Remembering SANTA ROSA DE LIMA PERU

Nuestra Santa:    SANTA ROSA DE LIMA PERU

Rose of Our Lady

Delicate flower of Lima

Bless this day and protect our nation

               Listen to the poor

               Who fight for justice and peace 

               And strengthen their hope.

               Inflame the faith of all people. 

Patron Saint of the Sick

She had an open door ready to receive and assist anyone in need. Father Melendez who wrote of his memories of her remembered: she did not distinguish between the Spaniard, the stranger, the Indians, the blacks, whomever was poor she attended to their need.

Patron Saint of the National Police of Peru

Rosa was sensitive to and became aware of the injustices present in her world. At the age of 11 she recognized the suffering of and the injustices endured by her father who became a miner and who worked in slave-like conditions along with the indigenous people.

Her Life Story

On the 20th of April 1586 she was born. Her father was Puerto Rican and her mother from Lima. She was baptized with the name of Isabel Flores Oliva, however her black caregiver started to call her Rosa because of her beautiful features like a rose.   Rosa lived in her parents home choosing a life of helping those in need.   She loved nature and enjoyed tending the garden.  As well she built a hermitage in a corner of the garden and began a life of solitude dedicated to her spiritual routine.  At 24 she chose to wear the habit of the Third Order of St Dominic.  She died the 24th of August in 1617 at 31 years of age and canonized in 1671. She is venerated as patron saint of Peru as well as all of Latin America and the islands of the Philippines.

Remembering Saint Rose of Lima today

  • Every church, chapel or school in Peru that bears her name will honour her with processions, novenas and fiestas
  • Many little girls carry her name
  • Tourists visit her Lima home, hermitage and garden and write prayer intentions to drop into the well
  • The National Police Force include her their annual day of celebration   
  • On the bulletin board in the Chincha Church her name in large colourful letters has been a reminder of the August 30th date when she is remembered in the Peruvian Liturgical calendar. 

Assisted by details from Un Santo Para Cada Dia  Mario Sgarbossa and Luis Giovannini

-  Submitted by Hermanas Gloria, Maria y Mabel

 

August 30th marks the commemoration and public holiday in Peru, of Saint Rose of Lima, or Santa Rosa de Lima in Spanish. Saint Rose was the patron saint of Peru and the rest of the indigenous people of Latin America and the Philippines. The beautiful patron saint was born in 1956 in Lima to Spanish Colonists and was known for her piety and chastity. Today she is celebrated across Peru, with a national holiday declared in her name!
 

 

A Book Review

THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY – Kelly Rimmer

This novel is difficult to put down because it is so captivating. The thoughts and feelings of the main characters are revealed in such a way that draws you personally into the drama. Modern day issues and dilemmas that can and do exist in modern life are part of the drama. You become an ‘insider’ rather than a bystander.

The novel moves back and forth from the present to the realities of war in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1942. Kelly Rimmer’s characters reveal the emotions that war provokes and turns fear and doubt into bravery and trust.

The reader is led on this journey, between the past and the present, in a most captivating way. 

-Sister Valerie

CSJ BLUE COMMUNITY UPDATE

Water News

There is a water justice Summit coming to London this fall. The Water is Life Alliance is hosting its next gathering at Western University on Saturday, September 28th. Speakers include: Maude Barlow, Lela George, Holly T. Bird, Claire McClinton, and more.   Find out more on their website.   REGISTER HERE

TV Ontario segment on drinking water crisis on First Nations reserves. See the video. From the TVO website: Water quality advisories are nothing new in Indigenous communities and Attawapiskat First Nation is the latest place to declare a state of emergency over water. The crisis highlights the long, rocky road still ahead for reconciliation. The Agenda welcomes Willow Fiddler, an APTN video journalist and Dawn Martin-Hill, academic director of the Indigenous Studies program at McMaster University, and Marc Miller, parliamentary secretary to the minister of crown-Indigenous relations, to discuss this issue.

Water Actions

Support the Water Doc Film Festival. No other film festival in Canada brings together so many water educators, activists, artists, organizations and protectors into one space to raise awareness and inspire action to protect water. See and share their fundraising page now reaching only 50% of their goal.

Any day now, Nestlé will have to submit a new application for a permit and you can bet it’s hoping to do so under the radar. But if we can make a huge stink now, we can pressure Ontario’s government to deny the permit and stop Nestlé’s greedy water grab for good. Sign and share the petition.

To learn more about water issues and to take action, visit the Blue Community website.

 

 

 

 

REMEMBER – CELEBRATE – BELIEVE

In a recent reading of Embers – One Ojibway’s Meditations by Richard Wagamese, I was struck by the following passage from his writings. 

“Missing someone is feeling a piece of your heart gone astray… there’s a gap in the everyday things around you…You seem to move a little less gracefully… and you now move out of gratitude for the gift of their presence in your life…”   

In the courtyard at Boyle Street Community Services located in the inner City in Edmonton, folks gathered to remember and recall the life of Vegas – a community member who died. In the centre of the circle was a bowl of sage burning which would be used by the Elder to smudge each of us who gathered as well as the offering of food which was to be left for the spirits following our time together.  The gathering was about the Boyle Street Community sitting in silence to ‘fill the gap’ they were feeling from this death of a friend. Not a lot of words were used but the sense of accompaniment was evident as I too was invited into the Circle.  Stories were told of Vegas  -  a friend, a card player, a man of few words and a man who had overcome his alcohol addiction after many years – and his time with the Boyle Street Community was the ‘gift of presence'.

The following evening Sister Kitty and I attended the Annual Memorial sponsored by CEASE (Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation).  This was the 30th year that CEASE has organized this Memorial Service to gather and remember those who have lost a mother, a daughter, a sister, a partner, a relative or a friend from sexual exploitation and/or an abusive relationship.  A litany of over 150 names is read and silence is evident as people tear up remembering special relationships as the name of their loved one is spoken aloud.  The simplicity of this gathering is highlighted when balloons are sent skyward wishing peace and freedom to those who have died… and the line from Embers comes alive – “now you move out of gratitude for the gift of their presence in your life…”

On Sunday, Kitty and I gathered with some members of the Scarboro Community of Boyle-McAuley who knew and loved Father Rene Fumoleau, to recall and remember times they shared with Rene on his visits to Edmonton. Again, the theme of ‘being a gift of presence’ came through as stories were shared, some of his poetry was read and words that he spoke while in their presence came alive in recalling his passion for the people of Northern Canada for so many years and his commitment to social justice for many years.

These three events struck me as a connection with the circle of life and a deeper realization that I, we, are part of the sacred energy - moving, growing and  bringing everything into harmony. 

Contributed by Sister Ann MacDonald, csj