St. Rita of Cascia
Cardinal Sodano
spoke of Saint Rita de' Cascia during a speech, emphasizing her role as an example of faith and perseverance. She highlighted how Saint Rita lived a life full of challenges and sufferings, but always remained faithful to God.
The Cardinal said in his speech that Saint Rita of Cascia is a model of faith and hope for all believers.
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A presence of God
As you enter this splendid St Peter's Square, you have sung the Saint's hymn:
"Every season of the world
passes through a night
and man always feels
lost and childish,
he feels the need for stars,
signs of love in the sky,
and the Lord lights them
up in the sky above".
Saint Rita is a sign of this love of God. The history of the Church is marked by so many marvellous figures of men and women, who have become for us a proof of the sanctifying power of Christ's grace and an encouragement to continue on our journey.
This is also the message that St. Rita of Cascia has been transmitting for more than five centuries to many men and women in Italy and in the world. It is the message of holiness that can flourish in every social condition. It is the message of total conformity to the Will of God, even in the hour of pain.
Abandonment to God
In the Gospel we heard Jesus' words: "My Father prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it may bear more" (Jn 15:2). The pruning to which the young Rita da Cascia was subjected was very deep. However, she abandoned herself totally into the hands of the Lord. As is reported in the inscription of the urn in which he rests, "tucta allui se diete", he gave himself entirely to Him. He lived and worked for Jesus. Like the Crucified One, he suffered and forgave, always remembering the words of Jesus on the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"
(Lk 23:34).
This was her spirituality as a wife and as a mother. This was his interior attitude during the long years - about forty - spent in the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene. She knew how to find in prayer the breath of hope and in abandonment in the hands of God the Father the secret of her serenity in every trial. This is how we see her in front of the killing of her husband and the tragedy of the plague that deprives her of her children. Thus we contemplate her in the peace of the convent, in total adherence to God's will. With Dante, the Saint could have repeated: "In sua voluntate is our peace".
As in heaven
In the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus invited us to raise our gaze to the Father: to his name, to his kingdom, to his will, to his will which must be fulfilled on earth, as it is fulfilled in heaven. St. John Chrysostom commented: "so that the earth may not be different from heaven"
(Homily on St. Matthew 19:5)!
At the school of St. Augustine, our Saint had learned to see in Jesus the perfect model of adherence to the Father's will. In fact, we read in St. Augustine, in his commentary on the "Our Father": "We can also, without offending the truth, give to the words, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven' this meaning: Thy will be done in the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ, what was done in the Bridegroom be done, who has done the will of the Father"
(De Sermone Domini in monte, 2, 6).
Our roses
Dear devotees of St Rita, you have gathered here to celebrate your Jubilee. Many also brought with them a rose, the flower so dear to our Saint and which well represents the ideal of her life: all for love, only for love. But the most beautiful rose we can carry with us today is that of our love for Christ and His Holy Church. It will be the most beautiful fruit of the Jubilee.
It was in this spirit that our Saint had come here, to the tomb of St. Peter, together with the other Augustinian nuns of her convent, on the occasion of the canonization of Brother Nicola da Tolentino, on June 5, 1446. Here she had renewed her faith and had been renewed in prayer. May it be the same for all of you!
Cardinal ends the homily
You will thus return to your homes carrying with you the memory of this luminous day, comforted also by the Blessing of the Pope, who will soon be among us.
Pope Urban VIII, who as Bishop of Spoleto, had well known the spiritual radiance that came from the great figure of the nun of Cascia, had proclaimed her Blessed on 1 July 1628. Pope Leo XIII canonized her at the dawn of this century, on May 24, 1900.
John Paul II will shortly join us in our common prayer that the great Saint of Cascia will continue to intercede for all of us, so that we may be faithful to our Christian vocation, transmitting the torch of our faith to the generations of the Third Millennium. And so be it!
We renew the invitation
If your heart is eager to do something for your brothers and sisters who are gripped by suffering or loneliness, you can earnestly plead with the Lord. Prayer is one of the highest forms of charity..
If you are also looking for other wonderful brothers who can join you in prayer in one heart, then visit the site of the Invisible Monastery. There you will find a family willing to welcome you with open arms.
If you wish to accept Jesus' invitation, or simply want to try praying from your home, click here and you will find many wonderful brothers willing to join spiritually in a great and heartfelt prayer of intercession.
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