10 Things Saint John Paul II Said about Saint Rita of Cascia

100 years after her canonization, in 2000:

1. In her example of total abandonment to God, in her transparent simplicity and in her unflinching fidelity to the Gospel, we too can find sound direction for being authentic Christian witnesses

2. humility and obedience were the path that Rita took to be ever more perfectly conformed to the Crucified One

3. Following the spirituality of St Augustine, she became a disciple of the Crucified One and an “expert in suffering”; she learned to understand the sorrows of the human heart.

4. Rita thus became the advocate of the poor and the despairing, obtaining countless graces of consolation and comfort for those who called upon her in the most varied situations.

5. He quoted Pope Leo XIII, who canonized her: “she pleased Christ so much that he chose to imprint upon her the seal of his charity and his passion.

6. And more Leo: “This privilege was granted to her for her exceptional humility, her interior detachment from earthly desires and the admirable penitential spirit which accompanied her at every moment of her life.”

7. I am pleased to offer her again as a sign of hope, especially to families. Dear Christian families, by imitating her example, may you also know how to find in your fidelity to Christ the strength to fulfil your mission of service to the civilization of love!

8. If we ask St Rita for the secret to this extraordinary work of social and spiritual renewal, she replies: fidelity to the Love that was crucified.

9. Rita, with Christ and like Christ, goes to the Cross always and only through love.

10. Rita well interpreted the “feminine genius” by living it intensely in both physical and spiritual motherhood.