into Saint Mary Magdalene, the monastery she wished to enter. Even though she was well-known for her virtue and piety, in those days only young girls were being admitted to religious orders. Three times Rita applied; three times she was denied. Despite this, Rita remained convinced that God wanted her in this particular monastery, and increased her prayer. Meanwhile the forty-year-old widow stripped herself of her belongings so as to be ready to enter at a moment's notice.
The manner in which God chose to convince the mother superior and the sisters was totally miraculous. One night Rita heard a voice calling her name. A man who resembled pictures of John the Baptist was at the door. He led her out to a high mountain in the dark. There she met Saint Augustine and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino. She seems to have gone into a trance, and was discovered the next morning inside the closed and barred gates of the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene; the sisters found her inside the chapel, seated in one of the stalls of the nuns.
The mother superior was furious when she realized it was Rita, the widow she had three times refused. The sisters as well as the superior finally had to see the hand of God in such a miraculous occurrence.
On the night before she professed her vows, the middle-aged nun had a dream. Christ appeared to her holding up an immense ladder reaching into heaven. When she awoke, Rita decided that she would need to climb the spiritual ladder to holiness step by step.
According to the Augustinian rule of that time, a cloistered sister could venture outside the enclosure to help the poor of the city. Saint Rita loved to wait on the steps of the monastery for the sick and poor to come so she could minister to them. In this way she became quite well known to the townspeople of Cascia.
One of the first recorded miracles attributed to God's grace working through the widow-saint concerned an old, barren twig of deadwood. The superior insisted that Rita drag buckets of water each day to make a dry twig grow. This was to be a test of her obedience. To the amazement of sisters in the convent, who doubted the older woman's holiness, after many days the twig began to turn green. Eventually delicious grapes grew on the vine that sprouted from the twig.
After Rita's death, many came for the last time to see the body of a woman they already revered as a saint. A relative with a paralyzed arm was instantly healed, as was a woodworker whose disabled hand had prevented him from making her coffin. Healed immediately, he was able to make the required wooden coffin. Soon the line of pilgrims increased as the people begged the intercession of Saint Rita, called the Saint of the Impossible.
In 1628, after the institution of a scrupulous investigation of claims regarding "so-called saints," Saint Rita was beatified following a two-year study; she was canonized in 1900 after even more careful research had been conducted. Her body remains intact, and lies in state in a basilica.
Throughout the centuries, miracles have taken place in Cascia. People come from all over the world with petitions to Saint Rita, whose little house is now a chapel. Near both the basilica and chapel are orphanages for girls and boys - so Saint Rita is still a mother, even from heaven.
"Why art thou proud, O dust and ashes? Dost thou forget that a God humiliated and annihilated Himself, stooping from Heaven to lift you thither?"
St. Rita endured many unspeakable hardships in her marriage. She was often misunderstood and rejected as a religious sister as well. How does her story speak to you?
Mother Mary, pray for me. When my happiness was threatened, when my loved ones suffered and struggled in the throes of death, as my mother your heart broke for me. Even now, as I continue to wander in fearsome darkness, you are with me still. St. Rita is remembered as the patroness of impossible causes; join your prayers with hers and mine, that our petitions would not go unheeded. Help me to find joy and consolation even in the midst of tears. Blessed Virgin, Faithful Widow, remember me.
CHAPTER TWO
CRY OF SEPARATION
Second Station
Jesus Accepts the Cross
Mary…
Many of us spent long hours at the bedside of our husbands, anticipating the separation that would come. Others of us experienced the tragedy of our spouse's sudden, unexpected death.
Just as nothing you could have said would have persuaded Jesus to evade the cross, we had no choice but to accept what we could not change.
The heaviness of that cross drained us, even as we persevered in hope. Holy Mary, pray for us, that with each passing day this temporary separation will lead to everlasting joy.
Jesus, You endured all the trials we face, up to and including that final, wooden cross. You are with us every moment, in the pain and up to those final moments of our husband's earthly life.
Then and now, You want us to rest our weary heads in Your lap so that You can console us ... but we are too busy coping to come to You. As we look upon the second station and see You accepting Your cross, let us also see that You were holding us up through the intensity of our pain and loss.
The Scriptures tell us that not even death "shall separate us from the love of God" (Romans 8:39). How does this apply to my situation?
Walk with me, Jesus … (insert your own prayer here)
ROMANS 8:35-39
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish,
or distress,
or persecution,
or famine,
or nakedness,
or peril,
or sword?
As it is written:
"For your sake we are being slain all the day,
we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered."
