12/8/2023 0 Comments St rita of cascia prayer![]() Rita is now honored as the patroness of impossible causes, as well as of difficult marriages and infertility. She did not become bitter, and she did not withhold her love from God until he had proven himself to her by granting her wishes. Instead however, she leaned into her trials, trusting that God’s plan surpassed her own, and that by relying on his grace, she would receive greater happiness than she had ever imagined. If she had lived in a time like ours, so risk-averse and terrified of pain, she would likely have been crushed by the burdens she was asked to bear. Her early dreams were crushed, she endured a difficult marriage, suffered the loss of her husband quickly followed by the deaths of her children. At first glance, her life is one of disappointment, sorrow and grief. Rita lived four decades as a nun, receiving the gift of the stigmata on her forehead 15 years before her death at age 76. Rita’s grieved her sons, but gave thanks that her sons had not died in a state of mortal sin, and thus could hope for heaven.įollowing the deaths of her children, Rita sought entrance to a convent in Cascia, and after many trials - due to the feuds in which her late husband had participated - she was admitted, finally fulfilling her lifelong dream of committing herself solely to Christ. Rather than turning themselves to lives of peace, the young men died of illness. Her prayer was answered albeit not in the way she wanted. Falling to her knees, the distraught mother begged God that if her children were to die, that they do so before maiming their own souls with murder. Rita greatly feared for her sons, lest they follow their father’s footsteps and meet their own deaths, but they were already grown and had no interest in her heeding. She bore two sons and was widowed at a young age. Rita was heartbroken, but she immediately consoled herself with the knowledge that God’s will was for her to bear this Cross, and she did. But despite her pleas, her family instead married her off to a brutal and violent man when she was barely childbearing age. Rita of Cascia, a 14th-century wife and mother turned widow and eventual nun, sets a holy example of avoiding this trap. When we do, then if anything less than our rosy vision comes to fruition we spiral into despair and self-pity, trying to figure out why all those limitations we were told we were immune to are somehow thwarting us. There is nothing wrong with optimism, but we cannot assume that each dream will come true. We live in a world that seeks constantly to shield itself from disappointment.
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