Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,
There are many saints’ days on the Church calendar that come and go without much notice. Some of them are rather obscure saints with whom we might not be very familiar. Some are saints who are historically important but do not have much of a following in our times. Others are saints whose feast day gets dropped because of a more important celebration.
This happened this past Sunday, August 23. This was the feast of Saint Rose of Lima, but the Sunday celebration takes precedence, so the saint’s day passed unnoticed. Saint Rose is the patron saint of our mission church in Novinger. Saint Rose was the first saint of the Americas to be canonized. She was born in Lima, Peru, at the end of the 16th century. Her name was actually Isabel and Rose was a nickname given to her by her family.
Rose was a very pious girl who was attracted to penance. She followed the example of  Saint Catherine of Siena and began a regimen of fasting and prayer. Rose was a very beautiful girl, and despite her parents’ objection, she took a vow of perpetual virginity. She wanted to become a Dominican nun, but her father forbade it. She became a third order Dominican and lived a solitary life in the home of her parents.
To our modern eyes, Rose practiced very severe penances. The idea of fasting and penance is almost loathsome to our indulgent sensibilities. Rose fasted, she deprived herself of comforts, and she slept only a couple hours a night. She is often pictured wearing a crown of flowers. She actually wore a heavy metal crown of thorns. Rosie spent long hours in prayer.  Saint Rose died at the age of 31.
There are two churches in our diocese that were dedicated to St. Rose. One of them was in the village of Lakenan near Shelbina. It is now  closed, but the brick building still stands near the edge of Highway 36. The other, of course, is our own Saint Rose, founded in 1904 for the people of Novinger.
We look to the example of Saint Rose to remind us that we Christians are all called to devote ourselves to the service of Christ. We are all to spend time in prayer, fasting, and penance. Prayer is our time spent in the worship of God. Fasting reminds us to practice discipline in our life. It helps us to hunger for Jesus. Penance reminds us not to get trapped in the comforts of this life. It helps us to take up our cross and follow after Jesus.

O God, you set Saint Rose of Lima on fire with your love, so that, secluded from the world in the austerity of a life of penance, she might give herself to you alone; grant, we pray, that through her intercession, we may tread the paths of life on earth and drink the stream of your delights in heaven. Amen.

Msgr. Cox
Painting in Santa Maria della Luce, Rome