Santa Rosa de Lima: Archbishop in Peru asks 3 challenging questions from the life of the saint

A Peruvian archbishop offers an interesting reflection on Santa Rosa de Lima, to whom the Catholic Church – Fuera del Perú – celebrates this August 23, and asks three challenging questions from the life of the saint, whose example the faithful can continue in the world today.

After remembering that in Peru the Fiesta de la Santa is celebrated on August 30, the Archbishop of Arequipa, Mons. Javier del Río Alba, emphasizes that Santa Rosa de Lima was not religious but a secular “who consecrated himself as tertiary of the Dominican order and continued to live at his parents’ house, in whose garden he held a small room in which he spent a long time in prayer and penance.

“While she had not a few mystical experiences, she did not move her away from this world but, on the contrary, she also dedicated himself to helping the poor and sick. Knowing the love of God, she had a great zeal for the salvation of souls and for the announcement of the gospel,” the Peruvian prelate underlines in an article sent to Aci Press this Saturday.

“Through the denial of herself and a life of prayer and service to the poorest and most in need, in it the words of Jesus were fulfilled: ‘Whoever loses her life for me and for the gospel, will find it.” She found that eternal life for which we have all been created but so few begin to experiment in this earth, “says the archbishop.

3 challenging questions

The archbishop raises, from Santa Rosa de Lima, three questions so that each one looks at how he is leading his own life:

1. Have we discovered the joy of living in communion with God or have we reduced Christianity to the mere human effort to comply with moral norms that, in the end, do not satisfy us?

2. Do we dedicate at least a little time every day to prayer or to read some of the Bible, or do we live our days supported only in our forces, as if God did not exist for us?

3. Are we sensitive to the suffering of people around us the needs of the poor, or perhaps without realizing we have ended up imprisoned in our selfishness and our own interests?

Mons. Del Río states that these questions can lead to that people have “away from God” or that “happiness in the idols of this world” that they do not satisfy at all.

An invitation

Then, the Archbishop of Arequipa encourages anyone who is in one of these situations, or in any other who does not make it happy, to “return to God who always has open arms to welcome us, to forgive us and to introduce us to that kingdom of the heavens that Jesus brought to the earth and whose firstfruits are in the Church.”

“In short, I invite you to let yourself be loved for free for God and to experience that love through the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist, through which you can receive divine life and experience the joy of living in communion with God and the brothers,” he concludes.

Who is Santa Rosa de Lima?

Santa Rosa de Lima (1586-1617) is the first Santa de América, patron saint of this continent and the Philippines. It is contemporary with San Martín de Porres (1579-1639) and received the confirmation of Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (1538-1606), which was then Archbishop of Lima and was declared a patron of the Latin American Episcopate.

Every August 23, the Catholic Church celebrates Santa Rosa de Lima, but in Peru this party is celebrated on August 30 and has a range of solemnity, it is a precept day and also a civil holiday.

At his party, a multitude of faithful perform processions, votive masses, liturgies, prayers and songs in his honor.

In Lima, capital of Peru, crowds pilgrimage to its sanctuary – the former home of the Holy, located next to the temple that today bears his name – to leave her letters in the well where she took water for her home, located in the central garden of the enclosure.