Thursday, June 08, 2006

The Love and Patience of Saint Rita of Cascia

I admire and respect Saint Rita of Cascia's virtue of patience, as well as her great and unwavering faith and trust in the Lord.

As a young girl, Saint Rita of Cascia always wanted to enter the monastery and become a nun to be able to fully serve God. But the wishes of her parents prevailed and arrange the marriage between her and the man of their choice.

But her life of marriage and family was on the road of sorrow and pain - her husband was killed. Later on, her twin sons died of natural causes. These deaths in her family left her all alone.

Still, Saint Rita of Cascia offered up her sufferings to the Lord. Consequently she pursued her desire to be a nun and after many rejections was finally able to join the Augustinians.

Her trials and sufferings did not end. In the last years of her life, she bore head wounds caused by Christ's crown of thorns.

Throughout her life, Saint Rita of Cascia wholeheartedly accepted all the sufferings and painful experiences as fate assigned to her by the Lord. Indeed she was full of love and perseverance.

Does any one of us have the same amount of patience? Can we also fully accept whatever our fate is and submit ourselves wholeheartedly to the will of God?

If life seems an impossibity, and you feel like you are going nowhere - pray to God. Ask for Saint Rita of Cascia's powerful intercession for God's graces.

Another title of Saint Rita of Cascia, which she shares with Saint Jude, is the Patron of Hopeless Cases and Lost Causes.

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