Saint Rita the Wounded

Saint Rita, whose feast is today, is sometimes known as the patron saint of lost and impossible causes. Married at a young age against her will to a terrible, abusive husband, by her prayers she gradually reformed him into a proper Christian husband.

After his murder, she entered the convent.

This wounded saint received the marks of Christ’s thorny wounds upon her forehead.

Over the years I have been personally associated with two institutions bearing her name. In those two places, I have experienced the best and the worst of people in the Church.

At Saint Rita High School, there were teachers who taught me how to think, who pointed me towards a life-long love of literature and history, who honed my curiosity and who helped build what strength of character I have.

And yet, there were others who drove me away from considering the Catholic Church or even taking her beliefs seriously. My freshman moral Theology teacher sexually abused some of my classmates and was later thrown out of the Augustinian Order and (eventually) stripped of ministry.

The Devil prowls through Catholic Schools, because their mission is to form the men and women who will fight him.

Thirty years later, having in the interim finally fallen in love with Christ and entered His Church, I landed at Saint Rita Parish with my beautiful bride Francine.

The pastor was a truly holy man, and he challenged his people to holiness. He pulled no punches in his homilies. He taught the Catechism. There was a minimum of nonsense in the parish liturgy. He led his people by example in the works of mercy.

Many of the people of the parish were likewise good and faithful Catholics. There are many who I remember with love.

That parish, as well as another parish we joined later, was abolished and its territory joined to that of the new Saint John XXIII parish. There are a multitude of lost and impossible causes. Pray for the intercession of Saint Rita.

Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord,
the wisdom and strength of the Cross,
with which you were pleased to endow Saint Rita,
so that, suffering in every tribulation with Christ,
we may participate ever more deeply in His Paschal Mystery.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Amen.