Today is May 22, the Optional Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious.
At Mass today, we hear these tender and powerful words from the Gospel of John: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in His love.” (Jn 15:9-10)
These words take on special meaning in light of today’s feast. St. Rita, a woman of intense prayer and mystical union with Christ, truly remained in his love. Her life, shaped by suffering, rejection and reconciliation, is a beautiful embodiment of what it means to live out the commandment of love.
As an Augustinian nun, St. Rita lived according to the Rule of St. Augustine — a spiritual framework that has shaped countless religious communities throughout the centuries. Interestingly, it’s also the rule followed by Pope Leo’s own religious order. I imagine we’ll see his papacy shine a special light on saints like Rita, whose lives were formed by the very rule that shaped him.
‘A summary of the entire Christian religion’
What’s so beautiful about the Rule of St. Augustine is how simple and foundational it is. It begins with this line: “Before all else, love God and love your neighbor.” Then it continues by saying that religious life exists so that people may be “of one mind and one heart, intent upon God.” That’s the heart of it all — love and unity.
In a biography of St. Rita, the Augustinian priest Fr. Richard Connolly wrote:
“Charity is the sublime principle which St. Augustine, himself a great master of charity and evangelical perfection, proposes in that golden rule of his, which so many religious orders have adopted and which Rita observed to the last letter… a principle which, as Blessed Alphonse says, is a summary of the entire Christian religion.”
What’s remarkable is that you don’t need to belong to a religious order to adopt charity as the rule of your life. The love of God and neighbor isn’t only for monks and nuns — it’s the call of every Christian.
So today, inspired by the witness of St. Rita, I invite you to renew your own commitment to this rule of charity. Let love be your guide. Let unity, mercy and peace shape the way you live. And let us ask St. Rita to intercede for us, especially in those places of suffering or conflict where we most need healing.
Let us pray,
Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord, the wisdom and strength of the Cross, with which you were pleased to endow Saint Rita, so that, suffering in every tribulation with Christ, we may participate ever more deeply in his Paschal Mystery. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
