century, about a thousand years before St. Rita.
According to the Conferences,
a superior wanted to test the obedience of one of the monks. He told
him to water, every day, a dead branch stuck in the ground. The branch
never flowered, so the superior threw it away and effectively ended the
test.
Mother Abbess of Cascia did something similar, though the ending was
not the same. She told Rita to water daily, over a long period of time,
a dry wooden stick she had asked her to bring into the yard and plant
next to a wall.
Rita obeyed scrupulously. She watered the wooden stick every day, even
when the rain was falling. She kept up the daily watering for as long
as the imposed obedience required it.
Tradition says that one day this wooden stick began to bud, then to
flower miraculously. It became a vine that produced grapes of a form
and taste unknown anywhere else.
Tradition also says that the people soon began to bring some of these
grapes to the Holy Father and to the Cardinals and distinguished
benefactors of the Augustinian Order.
At the present time, grapes produced by the "Vine of the Miracle" are
blessed and given to the benefactors of the convent in Cascia.
This tradition is beautiful and filled with instruction for us. It
teaches that absolute obedience based on the love of God will never
lack recompense. No matter what the circumstances may be, it will make
us better persons.
After completing her novitiate, Rita was allowed to make her
profession. She took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. By these
vows she made a threefold solemn promise to God.
The following night she had a dream in which she saw a ladder. Its top
reached to heaven; leaning against it was her beloved Lord. The ladder
recalls the ladder of Jacob which the Patriarch saw in a vision when an
exchange of promises, a Covenant, as struck between God and himself.
Like Jacob, Rita found a message in the ladder. As one of her earliest
biographers notes, it was a very clear sign to her that she would reach
the summit of Christian perfection.
Reflection: Poverty,
Chastity, and Obedience
We also, Christians living in the world, should strive to make our life
an ascent. We, of course, do not have the obligation to practice
poverty, chastity, and obedience in the same way as men and women
religious. These basic virtues are nonetheless necessary for us also,
beginning with obedience.
Let us not forget that our Lord redeemed the world by obedience.
Reparation for something is made by its contrary. Against the cold of
winter we try to create some warmth, for example. The same goes for
reparation for sin. Sin is essentially disobedience. Reparation for it
is made by the most perfect obedience possible.
That is why "Christ became obedient unto death" (Philippians 2:8).
Combining our obedience with His remains for us the best way to take
part in His Redemption of all the ones we love. Let us, then, be
obedient to God as perfectly as possible.
Let us bear in mind that Christ makes His will known to us by His
Commandments, by His Gospel, by the teachings of His Church, and even
by our fellow citizens. He also makes it known by the events of our
life, be they trials or happy occasions. Whether this Divine Will is
agreeable to us or seems painful, let us learn to accept it joyously.
Like St. Rita watering the wooden stick, let us not discuss, let us not
analyze. Let us simply obey with eyes closed and hearts wide open.
Let us also have the spirit of poverty and not be greedy for gain. Let
us remember how insistently the Lord and His Gospel warn us about the
love of money. To get more and more of it some Christians do not
hesitate to transgress God's Law. In its quest they come to regard
Sunday work as altogether normal.
Little by little the conscience of such people is corrupted. To them
the demands of the most elementary justice are no longer so evident.
They make shady business deals and take advantage of the ignorance or
misery of others. But because of their corrupted conscience they make
light of such transgressions and never dream of mentioning them in the
Sacrament of Reconciliation.
What of the duty to practice the most elementary charity, e.g., to give
alms? We may not like it, but it does require us to give from our
abundance to people lacking the necessities.
Nonetheless, when someone begs alms from people who consider themselves
devout, it often happens that what they give is ridiculously meager.
Yet our Lord said that we will be judged on our charity toward others.
Prayer: To Practice
the Evangelical Virtues
O St. Rita, you carried out faithfully the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Put
in our hearts the conviction that the Christian life is not just a
question of devotion but rather consists in doing God's will in every
thing. "Not everyone who says to Me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom
of heaven, but only the person who does My Father's will" (Matthew
7:21). Jesus also said: "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John
14:15). Help us, then, O St. Rita, to set aside our own will and to
seek what God wants, in chastity, which is at times difficult to
observe, as well as in justice and in charity. When you see us attached
to things of the world, for example, to money, help us to free
ourselves. Make us generous in giving to others, in coming to the aid
of people in need, of the elderly in particular, and of the truly poor,
who are always the most undemanding. May our charity not be in words
alone but also in deeds. Teach us to deprive ourselves occasionally so
as to have more to give and thus, like you, to be true disciples of the
Lord Jesus. Amen.
Tenth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: The Stigmata of the Crown of Thorns
It is hard for us to imagine how much the Cross was venerated in
medieval times. This veneration was partly an outgrowth of the Crusades.
In the thirteenth century devotion to the Crucifix was so ingrained in
St. Francis of Assisi that he received the Stigmata on his own body.
This happened at Alverno, not far from Cascia.
The following century, St. Catherine of Siena received the same favor
as Francis, but our Lord let her keep the pain of her Stigmata without
making the Stigmata themselves visible to others.
As for Rita, she too was favored with a mystical phenomenon fifteen
years before her death. On Good Friday of the year 1442, she went with
her Sisters, as was the custom, to the parish church for the Office of
the Passion of our Lord.
The ardent and moving preaching of the Friar entrusted with the Lenten
exercise touched Sister Rita so much that she was spiritually
overwhelmed.
Returning to the convent in haste, she ran to kneel before a
fourteenth-century fresco that was in a little chapel, a decrepit
oratory next to the choir stalls of the Sisters.
The fresco, which pictures a crucifix, still exists.
A biographer notes: "Rita began to ask Christ most ardently to make her
feel at least one of the many thorns that had pierced His brow.
"What she asked for, she received. She felt the desired hurt. But also,
and from then on, she was afflicted by an incurable wound that would
remain with her till death.
"The would was a true Stigmata, not just a scar. It was an open wound,
purulent and fetid, that inflicted terrible suffering on Rita.
"The wound resisted all attempts at healing, and it never left her
during the last fifteen years of her life -- except during her
pilgrimage to Rome."
Those who go to Cascia on pilgrimage are moved upon visiting the chapel
of the miraculous Christ, also known as the "Hermitage of the Thorn,"
as well as Rita's little cell. They are the two historical places in
which people sense the presence of the faith.
In her little chapel Rita created what she called "stations" of the
Passion of our Lord. In her cell she made one part a representation of
Calvary, another of the Sepulcher, and so on.
Rita prayed continually before these stations, which were her "way of
the cross." Many times the physical impressions made on her by the
stations were so intense that she fell into a swoon.
Reflection: Focusing
on Christ's Passion
If we compare our reaction to Christ's suffering with the profound
reactions of the Saints, we may find that the Saints put us to shame.
They are deeply moved by His sufferings. We seem to be coldly
indifferent.
As it is with so many other realities of our Faith, so it is with the
sorrowful Passion: we do not give it enough thought.
For example, few Christians today still pray the Way of the Cross. It
is, nevertheless, a salutary devotion. It teaches the gravity of sin by
reminding us of what it took to atone for us.
Perhaps a short meditation on the scourged Christ would make us ashamed
of all the sins we commit by indulging our bodies. Or a short
meditation on the crown of thorns could make us less self-centered,
less conceited in the presence of God made Man. He wanted no other
signs of His Kingship on earth than this humiliating and painful
emblem, together with derision and outrages.
If we thought of Christ more often as carrying His Cross, we would
probably get a better understanding of what a human life is all about.
We would fin that for the most part it consists of carrying a cross.
Under the weight of this cross we fall again and again, despite the
comforters encountered along the way: the Virgin Mother, Simon of
Cyrene, the friendly Veronica.
What Jesus taught the women of Jerusalem He would teach us. He would
say it does no good to lament. He would say we must move into action,
must deprive ourselves, must be one with His Cross as the living
Crucifix of Calvary.
Then, crowning His teaching, He would say we must accept the entire
will of the Father to the very end, to the very last word: "It is
finished."
Instead of all that, we keep looking for some sort of easy religion,
one that does not affect us too much. A little devotion to this or that
Saint dispenses us, we tell ourselves, from all the rest.
We have lost the sense of sin and the punishment it deserves. This is
the reason our contrition is so often insufficient. Our mentality has
drifted away from the Faith without our becoming aware of it; we have
evolved into a society of Christians without Christianity.
Putting ourselves in the presence of the stigmatic and enthusiastic
follower of Christ that Rita was, let us pray as follows.
Prayer: To Obtain
True Contrition
Because of St. Rita's merits we beseech You, O Lord, to pierce our
hearts with the thorn of supernatural sorrow that consists of true
contrition. Free us from all our sins by Your grace, so that we may
offer You the Eucharist with clean hearts and a new spirit. And each
time we have been nourished and made stronger by Holy Communion,
engrave on our mentality the Stigmata of Christ's Love and His Passion
so that we may remain always in Your peace. We ask You this, O Blessed
Trinity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Eleventh
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: The Roman
Jubilee
Jubillees have existed since the year 1300. They used to be proclaimed
every fifty years; now they occur every twenty-five years.
In former times jubilees were the occasion for making a penitential
pilgrimage to Rome. They came to a close with the great joy of a
plenary indulgence, the most formal and most generous of all.
The jubilee of 140 was particularly important. The Church had regained
her unity and her internal pace only three years earlier.
The regaining of this peace and unity came after the disorders caused
by the Council of Basle and then by the Duke of Savoy, Amadeus VIII,
who had agreed to become the antipope Felix V.
More than ever, Rome was seen as the center of restored unity. People
came to Rome from everywhere.
These pilgrimages of former times required far greater physical
endurance than those of today. People had to go on foot. They had to
ford rivers, brave the elements, and sleep out in the open. Yet the
crowds were overflowing.
Monasteries and convents opened their doors to let men and women
religious gain their jubilee indulgence. Rita also wanted to go to
Rome, but because of her fetid wound it seemed out of the question.
Mother Abbess of Cascia did not risk much when she told Rita she could
go as soon as she was cured. This good Superior was ill-prepared to
deal with the woman who some day would become the "Saint of the
Impossible."
Rita prayed and the wound dried up. So she could go, after all. A small
group of Augustinian Sisters from Cascia, with Rita at the head, went
across the Apennines, through Rieti, and over the via Flaminia. It was
a picturesque route, but a long and difficult one.
On the way the Sisters began to wonder if they had enough money to
carry their pilgrimage to the end. This preoccupation struck our Saint
as not al all evangelical. She carried the purse, and no on took
offense when she threw it disdainfully in a stream the little group was
crossing.
"Think, my Sisters," she said, "what deception the world would have
about us if it saw us provided with money. If, however, we disdain
wealth and truly show ourselves to be Sisters of poverty, all will know
that we are true Religious in the spirit of Christ."
To us, throwing the purse in the stream may seem to have been improper
or foolhardy. No, it was simply the reaction of a soul having an
abhorrence of money, for love of which people will commit so many sins.
The group made it to Rome. The marvelous Basilica of St. Peter as we
know it today did not yet exist. In the old Constantinian Church the
pilgrims went to venerate the remains of the Holy Apostles. They also
visited the Roman Colosseum, where so many martyrs had been the prey of
wild beasts.
In the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, they prayed before relics
of the Passion. For Rita, who had received the Stigmata of the thorn,
what an emotional experience it must have been to see there, devoutly
preserved, two thorns from the painful crown.
Above all, the pilgrims saw the Pope, "the gentle Christ on earth," as
St. Catherine of Siena had said not long before. In him is the
embodiment of the mystery of the Church, ever One and ever Holy despite
the weaknesses of the people that make it up.
The Roman pilgrimage was certainly a high point in Rita's life, but in
the fuller view of this humble Sister there were other high points,
less known or even unsuspected.
For who would have thought that Rita would be one of the best workers
in the renewal of the Roman Church? Above all, who could have foreseen
that this dear woman, old before her time, emaciated and lost in the
crowd, would, four hundred and fifty years later, be solemnly canonized
in the new Basilica of Michelangelo?
Reflection: The
Value of Pilgrimages
People have always had a liking for pilgrimages. They have felt that
there are "places where the Spirit breathes," places on our earth where
the spiritual seems to assert itself more than anywhere else.
Sometimes they are places to which heaven has inclined in famous
apparitions, as at Lourdes or Fatima. They are also the many places
where Saints have lived, from which they took their flight to the
Father's house, and where their bodies await the signal of the
definitive resurrection.
Crowds are attracted to these privileged places as if to escape the
daily routine. The journey to these places of pilgrimage takes the act
of denial of self out of the abstract and brings it into the concrete.
The journey does the same for purification of the soul and for the
effort to gain more enlightenment.
The fact is that people always return spiritually strengthened from a
pilgrimage properly made. The key to such a pilgrimage consists in
going not as mere tourists attentive to their own comfort, nor as idle
curiosity-seekers, and especially not as snobs contemptuous of their
"inferiors."
To be fruitful a pilgrimage requires preparation of the soul -- in
particular, its purification or cleansing. There is no use going to
Rome, to Cascia, or to any other holy place without being in the state
of grace and without wanting to benefit so as to lead a more Christian
life.
Prayer: To Fix our Eyes on Heaven during our Earthly Pilgrimage
O St. Rita, you are the model of our devotion when we want to undertake
a pilgrimage. Help us to benefit always, as you yourself did, from the
graces that this ancient Christian tradition may bring to us. Keep us
friendly and cheerful on the way but not too concerned with our
comfort. Make us see that the journey to any house of God on earth is a
symbol of another journey, in which neither the effort nor the
self-denial should be feared, because at its end lies the City of God.
We are such awful stay-at-homes, so comfortably settled in our trivial,
mediocre lives. Obtain for us the will and the courage to make the
journey to new horizons and ring our brothers and sisters along. In
addition, enable us to have a right understanding of money so that we
may make use of it without becoming overly attached to it. Obtain for
us -- to crown all our efforts -- the will to go even farther, even
higher, toward the Light of God! Amen.
Twelfth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: Days as a
Recluse
Made in a Christian way, a pilgrimage is a source of enriching grace.
It is a time filled with religious activity, but that time soon comes
to an end. People then have to resume a normal life.
The main thing is to live your normal life with more heart than before.
This is precisely what Rita did.
Returning from Rome, she went back to her convent in Cascia. There she
lived the last years of her earthly sojourn and became ever more
spiritual.
Rita was scarcely back home when the wound on her forehead opened
again. This was an indication from Providence that she was being called
to resume her life as a recluse. In her secluded cell she seemed more
than ever a stranger to the world and even to the other sisters.
For a recluse such as Rita, the contemplative life appeared to be all
that mattered. She allotted all her time to prayer. A biographer
remarks that she could not seem to refrain from praying. She
consecrated her nights to prayer and, with the coming of dawn, bemoaned
the interruption of the heavenly conversations.
Completely spiritualized, she was impervious to the material life. She
lived on the Holy Eucharist, which she received often -- at a time when
daily Communion was not yet an established custom.
The case of Rita is similar to that of some contemporary mystics. In
both there is a strange parallel as regards material things. Just as
some people only life for the flesh and the senses and finish by
becoming totally materialized, so souls completely lost in God end up,
in some sense, by spiritualizing even their body.
The fame of this recluse began to spread. People came in streams to
recommend themselves to her. They came to see her even from distant
lands. So great was the attraction that the convent became a center of
pilgrimage.
Even during her lifetime Rita obtained miracles. For example, a woman
came to recommend to her a gravely ill daughter and on returning home
found that daughter restored to health. In moments like this, Rita's
physical sufferings became more acute by a mysterious Communion of
Saints and interchanging of merits.
Because, in spite of herself, she attracted so many people, what Jesus
once said of Himself is applicable to Rita: "When I am lifted up from
earth [when I am crucified], I will draw all to Myself" (John 12:32).
And on another occasion: "If anyone believes in Me, rivers of living
water will flow from him" (John 7:38).
Reflection: The
Contribution of Contemplatives
We do not believe enough in this influence of mystic souls. We tend to
attach value only to what is visibly useful. We understand, for
example, the dedication of hospital Sisters. The contemplative life we
find hard to understand.
It seems normal to us that God has called men and women to make Him
known and loved, for example, parish priests and missionaries.
On the other hand, we have little understanding of persons who do not
feel themselves called to the direct apostolate yet leave the world to
pursue a life of prayer. These are the contemplatives, who add some
manual work to their life to support themselves and do good around them.
Such people are called by God to the contemplative life. That call is
made known by an attraction to this kind of life and an aptitude for it.
The collective influence exercised by men and women religious is a
positive force. Only those who never have had anything to do with a
convent or monastery can be ignorant of this.
In our materialistic world, abbeys and convents are like oases where
spiritual things thrive. People drained by the secular life go there to
regain their lost energy. Some great nations, for example, England,
were evangelized solely by monasteries planted on their soil when they
did not yet know Jesus.
Today, a serious retreat of some day's duration in a monastery or
convent is one of the best means of change for people who are Christian
by habit alone and feel that true Christianity has to be something
other than what they are practicing.
Our life needs to be directed more toward God. To make this happen
there is nothing like living awhile in the surroundings of a community
of men or women who have understood that the "one thing necessary" is
to know God and live increasingly in union with Him and in intense
charity with their brothers and sisters.
Prayer: To Discover
What God Expects of Us
O St. Rita, on this earth you never exercised the true apostolate so
much as when you were a recluse. Make us understand that the Lord does
not want our works as much as He wants our love. Enable us to see that
what gives value to our life is not this or that form of the apostolate
but our conformity to the Father's will. Help us, then, to find out
what the Father expects of each of us. May we follow our vocation not
because we want to satisfy our fancy but because it is primarily the
expression of the Divine will. May we not fall into illusion but know
how to distinguish between our possibilities and our true aptitudes.
Obtain for us, O St. Rita, the grace to see clearly and to make use of
the gift of counsel from our Confirmation, so that always and
everywhere we may give our life the maximum of fruitfulness. We know we
will succeed in this if in all things we seek to know the Father's will
and conform to it. Help us in our quest to do so. Amen.
Thirteenth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: Final Miracles
-- Roses and Figs
After her Roman pilgrimage, as we have seen, Rita lived as a recluse
during which she became increasingly spiritualized. She suffered much,
but she bore her suffering with good cheer.
Nevertheless, it is idle now to look for her in the fasts and
mortifications that marked the prime of her life but had become things
of the past because of her physical condition. She was an elderly woman
filled with pains and could only accept the trials that flowed
therefrom.
Rita understood "good suffering," the kind by which the Christian
shares in the redemptive work of Christ. Like St. Paul, she could say:
"I rejoice in the sufferings I endure for you. In my own flesh I fill
up what is still lacking in regard to the sufferings of Christ, for the
sake of His Body, the Church" (Colossians 1:24).
Her last winter was one of those hard seasons encountered in Cascia,
which sometimes is cut off from the rest of the world by a huge
accumulation of snow.
A cousin, a gracious woman, came to see Rita and asked, "What can I do
for you?" She replied: "I would like a rose from my little garden." The
cousin thought Rita was delirious.
The cousin went back to Roccaporena and had forgotten the request when,
by chance, she was walking near the former garden of St. Rita. And
there, in the garden, was a bright red rose on one of the rosebushes.
The cousin took it and brought it to the ailing Rita.
Today a bronze sculpture commemorates the event and, each year on May
22, roses are blessed before being brought to the sick, just as the
cousin brought Rita the rose from the miraculous rosebush.
A cutting from the rosesbush was planted in the garden of the convent
of Cascia. For five hundred years, nothing has been able to cause the
cutting to die. It has actually grown into an enormous bush of whitish
and lovely scented roses.
When the cousin brought back the beautiful rose, Rita said to her:
"Since you have been so kind as to bring me the rose, I would like you
now to bring me two fresh figs from the fig tree in my garden." Though
it was not the time for figs, the fig tree had produced its fruit. Once
again a miracle came about. Is not Rita truly "the Saint of the
Impossible"?
Reflection: The Need
to Produce Worthy Fruits of Charity
This anecdote about the figs contrasts with the Lord's parable about
the barren fig tree: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and
he came out looking for a fruit on it but did not find any. He said to
the vinedresser, 'Behold, for three years now I have come looking for
fruit on this fig tree and found none. Cut it down. Why should it
clutter up the ground?'" (Luke 13:6-7).
Too often we are much like this fig tree. We produce so little fruit.
We give the impression of being on earth only for the purpose of
seeking our petty personal comfort. It was not like this for St. Rita,
whose life was so rich in the eyes of God.
Let us be convinced that we have already lost too much time. Sometimes,
of course, we have to put ourselves to work. Perhaps we have even
worked hard, but it was for selfish ends, for ourselves or our kindred.
It was not for God or our neighbor. The time has come to think a little
more about others and produce worthy fruits of charity.
One of the kindest works of mercy is to visit people who are suffering,
the sick, the aged, the lonely, and open to them our heart and, when
necessary, our purse. Let us bring them the blessed roses of St. Rita,
but let us also bring them our encompassing understanding.
May we really be charitable; that will be the best way to show that we
are truly Christian. Let us not forget that often a visit to a
suffering person is more pleasing to God than lengthy prayers.
Prayer: To See
Christ in Others
O St. Rita, you made such good use of your life. Help us not to be
barren fig trees. Make us understand the Divine words of the Gospel.
"What does it profit anyone to gain the whole world and suffer the loss
of one's soul?" (Matthew 16:26). "Lay up a treasure that will not fail
you in heaven where no thief comes near nor any moth destroys" (Luke
12:33). Make us understand that we lay up this treasure mostly through
goodness to others, through patience and alms. All your life, O St.
Rita, you were at the service of the sick and the aged. Help us to
imitate you. Give us the will to visit people who are lonely and people
who are suffering. May our approach to them be a source of comfort and
joy. Gladden our heart so that we may find, when we are near these
people, the words that fit, the words that console and elevate them to
God. May we also deprive ourselves now and then so as to bring people
who lack the necessities the help of our alms. Make us see the Lord in
all the poor and needy, and make us have for them the same respect and
love we would have in the presence of the very Person of Jesus Christ.
Change our hearts, which are still too hard; warm them by contact with
the fire of Christian charity. By loving our brothers and sisters in
truth and in practice, may we come to join in the heavenly Kingdom
those who, like yourself, practiced goodness and charity on earth. Amen.
Fourteenth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: The True Day
of Birth
For us, Christians with a vision overly focused on this world, death is
the great expiration, painful and often dreaded. For Saints, it is the
day of their birth in heaven and, later, the day of their feast, when
the Christian community joyfully sings their praises.
May 22 is a date dear to all friends of St. Rita because on that date,
in the year 1457, she took her flight to heaven. Some biographers say
that three days earlier our Lord appeared to her in the company of the
Blessed Virgin. Questions crossed her mind:
"When, Jesus, can I possess You forever? When can I come into Your
presence?"
"Soon, but not yet."
"Well, when?"
"In three days you will be with Me in heaven."
The assurance brought great joy to Rita. The waiting was about to be
over, and she felt serene.
Rita asked for Viaticum and the Sacrament of the Sick. She received
them in the presence of the community and took the occasion to exhort
her Sisters to observe the Rule of the Order. Then, folding her hands,
she asked a blessing from her Abbess. No sooner had she received it
than she quietly expired.
It was a Saturday, day of the Virgin. Evening Prayer 1 of the following
Sunday had just begun. Outside, roses were in bloom. Some witnesses
conversant with the process of canonization said that several persons
had seen her soul ascend in glory.
Be that as it may, we can apply to this holy death a text found in the
Song of Songs (2:10; 2:2): "Arise, make haste, My beloved, My dove, My
beautiful one, and come. Like a lily among thorns, beautiful is My
beloved."
Above the high altar of the basilica in Cascia, a large and beautiful
fresco shows St. Rita nestled at the feet of the glorious Christ. It
was the moment when she could say: "I am seated in the shadow of the
One I desired" (Song of Songs 2:3).
Reflection: The
Right Idea about Death
Saints welcome death. If we tremble at the prospect of the great
departure to the Beyond, it is precisely because we are not Saints.
In thinking about death, we show how uncertain our faith still is. We
ask ourselves what we are going to find on the other side.
Far different is the way of those who, while on earth, have lived for
heaven. St. Paul was among them. That is why he could say: "I desire to
die and be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23).
St. Bernadette said: "The Blessed Virgin is so beautiful that when we
have seen her once, we want to see her again." The reaction of the
little seers at Fatima was the same. They asked the "Beautiful Lady" of
the apparition to take them back with her to Paradise.
We could apply to these manifestations of faith the antiphon sung at
the Easter Vigil: "Like a deer that longs for running streams, my soul
longs for You, my God. Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When
shall I go and behold the face of God?" (Psalm 42:2-3).
If we do not want to fear death, we must first make our faith stronger.
The best way to do this is to comport ourselves as true Christians and
bring about a real conformity between our beliefs and our life. In
short, we must create a harmony within ourselves.
Too often there is a kind of discord between our external piety and a
life of deep faith. Because we lack this deep faith, we are fearful of
death when it begins to show itself. We perceive that we are like the
foolish virgins of the Gospel parable and that our lamps are empty
(Matthew 25:1-13).
Yet many times we have repeated: "Lord! Lord!" We have multiplied
formulas of prayers, novenas, and invocations, and have offered
candles. However, we have not done the principal thing -- the Father's
will in all areas of life.
We need to do the Father's will in the matter of justice and charity,
in almsgiving, in purity, in the forgiving of wrongs, and in the loving
abandonment to Providence.
Because we have failed in these matters, death makes us fearful. But
there is still time to regain our self-control. That is always
possible. Let us, then turn to the Lord in prayer.
Prayer: To Prepare
for a Good Death
Dear God, the thought of death frightens me. And so I come to You with
a repentant soul. I would live to live the rest of my life with
increasing acceptance of death. I wish very much for an end like that
of Your Saints, in serenity and joy, but I have not been much of a
Saint so far. I want with all my heart to strive to become holy, at
least to some degree. I sense that faith must be in proportion to true
generosity. It takes a great deal of faith to die with joy. Dear God,
make my soul truly generous. Help me to take Your Gospel ever more
seriously and to make it enter into all the details of my life. By the
merits of St. Rita I beseech You, dear God, to deliver me and the ones
I love from the calamity of a sudden death. May I, on the contrary,
prepare myself in all serenity for the day that will free me from the
miseries of life. May I then be united with You and Your Saints in the
"place of refreshment, light, and peace," where all who have showed
love on earth will find each other again forever. Amen.
Fifteenth
Thursday
Preparatory Prayer
O my God, Whose splendor fills heaven and earth, I believe You are
present here. I know You are near me and in me, immersed in my
unworthiness. I deeply adore You. I thank You for the many grace You
have accorded me and for all the graces, spiritual and material, You in
Your fatherly goodness have prepared to strengthen my weakness. I ask
You to forgive the many faults I have committed in the past. I beg the
help of Your grace to keep me from offending You in the future and to
remain faithful to the promises I have made to You many times. I
sincerely renew them today. O Blessed Virgin, Saints in heaven, and
especially you, St. Rita, help me make this Holy Exercise devoutly in
order to obtain the light of mind and the strength of will to attain my
eternal salvation. Amen.
Life: The Vine in
Flower Has Spread Its Perfume
May 22, 1457 was, as we have seen, the "true day of birth" of our
Saint, the hour of her glorification. Rita had scarcely breathed her
last when the prodigies began.
The convent clock was said to have struck three times, though no one
had touched it. Rita's "little cell" as filled with an extraordinary
light. This brings to mind the "perpetual light" into which the
deceased Saint had just entered.
A perfume no less strange also filled the cell, which had until then
been permeated with the nauseating odor that was so offensive. The
perfume indicated that Rita died "in the odor of sanctity" in the
literal as well as the figurative sense.
The fetid wound was suddenly healed. Not only did the oozing stop, but
the Stigmata of the thorn became like a precious stone of bright red.
"You have placed on [her] head a crown of precious stones," sings the
Psalmist (Psalm 21:4).
One of the Sisters of the convent had a paralyzed arm. Her name was
Sister Catherine Mancini. Despite this infirmity, she wanted to embrace
her companion, who may have been a relative.
She tried to put her arm around the neck of the deceased Rita and
succeeded perfectly, having that very moment regained the use of her
arm. This was the first miracle obtained by Rita.
While the body was being washed and prepared for burial, the people of
Cascia waited impatiently. They wanted to see her whom everybody was
already calling "The Saint."
Her remains were taken to a chapel of the convent and, so that everyone
could see her, the coffin was not closed. This was supposed to be only
for a short time, but it lasted 13 8 years.
A few years after being left open, the coffin was damaged by fire but
the body remained intact. "Up to the present," writes Monsignor De
Marchi in our day, "and consequently for more than a half millennium,
the sentence against the children of Adam has not come about for Rita:
'You are dust and to dust you shall return'" Her body remains incorrupt.
This preservation is truly exceptional. In 1626, hence more than 150
years after the death, the body was examined. Among other things, the
examiner's report noted: "The white flesh was seen perfectly... the
eyes with the pupils... and the whole face as nicely arranged as a
person who died that same day. Also seen were the hands of the said
servant of God, white and intact, and the fingers with the nails could
be perfectly counted..."
The best historian of St. Rita, Cavallucci, who wrote about the same
time -- 1626 -- says he can testify that at each opening of the coffin
a perfume "like an odoriferous mixture" escaped from it. Moreover, he
adds, each time an important grace was obtained through the
intercession of the Saint, this perfume was detected by a smell inside
the convent several days before.
At present, the skin is still intact and well preserved. The face
simply appears a little dried up and a little black. The body rests in
a glass case placed in a chapel of the new basilica built in 1925.
It should further be noted that -- according to oral tradition -- on
several occasions the Saint has been seen opening her eyes and
sometimes turning her head or moving her hands and feet. This is called
the "Miracle of the Movements."
At the time of Rita's death there were no official canonizations. It
was, so to speak, the voice of the people that declared anyone a Saint.
Rita, it can be said, was first beatified by the people, whereupon the
Bishop of Spoleto authorized her veneration. The first church intended
specifically for the placement of the Saint's body was built in the
late sixteenth century.
Before long, May 22 became, so to speak, a national holiday of Italy.
The official beatification was made by Urban VIII in 1628, and the
canonization by Leo XIII in 1900. Since this later date -- 1900 --
veneration of St. Rita has grown wonderfully throughout the world.
Reflection: The
School of the Saints
In 1957, the unforgettable festivities of the fifth centenary of the
Saint's death took place in Cascia. The year before, Pope Pius XII
sent, for this occasion, a magnificent letter to the very Reverend
Superior General of the Augustinians.
In his letter the Sovereign Pontiff held up St. Rita as model for the
whole world because, he wrote, in her life are found examples for all
situations. She was a young girl, a wife, mother, widow, and nun. She
faced and overcame the trials that can afflict a human existence in all
these states of life.
Such a life deserves to be studied and imitated, but the emphasis
should be on imitation. Our Saints, that is, ought not to be mere
subjects of admiring curiosity.
Nor should they be seen primarily as "miracle workers." They are not
"sorcerers of heaven" (title of a film on the Cure of Ars), or
supernatural beings who have to be made favorable toward us and whom we
honor mostly because of personal interest.
In reality, our Saints are, before all else, "Witnesses of God." Their
life shows what the Lord's grace can bring about in a soul that does
not try to flee such grace.
What the Saints have done we can do, even if the circumstances are
different. We have at our disposal the same Divine gifts and the same
means.
It is simply a matter of having the courage to use the gifts and the
means. Above all the rest, courage is what we should ask for from our
Saints.
We should approach them as good pupils in their school, not as beggars
who only ask for material favors.
If we are good pupils in the School of the Saints, would that not be
the best means of making them favorable toward us? Then the school
would enjoy thee admirable "Communion of Saints."
On the strength of this Communion, people in heaven help their needy
brothers and sisters on earth to come and join them, and people on
earth congratulate their glorious brothers and sisters and strive to
come and be with them, in perpetual light and perfect joy.
Prayer: To Imitate
St. Rita in Bearing Witness to Christ
As we come, dear God, to the end of the story of a Saint loved by all,
we want first to thank You. Amid the troubled times in which we live,
St. Rita's life has given us hope and courage. She has shown us that
human beings can practice virtues and gain merit. Because of St. Rita
we begin to see, dear God, a little more of the mystery of Your Church.
We have been taught that Your Church is nothing less than Your Son
continuing His Incarnation in the history of the world. We have also
been taught, dear God, that all of us are members of Your Son's
Mystical Body. Sometimes, in the past, it has been difficult for us to
believe in this magnificent truth of our Creed. The reason was that we
considered only ourselves with our sins, our meanness, our tepidity. We
told ourselves that we were not fit to be members of Christ's Mystical
Body. Then, dear God, we discovered in our Sister Rita a wonderful
reflection of Your Word made flesh. Like Him, she had no other will
than Yours and no other love than the love that reigns among the three
Divine Persons and shines upon the world. We have seen her good and
gentle even when she was so badly treated in return. We have seen her
patient, solely preoccupied with the salvation of her dear ones. We
have seen her helpful to the disinherited and becoming poor solely to
be enriched by the supernatural riches of Christ. Her life consisted in
modeling herself on Him. She was truly what every baptized person
should be: another Christ. Having seen what she did and what she was,
we now understand that Christians like her are truly the kind of
members Christ seeks in order to form His Church, which is His Mystical
Body. Through St. Rita, we humbly ask of You, dear God, that, like her,
each of us may be a useful member of Your Church. Amen.
Prayer to St. Rita
O St. Rita, help us and all the ones we love to accomplish the plan of
Love that God desires for each one of us. Amen.
Footnotes:
1 The text of these prayers and
meditations comes from "Saint Rita: Saint of the Impossible", ISBN
978-0-89942-127-8. Imprimatur from Patrick J. Sheridan, Archdiocese of
New York. Meaning no offense, I am not satisfied with the version of
the prayers and reflections above, which originally appeared in a
French prayer book "Prieres de Chacque Jour: Les Quinze Jeudis de
Sainte Rita" published by Oeuvres de Sainte Rita, Nice, with an English
translation by Fr. John Otto. Some problems: the age given for St. Rita
at her marriage; the reflections are badly written; the mention of CCD
programs is of little benefit to those who want to be truly catechized,
the revisionist take on St. Rita's husband and the consequent
downplaying of her virtue in withstanding his abuses; calling God's
ways "incomprehensible" rather than, for ex., "hard for us to
understand"; using the word "vocation" to refer to any station in life
rather than to the priestly or religious life; stating that the Church
"has had" to reduce fasting;
punctuation issues, etc. If anyone has a more traditional text for this
devotion, one with an Imprimatur, I would love to receive it.
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