...the
LORD is my portion ...He is good to those
whose hope is in Him... Lamentations 3:24, 25
"Christ Jesus had
stolen the heart of Rita –
He alone possessed it. He made her heart His
heart;
and under the white veils of the Eucharist He was for her
soul,
as He is for all loving hearts, heaven upon
earth.
How sweet is the moment
in which poor humanity, wearied
and afflicted,
may
remain alone, with Jesus alone, in the Sacrament of Love;
for there the Lord, with His flaming heart open, calls
unto all,
'You that are burdened and heavy
laden,
come unto Me and I will refresh you.' "
Fr M.J. Corcoran,
OSA
Our Own St Rita: A
Life of the Saint of the Impossible
St Rita of
Cascia
Italy
~ 1381-1457
Wife,
Mother, Augustinian Nun
Stigmatist, Incorrupt
Patron
of Impossible Cases*
*especially
matrimonial difficulties
FEAST DAY - May
22
The saint of Cascia
belongs to the great host of Christian women who "have had a significant impact
on the life of the Church as well as of society" (Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem, n. 27). Rita well interpreted the "feminine genius"
by living it intensely in both physical and spiritual motherhood. "
~ Saint John Paul
II
MORE ABOUT ST RITA:
From an early age Rita
desired to become a nun, but her parents thought it best for her to marry. She
suffered through a difficult marriage for 18 years, with an abusive, ill
tempered husband. He converted shortly before his political murder. Their twin
sons wanted to avenge his death. When St. Rita learned that her sons planned to
avenge their father's murder, she prayed to God to save them from committing
such a grievous sin. Almost immediately, both boys fell ill. She nursed them
lovingly, and they both died, reconciled with God.
Now a widow and childless,
St. Rita applied for admission to the Augustinian convent in Cascia, but was
refused because its rule only permitted virgins. After much prayer and entreaty,
an exception was finally granted to her and she was allowed to enter in 1413. The story is told that St. Rita was
miraculously transported into the monastery itself, despite its locked doors;
when the nuns found her there in the morning, they allowed her to stay, taking
it as the will of God.
St Rita had a deep devotion to the passion of Christ and the Holy
Eucharist. She spent many hours in Eucharistic Adoration
daily. Confined to her bed the last four years of her life, she consumed little
more than the Eucharist. Near
the end of her life, she had a visitor from her home town who asked if she'd
like anything. Rita's only request was a rose from her family's estate. The
visitor went to the home, but it being January, knew there was no hope of
finding a flower; but there, sprouted on an otherwise bare bush, was
a single rose blossom.
St Rita was a
stigmatist who suffered a wound of Christ on her forehead. When St. Rita died
her face became beautifully radiant and her cell was aglow with heavenly light,
while the great bell of the monastery rang of itself. Her incorrupt body, which
for several centuries gave off a sweet
fragrance, is preserved in a shrine in Italy. It is
said that at her beatification, the body of the saint raised itself up and
opened its eyes. St. Rita is called "The Saint of the Impossible" and is
particularly invoked in cases of matrimonial
difficulties.
St. Rita of
Cascia was the first woman to be canonized in the Great Jubilee at the beginning
of the 20th century, on May 24,
1900.
St Rita
of Cascia, pray for us!