(Optional) Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin
(I Thessalonians
1:1-5.8b-10; Matthew 23:13-22)
St. Rose of Lima lived
in colonial times. Her father was a
Spanish conquistador who experienced financial setbacks. To help her family, Rose, whose baptized name
was Isabel de Santa María de Flores, sold flowers. Like her model, St. Catherine of Siena, she wore
a Dominican habit and associated with the Dominicans of Lima, including St.
Martin de Porres. Like him, she cared
for the poor. But uniquely, she gathered
renown as a holy woman and attracted many God-seekers to her hermitage on her
parents’ property. There she prayed and
cared for the sick.
Paul’s message in
today’s first reading describes St. Rose well.
He writes to the Thessalonians of “your work of faith and labor of love and
endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
before our God and Father…” Rose did not have to wait long for Christ to
come for her. She died when she was
thirty-one. It is said that all of Lima,
a prosperous if small city at the time, came to her funeral.
St. Rose faced disappointments in life.
She wanted to join a monastery but was unable to do so. Rather than rebel, she made the best of her
situation. In the process her sanctity
shown like the sun breaking through clouds at the end of a rainstorm. We should emulate her care for the poor and
pray to her when we face difficulties.
