Rita Cascia was a wife and mother. Her husband was cruel and harsh and died in a brawl. Her two sons Giangiacomo Antonio and Paolo Maria died of disease at a young adult age. Throughout those 18 years she never gave up her prayer life, living her love for God in her work of a housewife and mother. She was able to convert them to live a more pious life.
After their death, she applied to be a nun and after many obstacles and rejections she became an Augustinian nun in Cascia. She became holy because she cooperated with God's grace by applying small choice decisions and perseverance in her life.
She new right from wrong. She could have ignored her personal problems, accepted them or she could have stopped everything by just leaving her husband. But she chose to pray for them and bring them to God. She trusted God and His promises. With faith she prayed for her sons not to take a vendetta against those who killed their dad.
At the age of 60, while meditating before an image of Christ crucified, a small bleeding wound appeared on her forehead as though a thorn from the crown that encircled Christ's head had penetrated her own flesh.
St Rita is the patron saint of difficult marriages and impossible causes. Be courageous as St Rita. Believe what Jesus said and did, place your prayers and desires at His feet and let Him take control of your situations. St Rita knew God and knew He conquered the world and was the source of all good.
