Transcription
Well, good morning and welcome everybody to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy. I'm Father Chris. It's a joy to have you with us here for a live talk on explaining the faith. We have a nice full house today. I want to say a big shout out first of all to a group that came up from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. They are with us and so I think your your pastor is here too, right? Uh, oh, very good. Hi, Father. Thank you. Thank you for coming. And, um, we also want to shout out to our retreat group that's in uh, uh, Eden Hill this weekend. Uh, our benefactor retreat because, as you can see, our monastery. And don't leave the grounds till you see the monastery. It's almost finished. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So, thank you for coming.
And today we have a special talk. And I'm going to tell you why this is so special to me. Because next week is the feast of St. Rita on May 22nd. Um, and so we're going to be telling you why this is so important and for me personally as well. So, um, stay tuned because this story is amazing. Is amazing.
So, let us pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we ask you send the Holy Spirit down upon us and through the intercession of St. Rita through Mary and all the saints and through the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the example of the saints give us inspiration to live as disciples and find our way to heavenly glory. And we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, excuse me. Amen.
Well, again, thank you everybody for joining us. It's a beautiful day outside and we have a beautiful saint today. Um, this is St. Rita. Now, on the cover slide, you could see what I said here. Who is your patron saint? Here is an incredible choice. And we'll tell you why. Now, St. Rita is special. She's one of the only people that lived all three vocations. What are the three vocations? She lived all three. She was married. She was single. And she was consecrated, a consecrated nun. Can't say consecrated virgin. She had two children, but she is one of the few of our saints that lived all of the vocations.
Now, how do you get your patron saint? How do you get your patron saint? >> Okay, so if we could silence our cell phones, please, that would be good. So, how do we get our patron saint? Well, the most common is your name. If you're a Michael, you have St. Michael. If if you are a James, you have St. James or St. John, you have him. But there's also your birthday. So, I'm July 26th. I have Saints Jocom and Anne. Okay. Um, it's not just your name, but your birthday. What about your confirmation name? That can be a patron saint or one that you have a spiritual connection with. Like if you follow the little way and St. TZ means a lot to you and you follow her spirituality. She can be your patron saint. But you know what can also be your occupation. Okay. Who's the patron saint of doctors? >> Cosmus and Damian. Who's the patron saint of accountants? Oh, come on Catholics. >> You should know this one. Who kept the books for Jesus? >> Matthew. He worked the books. He was a tax collector. So the patron saint of accountants is Matthew. Who's the patron saint of lawyers? >> St. Thomas Moore. Somebody got that? St. Thomas Moore. He was an attorney and then gave his life.
Now sometimes though, heaven will assign your patron saint. How does that happen? You will know. somebody will continue hand you hand you their prayer card their medal their their uh prayer for them or say I'm I'm praying through the intercession of this saint for you and mine absolutely positively was St. Rita, when I was in seminary, I was struggling. Am I to be married or am I to become a priest? And so I never thought I could do it. I delayed my vocation for years coming to the Marian fathers because I just couldn't imagine there would be any way I could live a celibate life. I didn't think there was any way. God's grace is possible. And so I think she was signed to me because she's the patron saint of impossible cases. And I was an impossible case. So all of a sudden, people started handing me Staint Ria prayer cards. People started handing me Staint Rita medallions. People started saying, "Have you seen that movie out called St. Rita on EWTN?" And then one night I walk into the house. I always was busy with ministry on Saturday nights. I never got a chance to watch movies. And one night I walk into the house and the brothers are saying, "Father, Brother Chris, you want to watch the ETN movie with us tonight? It's St. Rita." It's just on and on. So heaven picked St. Rita to watch over me. Again, an impossible cause.
Now, she is this patron saint of the impossible cases, but she's also the patron saint of, does anybody know, heartbroken women, difficult marriages, abused wives. She's a good one. She's a good one.
Now, I'm going to start by showing you a quick video. Normally, I don't show the video to the end, but you got to see this video. It's only 57 seconds long. And so, Brother Mark's going to show it to you at home on the live streams. If you're here, you can see it on your phone. But the beauty of it is amazing. So, let's take a look at this short video clip. Heat up here. Okay.
So, was that not incredible beauty? Okay. Now, here's what's interesting about that. That is called the sanctuary of St. Rita in Kasha. And you saw there, she's incorruptible. Her body has never decayed. Now, this is fascinating because why do we call it a sanctuary? What is a sanctuary? What's a shrine? What's a basilica? What's a church? Okay, we're going to show you. A sanctuary is a church that is especially important because of a particular saint, an apparition or a miracle that happened there. So, let's brother Mark, show the next slide. Look at your slide. what is the spiritual status um or the difference I should say what is the difference between a church a sanctuary or a shrine or a basilica okay first a church is what the building is so any place where we have mass that's consecrated like the shrine here this is still a church okay a church is what the building is a sanctuary or a shrine is its devotional role or its pilgrimage role You just came here as a pilgrimage. We're a place of pilgrimage designated by the dascese. So we are a shrine. St. Rita's is called a sanctuary because she's known for a particular saint. The sanctuary of St. Rita. What's a basilica? A basilica is a special place of papal honor where if the pope comes to town, that's where he would say mass. So this is interesting. Now let's go back to the shrine. Let's have brother Mark show the next four pictures. Here is the shrine of St. Rita and it is unique because it is all three. You don't find that. It is a church. It is a sanctuary and it is a basilica. You don't find that. You know, one of the only other ones that's that is all three DC, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception down in Washington DC. That is all three. That is a church, a shrine, and a basilica or a church, a sanctuary, and a basilica.
Now, let's look at St. Rita. The first picture there is on the title. It says Basilica of St. Rita. Isn't that awesome? But let's go, brother Mark, show the next picture. That's one of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen of any shrine of any sanctuary. And that's in the hills of Kasha in Italy, St. Rita's. Now, let's take a look at our next slide. Let's go to the inside. Is that not one of the most beautiful places you've ever seen on the inside? Absolutely stunning. And when I was there, I was just in awe. In awe. And let's go to our fourth slide of that one. There's the big statue of St. Rita outside. Gigantic statue of St. Rita on the outside. So these are the four pictures that I wanted to show you.
Now let's tell a little bit about her story because her story is phenomenal. All right. Antonio and Amata Latti were peacemakers, gentle people living in Kasha, Italy. They had no children. Sound familiar? And let's go to our next slide. Then St. Rita was born in the Umbria region. There is a picture of the Umbria region in Italy. This is where St. Francis of Aisi came from. St. Francis of Aisi right before St. Rita. So in this region, you can see the picture of it. Beautiful. St. Francis of Aisi was she was born. Rita was born in 1381. Okay. Now, she lived until May 22nd, 1457. So, she was 76 years old, which was very old at that time when she died. So, she was born with the name Margarita. That's a great name. So, Margarita Lah in the local dialect that name meant Pearl, but they knew her as Rita because Margarita. So, they called her Rita.
Now, the day after her baptism, does anybody know the story of the bees? The day after her baptism, a swarm of white bees, and they have this documented. People came in, the pastor, the church priest came in, the family came in. A swarm of white bees flew around her as she slept in her crib the day after she was baptized and would go in and out of her mouth. Now, the beast peacefully entered and exited her mouth without causing her any harm. That swarm of bees still exists in the convent. Still exists. It's in the wall. And the mother superior took me there. She privately she took me there. She's like, "Don't say anything, Father Chris. Come here. Come here. Come here." And so the wall midway between her cell and her tomb is where the bees still live. The bees still live. What's unique about these bees? They have no stinger. They have no stinger. Have you ever seen a white bee with no stinger? Now, they live inside the wall, hidden the entire year. This is fascinating. And scientists have even looked into this. They live in the wall the whole year and they only come out the last few days of Holy Week and on May 22nd of every year. Is that not amazing? How do you I mean tell that to an atheist. Explain that. Explain that. So once they took a bee, the sisters, and they gave it to the pope, Pope Urban VI, as a gift. Don't ask me what he put it in. I don't know what he would have kept a bee in, but he took the bee and the bee would not stay with the Holy Father in the Vatican and flew back to the convent. They have this documented. It's hilarious.
Now, I want to show you something. I want to give a little plug. I love mom and pops. Let's go to our next video or our next slide. This is St. Rita Honey Company in St. Angelo, Texas. And I just met a couple from Texas. Where are they? Okay. Right here on our front row. So, just as I'm walking up, they say, "Hi." I said, "Where you from?" I always ask, "Where you from?" They said, "We're from Texas." Well, if you're ever near San Angelo, Texas, go get your St. Rita, honey. And so I I I I can't say enough about little mom and pops, especially ones that use St. Rita to bring the faith to the people through something as simple as honey. That's awesome. Okay.
So, she was baptized, as I said, in the church of St. Augustine, not Augustine >> in the city. They'll yell at you when you say Augustine, but it's St. Augustine or St. Augustine in Kashia in in um and she became acquainted with the local Augustinian nuns. Now, how this is all going to tie together is amazing. She met and became associated acquainted with the Augustinian nuns of St. Mary Magdalene's Monastery and she was attracted to their way of life. She was fascinated by it. She expressed a desire to become a nun, but her parents said no. It's funny when we see guys come, I've seen men come into our community that the vocation wasn't theirs. It was their parents, their moms, cuz they wanted their son to be a priest. And then I see others like me where my parents tried everything to stop me. My mom cried for three days that she did not want me to become a priest. She pleaded with me, begged me not to become a priest. She wanted grandchildren. And I understand that. God bless mom. I said, "But mom, now you're going to have thousands of spiritual children." Okay? And so she wanted to become a nun, but her parents arranged a marriage for her in order to provide for safety and security. So Rita was obedient. Did she marry him? Yeah. At age 12. 12. So she married Polo Mancini. And he was very rough. He was abusive. Some sources say he was unfaithful. He was degrading to her. And throughout her marriage, she was trying to persuade her husband to change. She was praying for his conversion. Who's this sound like? Monica. Right. So many reports say that he had a violent temper. Um and and could do nothing. He he absolutely could do nothing uh holy. He was just a weward man. But she prayed and she prayed and she prayed and he had a miraculous conversion. So there's always hope, right? And so this really was her first miracle. It really was. And so their marriage lasted 18 years and she had two sons. Now it ended when he was murdered. He was murdered by another family which they had been carrying on a a blood feud like the Hatfields and the McCoys here. So she forgave her husband's killers. Okay. But her sons, uh-uh, they wanted to go revenge. And technically, they should have killed somebody from the rival family to avenge their father's death. That was the way of society then. That's what you did. Social expectations would be that the boys would take out a vendetta and go get revenge. So tradition says that she took a crucifix with Jesus's corpus on it and put it in front of them and told them that he forgave those who killed him. Not even his father. He forgave those who killed him. So she was trying to convince her two young sons, don't commit this murder. So like St. Monica, she prayed for her ch child children that they would not do this. So guess what she did? This is really hard, but you could see the love of a mother. She prayed that the Lord do anything to prevent her, excuse me, to prevent them from committing a mortal sin, right? they were still going to do it. >> Free will. So she said, "Lord, you have to do anything to stop them from committing a mortal sin, even if you have to take their life." And they both died. They both died of natural causes even I think it was dysentery or something. I I can't remember, but they died of natural causes. Now God seems to have answered her prayer, right? By letting them die of natural causes first before they committed sin. Now forever in eternity they will reap the benefit. It's hard for us to understand. Yesterday I just did a homaly on suffering. So if you get a chance to see that it's up on our also on our YouTube channel. All right.
Now she was alone. So she sought to pursue her original path and enter the convent. Twice she applied and twice she was rejected. Why do you think she was rejected? Because one of the rival families that he had the blood feud with a sister was in the convent from that family. So church politics. Church politics. So when one of the rival families had I think it was even more than one member in the convent they said Rita's presence would be disruptive to the community. So they said no. So what does twice perseverance everybody? So she forgave the other family at her husband's death but it wasn't enough because the families kept fighting. So okay here's the story. So her husband gets in this feud. He's killed by a rival family. Rita forgives that family, but the two families, her family and the other the killer's family, they keep fighting. So although she says, "I forgive you." The convent is just like, "Well, you know, that's all good." But these these families are still battling each other and we don't want any any part of this. So they told her no but God is not to be deterred. This is interesting. So they said that Rita had forgiven yes your killers but the families had not forgiven. And so this is what the problem was.
Now what happened? Inspired by her three patron saints. >> Patron saints were these ones that heaven chose for her or she chose I don't know. But her three patron saints were St. Augustine. St. Augustine, St. Nicholas of Tolantine, and St. John the Baptist. So, she prayed to them and set out to make peace between the families. Even if she didn't get in the convent, she said, "There's got to be peace between the families." So she went to her husband's family first and begged them to put aside their anger and their stubbornness and she convinced them by her courage. They couldn't believe it and they agreed. Then the rival family, astounded by this overture of peace of what Rita did and seeing that his family was willing to forgive, they forgave. And so the two families exchanged an embrace, came together, hugged, and signed a written agreement, putting away the vendetta forever.
Now she had to get back in the convent. So again, she went back to invoking her patron saints. So if you need a patron saint, take Rita. But she invoked St. Augustine, St. Nicholas, and St. John the Baptist again. The convent blocked the door. They wouldn't let her in. She went to the door again. They wouldn't answer this time. We're done. That night she was magically transported or mystically not magically mystically transported into the monastery by levitation. So she was lifted up over the boundary walls of the monastery and laid into the courtyard by a Augustine Nicholas of Tolantino and uh is it Tolantino or Tolantine? >> Okay. So, and John the Baptist. So, the next morning, the mother superior comes out and sees Rita sleeping in the courtyard and she's like, "How did you get in here?" And so then she instantly realized this was from heaven. And so, um, she ended up accepting St. Rita and she said, "You know what? Since she made peace between these families, it was considered impossible because she contributed to her husband's reform, which seemed impossible. And because she prayed and then forgave her husband's killers, which seemed impossible, she then was given the knowledge or the um kind of the the patronage like St. Jude, the patron of impossible causes. but also of difficult marriages. So Rita is venerated today as a peacemaker not only for her courageous act of forgiveness when her husband died but also for the continuous encouragement of her sons not to do this murder and the reconciliation of her husband's family with that of his killer's family. So this was all impossible. So this um um reconciliation, this became kind of a miraculous deed and they took her into the convent. They basically said, "Whoa, like this is amazing."
So in 1417 she entered the Augustinian convent and I found out the exact age to the day that I was when I entered the Marian fathers. She was 36 and I said, "Oh my goodness." So I looked at her what they believe is her birthday and when she entered in on the date that she entered in and it's the exact same age. Exact same age. And I was like, "Okay, this is why Rita was picked to look over me and the possible cause." She was there in the convent for 40 years. But she didn't stay just inside the monastery. She went outside um to do charitable works. Um she helped people. She visited the elderly. She cared for the sick. She assisted the poor. And so on Good Friday 1442, she was meditating on the Lord's passion. Now, do all of you are most of you familiar with the diary of St. Fina? What does St. Fina say that Jesus told her is the most powerful form of prayer? Meditating on his passion. Jesus. You know, we have older priests that um God bless them. They still do flagagillation where they whip themselves. Our community and the church does not require this. So don't think that this is something that we say you have to do. We do not. But a man in our community may choose to do self um penences. Now, others like I just finished a 40-day 40hour fast and you know the first day is much worse, right? The second day is not not bad. And so I wasn't going to eat and I came in and I said, "You know what? I think I can go another day." And then I saw an egg sandwich and a bagel. I was a goner. I was a goner. So thank you. I I woof that down. and and um I pick penences like maybe fasting. We could do different forms of penences, but Jesus told St. Fina there's more merit to one hour of meditation on his passion than an entire year of whipping yourself. An entire year. So think about that. Jesus tells St. Fina, there's more merit to one hour of meditating on his passion than an entire year of whipping yourself. That's amazing. And so Rita was meditating on Good Friday 1442 on Christ's passion and she asked for a small share of it. So then immediately God answered.
Let's go to our next slide. This is the most famous picture that you know of St. Rita. She got the thorn. One single thorn. She didn't get the crown. And by the way, the the the thorns were not really a crown. Did you know this? They're more of a helmet. The whole thing was crowns. We know from the shroud. It's not just a crown, but a whole It's not just a crown. It's a helmet of thorns. So she got a single crown that pierced her forehead and the sisters used to complain. See it never healed until the end of her life. She bore that stigmata. And you know the sisters, you know, we think of medieval sisters being so pious and holy. Oh Rita, oh pray for me. No, you know what they wrote and said it stunk. It stunk. And they hated it. They hated it. And so she was she was humbled and so she had the stigmata of a single thorn in her forehead.
So before she died, she did something else that was interesting. She had a visitor that was from her hometown area. And the visitor asked her, "Could I do anything to help you?" And Rita said, "Yes, I want you to go to my family garden and get me the rose, a rose from the garden." Now, this person wrote that they left baffled by this request because it was January and there were no roses. How does this sound like? What? What other Marian? >> Guadalupe. Guadalupe. He he's told to go get roses. He's like, "What? There's no roses in bloom." So anyway, this person left baffled. And when she went to Rita's old home in Roa Porina, she found a single white rose blooming, white like the bees. And so this was the land where Rita, her husband, and her two sons had buried. So Rita had her husband and her two sons buried on that exact land, the three persons she prayed for. So the person brought the rose back and Rita said, "Where did you find the rose?" And what she described was on their grave. The rose blossomed on the grave of her husband and her sons. And so here's what the Augustinians wrote. This is what the the the U provincial superior wrote. He wrote, quote, "The dark cold earth of Roa Parina," and I'm if I'm mispronouncing that, I'm sorry. I know I'm going to get letters. I know. I know. But I'm sorry. Which held their mortal remains had now produced a beautiful sign of spring and beauty out of season. Serita believed God brought forth through her prayers their eternal life despite tragedy and violence. She now knew that she would soon be one with them again. Amazing.
So let's take a look at our next slide. She died then on May 22nd, 1457. Now, why do we celebrate feast days on the day saints die? Because it's their new birth into a new creation. Now, how many saints do we have where we celebrate their birthdays as a feast day? We just had one. >> Oh, wait a minute. No, I'm sorry. It's coming up. What's coming up on June 24th? John >> John the Baptist. So we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist which is very unique. We normally don't celebrate birthdays of saints but their death days. So Rita died on May 22nd and that's the day we celebrate her feast day. Now what did she die of? What did Fostina die of? >> Tuberculosis. Just like Fostina, she died of tuberculosis. And the old tradition records say of the town that soon as she died, the bells of the convent began to ring with no human hands. Nobody was pulling the string. I would freak out if I was standing and watching the bell swing and seeing a rope just swing just dangling by itself. So there was no human aid and the bells were ringing and it called all the people of Kashia to the doors of the convent and basically they announced the death of St. Rita and the triumphant completion of a life well lived. Well done good and faithful servant. That's the words we have to long to hear. And so the nuns prepared her for burial and placed her in a simple wooden coffin. What's interesting is the carpenter, the carpenter of the coffin who was paralyzed, partially paralyzed by a stroke. And by the way, thank you for the prayers for cameraman Jeppe. Um I think he was going to be here today. Um but they may had to switch his schedule. But um he had a stroke a few months ago and we've been asking for prayers for him. and he was completely paralyzed on his left side. He could not move his hand, his arm, his hand, his leg, nothing on his left side. And um so we prayed and we prayed and we asked all of you on the live stream to pray. I'm telling you, I am completely convinced of the powers of our Marian family in prayer. Whenever we have asked for a miracle, so far they've been answered. my mom who refused to forgive stage four Alzheimer's. You don't you don't get cured of that. I begged for your prayers. She all of a sudden became lucid. Came out of You don't come out of four stage Alzheimer's. She came out just enough that I had a big lecture with her. I had the talk. I had the talk and about the need to forgive her mother who abused her. She was defiant. She didn't want to. And then I told her what you all did for her. I said, "Mom, do you realize?" So, she made a video. We put her on the video and she wanted to thank and she did. She thanked all you Marian helpers. And people are like, "What? This isn't your mom?" Like, "Yeah." So, she came out of it just enough. She forgave her mother, went to confession, and went back to stage 4 Alzheimer's. And then she died shortly afterwards. I could never thank God more than that. When I became a priest, I asked God one thing. I said, "Lord, I'll give up. I'll give up the business, the house, the girl, the car, everything, the dog, but I beg you for the salvation of my mother, my father, and the conversion of my sister." And so, mom could not get into heaven. If you're gonna hold a grudge and and refuse to forgive, you can't. You can't. And she forgave. It was the help of your prayers. And so, we came to you and asked you for prayers for cameraman Jeppe, who suffered this horrible stroke. And we asked you to pray to please pray for him. And all of a sudden, miraculously, he starts getting better. And I I um he was in Ohio, so I flew out to Ohio to see him. And he couldn't move. But then they moved him to Boston. So I drove out to Boston to go give him mass and communion and to visit with him. And the first second I walked in the room, he says, "Stop." And he raised his left hand. He goes, "How you doing?" I WAS LIKE, "WHAT?" Like what? And now he's walking. He shuffles, but he's walking. And so, praise be to God for your prayers and uh for God looking out for camera man Jeppi. I love him to death. And and I laughed at him. I I I said I said, you know, cameraman, just after what you've been through, I can never yell at you again. He says, "I miss you yelling at me, Father Chris. You kept me on the straight and narrow." So, we we love him and thank you for your prayers for him. But he had a stroke just like this carpenter.
So, here you are. Here's St. Rita and the carpenter has this stroke, right? And so, he's paralyzed partially. And so he said, "If I only if only I were well, I would have prepared you, St. Rita, a place much more worthy for you." And with those words, he was healed that night. He was healed that night. It really was the first kind of official unofficial miracle that she performed. And so he made an elaborate coffin because now he was healed to hold St. Rita's body and it did for seven several centuries. But she was never buried in it. You know why? So many people came to look upon her face which they called the peacemaker of Kashia that her burial kept being delayed decade after decade and it became clear that something exceptional was occurring cuz her body was not decaying. Her body was not decaying.
So here's a picture. Let's go to our next slide. Oh um I don't know if I missed brother Mark but there's St. read of Kasha May 22nd. That's one slide. Now, let's go to our next slide. This is St. Rita in her glass coffin. And so, you can see um if you have your phone, if not, this will remain up on the talk, but it's still incorrupt today. She's in a glass enclosed coffin in the Basilica of St. Rita in Kasha. And so incorruptals fascinate me. Like you know all these crazy news stories you hear, but where I always said this, where was Katie Kurrick? Where was Katie Kurrick when they had all these announcements back about 15, 20 years ago about the incorruptibles and the church made some public statements. Where was ABC, Nightly News? I mean, oh, if there would have been a racial slur, there would have been flying across the world to cover it, but there was not a single moment of news on these incorruptibles. How does science explain a human body going for centuries without decaying? How does it make any sense? Science is baffled. So, I did a talk, let's go to our next slide. I did a talk on the incorruptible. So, take a look. It's up on our our YouTube channel and I explain who are the incorruptibles, what famous saints are incorruptible, um why we believe they were incorruptible, what tests were done on them, the science behind it. Fascinating. And so you could see that. So that's our next slide. Okay.
Now, let's keep going. Almost uh we're past halfway. So, thank you. After dying, St. Rita was almost immediately connected with many miracles. Okay. Now, a friend of our community, Bert Gzi, he's an author, and he wrote three days later after her death, Dominic and Jelly, a notary of the town, recorded 11 miracles that occurred right after she died, asking for her intercession. Ever since then, she has been widely known as a miraculous intercessor with countless miracles occurring through her intercession, but especially for impossible cases. St. Charbell, he's the king, but most of his cures are physical ailments. Rita gets you out of the mess. She gets you out of impossible cases. So this went on and on.
So Rita was canonized. And here's what's fascinating. Do you know who the first canonized saint of this new millennium was? >> St. Fina. Do you know who the first canonized saint of the 20th century was? >> St. Rita. St. Rita was the first canonized saint of the 20th century. She was canonized on May 24th, 1900. By who? The greatest pope in the history of the church. >> Leo I 13th. Is all connects for me. Leo I 13th who I believe is the single greatest pope we've ever had in our church history. And he's the one who canonized her. I'm like, no wonder she was sent to me. And on top of that, Fostina was canonized as the first saint of the new millennium of the 21st century. And I found out Rita was the first canonized of the 20th century. And boy, do we need that. The 20th century was a mess. And so Leo proclaimed her the precious pearl of Umbria. And her body is still venerated in the basilica there in Cashia. So she as said was the first saint canonized of the 20th century Fina the 21st. So it took miracles to pave the way for her canonization proving that you can pray to her as a powerful saint for intercession.
Now I'm only going to talk about one because this one interested me because I've only had I I I told you before that um I don't have mystical experiences. I I don't see Mary in my toast. I don't see, you know, I I don't hear uh God doesn't appear to me and speak audibly. I I hear him in my heart, I guess you could say, but I don't have mystical experiences. I've only had one mystical experience in my entire life, and it involved not sight, not hearing, smell. I smelled the roses. After a night, I broke down and realized I was on the wrong path. Now, her miracle that I wanted to tell you about. She's got many, but there was one about pleasing smell cuz remember she stunk. Remember the sister said while she was alive she stunk. She had this incredible heavenly scent that came from the remains of her body. So she went from smelling bad to the most pure heavenly smell, the existence of which was confirmed by many reliable resources and witnesses. Moreover, no natural cause has ever been shown for the existence of this smell. And we see from the physical research which was made uh by scientists very skilled that they can't explain it. And so this odor diffuses itself in a manner above the usual laws of nature. It penetrates concrete walls. Amazing. So we should be persuaded to believe that this fragrance has its origin only through divine intervention.
And so on the 100th year anniversary of her canonization in the year 2000, John Paul said, "Rita interpreted well the feminine genius by living it intensely in both physical and spiritual motherhood. We need mothers. Family peace and spiritual conversion. Let us invoke her spiritual motherhood in our times. We need to mothers. Fina, yes, is great for knowing Jesus's will and divine mercy, but Rita is a mother. Physically, biologically, a mother."
Now, I want to go to our next slide because here's an amazing story. Here's go to our next slide. Mother Angelica. Mother Angelica. All of a sudden, you're not going to believe how this all ties together. So, Mother Angelica was instrumental in my vocation. And I'll tell you why. But she, there's her picture. Do you know she was born? You know what her name was? >> Rita. Rita Rizzo. And she was under St. Rita's patronage. She always prayed to her. Fully convinced that God would provide a means for every task he ever gave her. She plunged into founding the Our Lady of Angels Monastery in 1962. She was from Canton, Ohio. And then she built EWTN, which launched in 1981, the same year John Paul 2 and Reagan were shot. the same time the construction of the shrine then in Alabama was dedicated in 1999.
Now let's tell you a little bit about because this is incredible. Physical suffering was something that would be with her throughout her life. In her teenage years she was plagued with a severe stomach ailment. Okay, which was only relieved after fervent recourse to the intercession of St. TZ at the recommendation of the mystic the servant of God Roise. So realizing that God immensely loved her through this incredible recovery, Rita, the future Mother Angelica resolved to give herself totally to God. That's when the suffering really kicked in. God bless her. Um, again, yesterday I did the homaly on suffering, the meaning of suffering as best we can explain it. You could check that out. But she was using an electric floor scrubbing machine. Do you all know this story? So, she was using an electric floor scrubbing machine while cleaning and it threw her across the room and she suffered a horrible back injury and she faced an operation that threatened to leave her paralyzed. So, she had remember she walked with braces and then she was miraculously healed. But she was not deterred. She wanted to serve God. So she promised God that if she could walk after the surgery, even assisted, she would build him a monastery in the south cuz there's not much Catholic presence or there wasn't at that time. True to her word and God's goodness, the surgery was a success. and Sister Angelica began the long process of obtaining permissions and raising funds to build a new monastery. The sisters collaborated on an unusual fundraising project. If any of you know Brother Mark and me, we're avid fisherman. We all took three days off the whole year last year. All three days we went fishing. She started St. Peter's fishing lures. So, she started selling fishing lures. And do you know the story? I might get this not completely correct, but when they built the television studio, they didn't have enough money for the satellites. And RCA, the vice president or whatever, promised that he would give her the satellites at this huge discount. And the trucks delivered the satellites. And they said, "Where do you want them? But before we we deliver them, you have to pay. She had like $1,200 in the bank and she owed $600,000 for these big satellite dishes. And so the truck driver is like, "Mother, I'm I'm turning around. I I'm sorry. I'm just doing my job." And she's like, "I know. I know. I know. Can you give me 15 minutes to go pray? There's got to be an answer here out of this. He's like, "Mother, I don't have 15 minutes." He's like, "10. Give me 10 minutes." So he's like, "Mother, I don't have time." She goes, "Five. Give me five minutes." So he's like, "Okay, please hurry." So she runs into the chapel. She gets on her knees and she says, "Lord, you got me into this mess. You got to get me out of it." So just then one of the sisters comes in and says, "Mother, there's a phone call." She says, "Not now, sister." She says, "Mother, there's an important phone call. Sister, not now." And she says, "MOTHER, YOU GOT TO TAKE THIS PHONE CALL." SHE'S LIKE, "H, OKAY, SISTER." SO, she grabs the phone. It was a man calling her from his yacht in the Bahamas or in Florida or something like that. And he said, "Mother, I know you don't know me, but your little booklets change my life. I'd like to give you I just had some capital gains. I just did some sale or something. I'd like to give you $600,000. So, mother is speechless and he says, "Where do I mail the check?" And she says, "Could you wire that?" And he's like, "I guess um I could call my bank." So she went out, begged the driver while they got the the wiring information and wired the $600,000 and she got the satellites. So talk about trusting in God's providence. So she started St. Pete Fishing Lures before moving to Alabama. After that, the nuns made their new home in Irondale, which I go down a couple times a year to film, but funds were still needed. So they started little old peanut company. Okay. And it helped to keep the monastery running. Now after many leaps of faith on August 15th, 1981 at 6:00 p.m. they flipped the switch and Mother Angelica launched EWTN. Now, it's so funny cuz I remember when I was a little kid flipping through the cable when we first got cable to find the sports games and I'd always pass this nun and I'd flip flip flip and I'd see this nun and I'm like, "No, I don't want anybody to see me watching this nun." Click click click click. So I bypassed her for years all through the 80s as a kid and seeing oh my this is what her beginning was. This is what she did. So it was hardly foreseeable that this new initiative this new monastery a new television network which began in a garage with $200 would become the greatest Catholic media aposttoate in the world. And so, please watch our show, Living Divine Mercy. We're on every Thursday night on prime time called Living Divine Mercy. It's 7 PM in California, 8:00 p.m. Mountain, 9:00 p.m. Central, and 10 p.m. East Coast. And it's also on 9:00 in the morning on Mondays that you can watch it now. The nuns supported the network from the beginning. They did teleathons. They give tours to the visitors. They open mail, printed out mail. They printed programs, but most of all, they prayed for God's work to help the nuns.
All right, so last couple paragraphs. On Christmas Eve 2001, Mother Angelica suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage. H she made a recovery, but since that day of 2001, she never regained her full ability to speak. I wanted to be an EWTN frier. I didn't listen to God. I wanted to go to the EWTN friars. So in 2006 in April, I did a retreat and I went down there and Mother Angelica's in a wheelchair. She doesn't really communicate well. and they have a cloistered gate and all a sudden there's this big swarm of Japanese tourists. They take as many pictures as the Filipinos. Pictures clacking, clicking, flashes going. And Mother Angela is not talking. She's not talking. And so she comes to the gate and everybody's there gathering around the gate and I'm in the very back and all of a sudden Mother Angelica goes and the poor Japanese they didn't know what that meant and so the the security guy there's like uh could we have you move to the side? So she goes like this and all the Japanese people that were visiting there were like so they moved aside and she points at me and she goes like this. She couldn't talk and so she goes like this. So I go up to her at the gate and she gave me a blessing and I'm like that's it. That was the final confirmation for me because she gave me that blessing and was blessing I believe the pre the priesthood that I was then on the path to. And so, Mother Angelica for me was instrumental in that confirmation that you're being called. I'm like, Lord can't call me. I'm an impossible case. And there's Rita Rizzo giving her confirmation. It was really unbelievable.
So, here's what happened. So, um, she made a remark. As I said, she she suffered and then continued to live in silent communion with our Lord. On Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016, in the year of mercy, she died. She passed away at Our Lady of Angels Monastery. And it is said that God worked in amazing ways through her faith. That God would do the miraculous if only she would be willing to do the ridiculous. I love that. That's what the sisters said.
Now, let's finish because you know she's also a movie star. Great movie on EW10 about St. Rita. But do you know, let's go to this next movie with Dennis Quaid. Let's go to our next movie. You ever hear of the movie back in 2020 2002 called The Rookie? >> It was about a guy 36 years old who made the major leagues as a pitcher. Now, this movie, The Rookie, is based on the true story of Jimmy Morris. Totally unlikely situation. Guy working in the world and he made it into the major leagues when he was well into his 30s. Now, Jimmy, who was this pitcher, carried a medal of St. Rita always on him. This is the true story. And so the true story um here's the true story of how the patron saint Rita of impossible cases became the patron saint of baseball. This story is fascinating. It started in the 1920s. The oil business was booming. Texas Texas was hot. It was the place to be and investments were spreading like wildfire. So a group of Catholic nuns, a group of Catholic nuns in New York City invested and put everything they had to get one oil rig. A group of nuns in the 20s. So they invested in one oil rig in Reagan County, Texas. I don't know. Do you guys know where Reagan County? I don't know. So big. Texas is big. But the project stalled. It wasn't working. It was ill- fated, plagued by lack of funds, lack of, you know, progress. And because of this, the men that were hired to
Work the oil rig had nothing to do. Cash was slim. They couldn't go out and oil wasn't coming. So, they built a baseball field. They built a baseball field. And when they were not working drilling because the dry the the well was dry, they played baseball.
Now meanwhile, the women asked a priest for advice, the nuns. So the nuns asked this priest, "What should we do? What do you do when you've invested in an oil well that isn't working?" And so the priest said, "St. Rita, St. Rita." So he blessed a rose in Rita's name and it was given to Frank Pickerrell, a partner in the oil project with the sisters. So this uh Frank Pickel returned to Texas and scattered the rose petals from the top of the oil rig and he named the oil rig Santaita number one.
On May 27th, just a few days after her feast day in 1923, they began to drill again, but it hit the D, I think it's pronounced, dolommitic sands, called big lime, what they call big lime in the oil business, and they had to stop drilling. You can't get through that. So, they're like, "We're done." But one nun, one nun with faith, belief, and perseverance kept praying and did an all night vigil. And the next day, just days after St. Vita's feast day, the miraculous happened. Oil started spewing. Enough oil, even though there was no more drilling. This defies logic. Oil burst into the sky in answer to that nun's prayers. The oil sprayed over a 250 yard area, covering it. The baseball players quickly jumped up, put down their gloves, and went to work. Santaita oil rig number one struck oil. So, this thing saved the sisters.
And the story of the St. Orita oil rig and this ragtag group of oilmen who played baseball isn't really that well known, but it was the beginning of St. Rita's association with baseball. So the beginning of the movie The Rookie, do you remember? Was it the beginning or the end? I can't remember if it's the beginning or the end. They're walking on that dust field and they throw the rose petals. It was St. Rita. It was St. Rita. How fascinating. So, she's still influencing us today. And so, this is where I want to finish because she has spiritual kinship now with our current holy father, Leo I 14th. Why? What's the connection? He's the first Augustinian pope. All right? or the newest Augustinian pope. So we should pay attention to St. Rita for two reasons. One, in many ways she's the patronist of people, as we said, with difficult marriages, unhappy lives, abuse victims. They need help. But secondly, she was an Augustinian saint worthy. This is worthy to note because our fir I guess Leo is the first Augustinian pope. The first Augustininian Leo I 14th became pope.
And so let's go to our next slide, our last slide. There is a place in St. in uh Philadelphia and I've been telling our retreat people who are here this weekend. We have somebody from outside Philadelphia. Go to St. Rita. Here's a picture of it. Isn't that beautiful? I went to St. Rita Shrine. That changed my life. Father Dan couldn't get me out of there. I was just a I was just a postulate and he took us down there and I wouldn't leave. I felt so drawn to it. And so the Augustinians have established and maintained a national shrine of St. Rita in the Philadelphia area. And there's the picture of it. Now, it started as a stable and they turned it into South Philadelphia Parish Church and the Augustinians ministered to the English and Italian community in that area. Beautiful. Later, when the parish was in danger of closing, they launched an effort to reinvigorate devotion to St. Rita and the current national shrine. They became a national shrine in 2003. So powerful.
So she reminds us of the healing power of prayer, of penance, of forgiveness. This St. Rita, the patronist of impossible causes or cases for abused also for abused wives, heartbroken women, and difficult marriages. I know either you or someone you know fits in that category. a heartbroken woman. And so we pray and I want to finish with the prayer to St. Rita. If you're able to see it on your phone, you can join with us. If you can't see it, it's there going to be put on your screen. Brother Mark is going to pray. This is the prayer for a special need, even impossible to bring to St. Rita. Let us pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh powerful St. Rita, rightly called saint of the impossible, I come to you with confidence in my great need. You know well my trials, for you yourself were many times burdened in this life. Come to my help, speak for me, pray with me. intercede on my behalf before the Father. I know that God has a most generous heart and that he is a most loving father. Join your prayers to mine and obtain for me the grace I desire. Let's take a second and ask God for the grace you desire. You who were so very pleasing to God on earth and are so much so now in heaven. I promise to use this favor when granted to better my life to proclaim God's mercy and to make you more widely known and loved. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. St. Rita, >> pray for us. God bless you everybody. Sorry I ran 5 minutes late, but it's great to have you here with us. Don't let St. Rita's feast day coming up next, I think it's Friday, May 22nd. Don't let it slip by. Ask her for the help. Ask her for the intercession. And we are graciously um asking for her help.
Now one of the things I want to ask you for help for us if you can pray for our seminarians our seminarians this is the lifeblood of the church pray for them in your dascese pray for them all over the world but I'd like to tell you a new initiative we began and that is through the generosity of nativity tours and select international both of them have agreed that if I did pilgrimages with them they would give the proceeds to pay for our seminarians And so not all of it because the bills are astronomical, but what we do because you know it costs more to send a man to seminary than it almost does to college, right? So we have started a fundraising pilgrimage um initiative where you can go on pilgrimage with us but instead of giving your money to corporate America or whoever's running the pilgrimage companies for all for profit go through the Marians because we have a special agreement that I've never seen and I've never heard. They're willing to pay the proceeds to pay for our men's seminary. So if you go with us on pilgrimage, you're not just enjoying a beautiful spiritual experience, but you're helping put our men through seminary. It's like making a beautiful donation. So we invite you to join us. We got next coming up um in Poland uh June 7th. So it's coming up. I I heard there's still a few seats left. If you want to join us, we're going to go in the footsteps of St. Fostina. If brother Mark can put this slide up. Um we're going to go to follow where foot St foot steps of St. Fina. I was invited by the bishop of Vnius to speak at the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy. It's a huge deal. So I decided we're going to take a pilgrimage with us. So you'll join us at the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy in Lithuania and we will see the original image of Divine Mercy. The actual image painted that St. Fina had painted.
Next, we are doing the Holy Land. And yes, Jacob from Nativity is born, raised in the Holy Land. He has a house there. He knows exactly when and where to go. Completely guaranteed safe. We're still planning it. If something changes, we will let you know. But on September 14th through the 23rd, we will be in the Holy Land pilgrimage. Now, piggybacking off of that, after that, I will do Jordan, Mount Si, and Egypt to teach you about the Old Testament. So, we'll go through and learn about the Old Testament. Then after that, I'm going to be dead, but we will we will do a Nile extension and a tour of the Nile River. So, we're going to teach you all about the Jews, Moses, the Pharaoh, all of that. And then next year, if you'd like to join us, we've now established a residence in Magigori, the Marian Fathers. We will be doing a Croatia cruise and going to Magigori. I invite you to join us because that is a big initiative for the Marian Fathers. And I do smile and I do laugh because there's going to be a free day. And on the free day, if you want to join me, I'm going to the town of my ancestors. It's a little tiny town in Croatia in the middle called Pod La Patch. Pod La Patcha in Croatia. And so the excitement grew because they all watch us in Croatia there and they know that I'm from there. So they're giving me the key to the city. But the funny thing is it's only the town is only 55 people. There's only 55 people in the whole town. So we get to meet all of them. So if you want to join us, you could join us for that as well. So these are the pilgrimages coming up that we hope that you'll be with us.
And you know what the key though, my talk didn't mention it, but really none of this, the saints, the pilgrimages, none of it is as important as what happens right here, right here and inside this church, the sacraments. The sacraments. And so please just always focus on that as number one. Nothing else compares. No saint, no pilgrimage, no nothing is more important than happens right there and in this mass. And so we invite you to stay with us. Devotions, the exposition of the blessed sacrament will begin at 1. We'll have confessions, we'll have the rosary, we'll have mass, we'll have the chaplet. So God bless all of you. If you can stay with us, bless you. And for those of you on live stream, uh please remain with us as we will continue to walk through the spiritual journey of our faith. The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. >> May almighty God bless you. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. >> Amen. >> Go in peace. The talk has ended. Thanks be to God. Thank you everybody. God bless you. Thank you.
>> Do you realize that St. Fina had a vision of all Marian helpers back in April of 1936. Hi, I'm Father Chris Aar here at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy. And if you're already a Marian Helper or you become a Marian Helper, St. Fina saw you in her vision. Let's listen to her words. St. Fostina said that the Lord Jesus revealed to her many things concerning the future among others the creation of an association of lay people which was to deal with the propagation of the devotion of divine mercy. She said, "One more word, Father. I see clearly that not only will there be a male and a female congregation, but I can see that there will be a huge association of lay persons to which anyone could belong and by deed remind others of God's mercy, particularly showing mercy to one another." So, it is clear that St. Fina was talking here about the association of Mary and helpers. If you have any questions or you want to learn more how to be a Marian Helper, please visit mic prayers.com or call 1 800-4627426 and let me personally pray for you and your loved ones. Thank you and may almighty God bless you. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.