ROMA: Week Four, Nettuno [UPDATE:] & Cascia

“Yes, for the love of Jesus, I pardon him, and I want him to come with me to paradise. May God forgive him because I already have.” 

These words came from a dying twelve-year-old girl in Nettuno, Italy on July 6th, 1902. More than one hundered years later found me kneeling in the very same room where St. Maria Goretti voiced her forgiveness of the man who stabbed her 14 times after she refused to give in to his sexual advances. Praying with these words from my Catholic Shrines guidebook made me reflect on the role of forgiveness in my own life. How can one not be moved by such a phrase from this daughter of God in the moments of her last breath?

Nettuno was the kick start to one of the best parts of the Rome Program: Travel Weekends.  We’re allowed to use these free travel weekends to explore more of Rome, Italy, or Europe (if we feel so inclined). Once we arrived, we found our way to the Basilica of Our Lady of Graces and Saint Maria Goretti and along the way rejoiced in the Mediterranean Sea. Majority decision was that we would make a stop on the beach after we visit the tomb of our saint. As we walked down the steps in the Basilica, I had a flashback to the pure awe I had when we celebrated our first Mass in Rome at the tomb of St. Philip Niri. St. Maria Goretti definitely lived up to my expectations! In front of her wax-covered fragile body (enclosed in a glass tomb), I reflected on her life – one lived with the purest of hearts – and I begged for her intercession for my perseverance in chastity. I dedicated her as patron of my friends and family that may struggle with this virtue, and I asked the Lord to help me forgive those who have hurt me. Maria forgave her murderer; surely – through the grace of God – I can forgive those who kill me in my heart.

Our primary reason for this hour-long trip was, of course, was to see the body of Maria Goretti. And if there is one thing I’ve learned about the Communion of Saints, it’s that when pilgrims have a strong desire to visit these models of holiness, they put in a good word for us to the Man Upstairs. You will hear me refer back to this truth multiple times!

After our adventures at the beach, we looked for a place to eat. It wasn't until our train ride back to Rome that we realized it was Friday…you see, on the Rome Campus, we try to abstain from meat on Friday for the intention of our priests and seminarians at the Pontifical North American College (referred to as, "the NAC"). And so, we were about to shake our heads in shame when we realized that we hadn’t eaten meat after all! One of my travel buddies immediately said it was thanks to the intercession of Maria Goretti. There is no doubt that the saints help us to strive for holiness, even with little things such as these.

And now, I must confess that I am not actually writing this at the end of Week Four, as intended from the beginning. In the posts following, I will be sharing the greatest gifts the Lord has given to me during my stay in Italy over the past weeks. A large part of these gifts is what He has provided for my friends and I when we travel to honor the lives of those who lived solely for Him.

So, I pray:

Lord, thank you for the gift of hope You provide through the lives of the saints!


Thanks for reading! Look forward to "Part Two: Cascia, Italy"!

***UPDATE:

I would be kicking myself if I ended my posts from Rome and left out one of the best saint friends I've made! We found out about St. Rita of Cascia from the awesome Catholic Shrines of Western Europe book. How can you resist visiting a saint who's a wife, mother, widow, Augustinian nun, stigmatist, and now incorruptible saint of impossible cases?! We knew close to nothing about this woman and she has since become our patron saint for our semester abroad.

Our first encounter of the power of her intercession was when we wanted to switch buses in the town between Rome and Cascia. We barely missed the only bus heading from Terni to Cascia, and a man with little to no English was able to stop the bus and help us get tickets. Ever since then, she has answered our prayers! In my Assisi post, I talk about the hike from Assisi to St. Francis' hermitage. As we were hiking, it started to sprinkle and so we said a quick prayer to St. Rita...I kid you not - as soon as we finished the prayer, the skies cleared up and the rain stopped!

St. Rita: usually portrayed with a
scar from the thorn in her forehead
& cradling a Crucifix

Rewind to the Sunday before our weekend in Assisi and Mo, Lo & I were trying to find a priest who could translate the Pope's Sunday Angelus for us. We walked into a random church on our way to St. Peter's Square and saw a statue of St. Rita. We said a quick prayer, walked out of the church and saw a group of Polish priests heading the same way! Sure enough, one priest translated Papa Francesco's words from Italian to Polish, and another priest translated from Polish to English for us. Coincidence? Maybe, but probably not because I don't believe in coincidences when it comes down to the Lord and His saints!

These are just a teeny snippet of what St. Rita's helped us accomplish all to help us delight in the Lord!

And so, I strongly advise you to take up St. Rita as your patron. Just ask for her help every once and a while - and I always like to say, "but only if it's the Lord's will...which I hope it is!" ;)

St. Rita, pray for us!