Ave Maria Meditations
to ST. MARIA GORETTI (Feast day is July 6th):
Strengthened by God’s grace, you did not hesitate, even at the age of eleven, to shed your blood, to sacrifice life itself to defend your virginal purity.
Deign to look graciously on the unhappy human race, which has strayed far from the path of eternal salvation. Teach us all, and especially the youth, with the courage and promptness we should flee anything that could offend Jesus.
Obtain for me from God a great horror of sin, so that, keeping my soul undefiled, I may live a holy life on earth and win eternal glory in heaven. Amen.
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“Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) This beatitude helps us to understand the ways of Saint Maria Goretti. She died in 1902 at the age of 12. She was stabbed to death, preferring to die than to be raped. She was canonized in 1950. Her own mother was present at the ceremony, which was the largest crowd ever assembled at that time in Rome for a canonization. She is the patroness of teenage girls.
“Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” This pure young girl had a heart in love with God and she would not yield God’s place in her heart to anything or anyone in the world. Her heart belonged entirely to God and because of that truth, she could see that preserving her love of God and for God was the most important task of her young life.
Some people spend their whole lives trying to come to the point at which she arrived at an early age, which is a clear sign of her oppeness to the workings of God’s grace. Unlike Saint Maria Goretti, some people spend many decades living worldly lives before they discover the richness of a life lived entirely for God. The world often looks down on such a life, but those who live by grace, those who are the children of God and those who desire to be, know that such a life is not boring or restricting, but that it is the only way to truly be alive!
Dear friends, it matters not whether we discover this truth early or later on in life, what is important is that we discover it. And what are we meant to discover? That the love of God ought to be the central focus of our lives! That nothing can or should take the place of God within our hearts! All will go well when our lives are centered on God and if things do not go well, then at least we will have the consolation of belonging entirely to Him. Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us, that we might love God above all things and be God’s grace and your heavenly intercession, may we never yield God’s place in our bodys or our souls and anything or anyone else! Amen.
