St Rita

We are in that special time of the Church between Ascension and Pentecost. It is the time of the first novena when that apostles gathered with Our blessed Lady to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
We can make the same prayer to day if we simply pray the three most powerful words "Come Holy Spirit", we will be renewed.
The Church and the world needs a constant need of the energising power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Today we remember St Rita, the patron saint of impossible cases. I know she is a popular saint but she certainly did suffer. She was forced to marry a horrible man when she was only 12, he was a horrible husband. Their two sons took after their father. Ghastly! Eventually St Rita's husband softened in his attitude to Rita and was reconciled to the Faith and then he was murdered!
The two sons were full of hatred and vengeance, they wanted to kill the perpetrators of the murder - vendetta.
St. Rita saw her two sons die before their planned retaliation and she was able to bring peace between the warring families.
St Rita knew mental and physical suffering and abuse, emotional torture and fear. She never lost her faith in God and spent her last years in religious life where she also experienced a partial stigmata. She is pictured in sacred art with a thorn pierced in her forehead.
St Rita pray for us and for all who suffer in abusive families.