MONDAY OF THE TWENTY FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME AUGUST 23, 2021 ST ROSE OF LIMA

MASS READINGS:

Responsorial Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b

R. (see 4a) The Lord takes delight in his people. Sing to the LORD a new song of praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in their maker, let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. R. The Lord takes delight in his people. Let them praise his name in the festive dance, let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp. For the LORD loves his people, and he adorns the lowly with victory. R. The Lord takes delight in his people. Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy upon their couches; Let the high praises of God be in their throats. This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia. R. The Lord takes delight in his people.

REFLECTION

The Lord takes delight in his people.

Gaspar Flores was a Spanish soldier who battled on the side of the Spanish conquistadores. He eventually settled in Peru and married a beautiful Incan, Oliva. She was sixteen and he was forty five. They settled on Dominican property with roses playing a dominant part of the landscape. The roses were the first roses planted in Peru. Holy Coincidence as their daughter would become a Third Order Dominican and her name would be Rose.

She was originally named Isabel but her mother changed it to Rose when many witnessed the baby’s face turning into a beautiful rose. Isabel, her grandmother, was not too happy, for obvious reasons, about the name change.

Rose was born in 1586. The Church was under turmoil with the Protestant reformation, the persecution of priests and Irish Catholics by Elizabeth I and the persecution by the Huguenots of the Catholics in France.

Rose Flores was beautiful and was a friend of St Martin de Porres. St Archbishop Toribio baptized her. During her early ages, she had received many graces from God. She contemplated on the crucifix and endured surgery without complaining in remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus. At the age of five she made a vow of chastity.

She had apparitions and conversations with Our Mother Mary. A civil war was brewing in the background and Rose offered up prayer for the Church, the people and the government. In her young age she had apparitions of Jesus, Mother Mary, angels and the Saints.

Refusing marriage, she lived in a hut in their yard. She helped the poor and eventually it became known as the "infirmary" where many poor were helped. With extreme faith she prayed for her father’s financial problems and upon leaving Church one day she was given by a stranger the exact amount of money owed.

Rose offered penance and fasting for redemptive suffering. Many occurrences of when the family needed food or money, Rose always came up with food or money. Unfortunately many thought she might be possessed because of these miracles.

After praying before the statue of Mary she entered the Holy Rosary Convent founded by St Martin de Porres, becoming a Third Order Dominican. She continued her service for the poor especially black slaves from Africa. She worked together with St Martin de Porres.

As with many Saints, she experienced the dark night of the soul. Tempted by praises from her religious order, she also could no longer feel the presence of God. Her visions were no longer comforting and loving but were ugly and filthy. She prayed harder, penanced and disciplined more and fasted.

Her new spiritual director was also in charge of the Inquisition. A friend of Rose reported to him that she accused Rose of witchcraft. He stepped down from being her spiritual director and told her she was a hoax.

Her family still wanted her to marry and they arranged for this. Though she had never taken the vow of chastity thru the Dominicans she had done so at the age of five. Her parents were furious and demanded she not go to daily mass. Her spiritual advisor being the head of the Inquisition investigated her. However her testimony was beautiful and she was vindicated.

However relations with her family were not good anymore and they made arrangements for her to go live with another family. She could no longer go to her infirmary which she had at her home nor could she go to church. And when it came time for the special tradition of carrying palms into church as an offering to God, she was bypassed. The dear Lord appeared to her and asked her, “ Rose of My heart, be thou My spouse.”

Rose was given the knowledge of how she would suffer and die. She knew she would die on August 23rd. She suffered paralysis, feeling hot irons on her body, arthritis, headaches, coughing up blood and a thirst she could not quench.

Pope Urban VIII canonized her as St Rose of Lima, Patroness of the Americas, being the first canonized saint of the new world. (April 12, 1671)

She brought together the people of Lima. Her mother, Oliva, who gave Rose a hard time, became a Tertiary Dominican after Rose‘s death.

St Rose was called by God since birth to works of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of Jesus Christ. She was always obedient and had a strong devotion to the Passion of Christ and His sufferings. God found favor in her and she so loved the Lord that she endured mortifications, fasting, falsehoods and the abandonment of those whom she loved. She offered all to God for the repentance of souls. The Lord took delight in St Rose.

Lord, Bob and Penny, St Rose of Lima excerpted from Visionaries, Mystics and Stimatists,1992.

God Bless You