St. Rita, pray for us

>>>Today is the optional memorial in honor of St. Rita. My mom, who passed about 3 years ago, was named Rita.


St. Rita was born into a peasant family in Italy where she lived a very difficult and painful life. Yet through her sufferings she grew in union with God and became a saint. As a child she wanted to become a nun but her parents told her that she must marry and she submitted to their demands, feeling that in obeying them she was fulfilling God’s will. The man she married was violent, abusive, and unfaithful. For eighteen years she suffered and prayed for his conversion. He asked for her forgiveness shortly before he died from wounds he received in a brawl. Her two sons, however, dedicated themselves to exacting revenge for their father’s death, and so Rita once again dedicated herself to prayer for their conversions. Before they could carry out their plan they became sick and as they lay dying, forgave the men who killed their father. With no more family responsibilities, Rita tried to follow her original call to consecrated life. She applied three times to the Augustinian Sisters who rejected her because she had been married. In the end God rewarded her persistence and she received the religious habit in 1413. She lived a life of prayer, penance, and charity, and was blessed with numerous mystical graces. One of these was a wound that miraculously appeared on her forehead after she heard and reflected upon a sermon about the crown of thorns with which Jesus was mocked. Because of her sufferings and the miracles that followed upon her prayer and sacrifice, St. Rita has been given the title “The Saint of the Impossible” and “The Advocate of Desperate Cases.” Let us ask her to pray with us now for victims of human trafficking and for the conversion of those who are behind this “shameful and monstrous” practice.

O God, You gave St. Rita the grace to imitate the redemptive sufferings of Your Son. Through patient love, that bore all sufferings in union with our Savior Jesus Christ, You brought about the seemingly impossible conversion of hopeless sinners. Help us to follow her example. By meditating on the Passion of Your dearly Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, help us to bear all wrongs patiently, offering our sacrifices to You for the conversion of our sinful world. We ask this through the intercession of St. Rita and in the all-powerful Name of Your Son Jesus. Amen.