First Saturday Parish Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 5/3/2014

    

My Rosa Mystica statue, adorned with

floral leis to pay Our Lady special honor in

this Month of both Mary and flowers... and

a closer view of the 2nd Class Relic of

St. Rita of Cascia, the May Saint.

The lesson I tried to convey to our attendants at yesterday's Rosary for Peace was a reminder about FAITH.  Not just ordinary faith, but the extraordinary type of faith described in the Sacred Scripture below, which we carries with it a commitment from Jesus:

"The Lord replied, "If you have

faith the size of a mustard seed,

you could say to this mulberry tree,

'Be uprooted and planted in the

sea,' and it would obey you!"

~ Luke 17:6

And the Saint I shared about for the month of May was St. Rita of Cascia (d. 1457), who perfectly exemplified the Lord's words quoted above.  Those who are familiar with her life may already be aware that St. Rita overcame extremely difficult circumstances in her life: an abusive marriage; the death of her husband and two young sons; repeated rejections by a neighboring convent (which she wished to enter); and a painful stigmatic wound from an invisible thorn on her forehead.

By practicing unwavering faith in God, St. Rita eventually came to a point in her spiritual life where her faith produced wondrous results: her wayward husband and sons were converted before their untimely passing; she was miraculously transported through the aid of her three favorite Saints into the locked convent where she was finally accepted as a member; and the mystical thorn wound only served to draw her into a profound personal relationship with Christ.  Because of her example of miraculous faith and the efficacy of her intercession, St. Rita has earned the nickname of "Patron Saint of Impossible Cases", a title she shares with St. Jude Thaddeus, one of the original Twelve Apostles of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

So as we offered the Holy Rosary for Peace throughout the world, we also asked the Lord, through both our Blessed Mother and St. Rita's special intercession, for the gift of the "mustard seed-faith" in our lives... and for the grace to truly believe and embody another passage found in the Gospel of Luke, 1:37:

"For nothing is impossible

with God." 

The next First Saturday Rosary for Peace at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Kailua, will be prayed on June 7th, beginning at 4:25 pm.  All are welcomed to pray with us, and perhaps in doing so, deepen your own Faith in God.