Saint Rose of Lima

Love transforms

Epilogue

Although Santa Rosa came from a noble family of Spanish immigrants, she did not hesitate to roll up her sleeves when her family, due to a series of misfortunes, found themselves in financial straits. Since adolescence she chose to follow Jesus with intimate transport, enrolling in the Dominican Third Order and having Catherine of Siena as model and spiritual guide. Dedicated to the care of the poor and the ordinary jobs that a girl of the house is called to carry out on a daily basis, she imposed an austere life regime marked by extraordinary penance.

At twenty-three she locked herself in a cell of just two square meters, which had been built by her brother in the backyard and from which she went out only to go to religious services. And it is precisely in this narrow voluntary prison that she spent most of his days in contemplation, in intimacy with his Lord. Like Catherine of Siena, she was also given the mystical grace to physically participate in the passion of Jesus, whom she had chosen as her spouse, and for fifteen years she had to go through the hard inner experience of the absence of God, that travail of the spirit that St. John of the Cross calls the "dark night".

A hidden and painful life was that of Rose who, condescending to the Holy Spirit, reached the high peak of holiness. The message that continues to communicate to devotees who invoke her as protector not only in Peru and the Latin American continent, but throughout the world, is well expressed in one of the mysterious messages that she received from the Lord. "Everyone knows, Jesus confided to her, that grace follows tribulation; they mean that without the burden of afflictions one does not reach the summit of grace; they understand that the more the intensity of pain increases, the greater the measure of charisms. Nobody errs or deceive himself; this is the only true stairway to heaven, and outside the cross there is no other way to ascend to heaven".

May Saint Rose help us to embrace the cross with confidence as she did, even when this involves suffering and apparent failures. Her short existence was marked by countless trials and penalties, but, at the same time, it was all filled with love for Christ and with great serenity. It can be said that in Saint Rose the power of divine grace was manifested.

Saint Rose let herself be embraced by God, certain that she was in the hands of a Father, supported by an intense Eucharistic and Marian piety. The love for the Eucharist once pushed her to remain embraced at the tabernacle to defend it from the invasions of the Dutch Calvinists who besieged the city of Lima. And to Mary Most Holy, whom she invoked above all under the title of "Queen of the Rosary", she constantly resorted. Indeed, it was the Virgin of the Rosary who indicated to her the form of life through which she would consecrate herself forever to Jesus in the Dominican Third Order.
It happened, in fact, that when the family resigned themselves to her refusal of marriage, Rose entered the monastery of Saint Clare. However, she was not entirely sure that this was the right choice and when, accompanied by her brother, she left the house to go definitively to the monastery, she stopped in front of "her" Mother.

She prayed so intensely that she realized that she had become heavy as lead: neither her brother nor the sacristan managed to lift her. And only when she promised the Madonna to return home, the Virgin smiled at her and Rose was able to get up easily. He was convinced then that he could reach Jesus through the maternal love of the Virgin Mary.

The Lord calls us to holiness, to live his Gospel in the midst of a society accustomed to lying and which foments hatred and injustice. This is the goal of all of us: to announce the truth and believe in love. Her example may shake our indifference and our aversion to all forms of suffering.

In the face of God's holiness, Rose humbles herself and annihilates herself in the depths of her "I", where she finds her creative identity and the path to holiness. May this journey of fidelity to God be the model of all those who want to struggle to discover the infinite Love of God.

S. Rose through her mystical and human experience also becomes aware that without the true awareness of the effects that "divine grace" achieves in each of us, it is not possible to understand the meaning of life and our faith, as well as that of suffering that if not "offered in union with those of Christ" they become incomprehensible and unacceptable to us.

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.

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