FOURTH DAY
How great, O St Rita, was your love for God and your neighbour!
Who can picture the countless sighs and burning tears of pity that came from you during the days and nights you spent meditating on the passion of our crucified Lord?
Who can understand the happiness you felt during your frequent times of rapturous prayer with God?
Your love for your neighbour was known to the poor and sick, to the sisters in the convent and to afflicted and erring men and women of every state of life.
With your boundless charity you embraced them all in the mercy of Jesus Christ.
How unfortunate are we with our hearts of stone for the spiritual and bodily needs of our neighbour.
Yet we allow ourselves to be led astray by our culpable passions.
Ask our beloved Jesus, St Rita, to soften our hearts and guide our affections by the purest love of God and our neighbour, so that, beginning at once to imitate your exemplary ways, we may be united after death to that Uncreated Love that has rendered you so glorious and happy in paradise.
Recite the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be three times;
OUR FATHER, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy kngdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against usl.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.
HAIL MARY, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
GLORY BE to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.
SUPPLICATION TO ST RITA
Holy patroness of those in need, St Rita, whose pleadings before your divine Lord are almost irresistible, who for your generosity in granting favours have been called the Advocate of the Hopeless and even of the impossible.
St Rita, you were so humble, so pure, so mortified, so patient and of such compassionate love for your crucified Jesus that you could obtain from Him whatever you asked for.
On this account we confidently turn to you for assistance, expecting, if not always relief, at least comfort.
Be favourably inclined to our request, showing your power with God on behalf of the suppliant.
Be generous to us as you have been in so many wonderful cases, for the greater glory of God, for the spreading of the devotion to you, and for the consolation of those who trust in you.
We promise, if our petition is granted, to glorify you by making known your favour , to bless and sing your praise forever.
Relying then, on your merit and power before the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we pray you
(here mention your request).
FIFTH DAY
St Rita, from childhood you knew the dangerous rocks on which our human nature is wrecked: towering ambition, evil interests, wicked pleasures.
Your horror of these dangerous pitfalls kept you safe.
You who had, in obedience to your parents, bravely endured a life that was repugnant to you, began to feel unsafe in the world after being deprived of your husband and sons.
Therefore you begged Jesus to place you in a convent.
You bound yourself forever to Jesus by solemn vows.
You are happy, holy Rita.
We are unhappy, crushed by the weight of our ambition, under the yoke of our evil passions which lead us to eternal ruin.
Obtain for us from Jesus that from now on we may love heavenly things alone; that, casting aside all worldly wickedness, we may, chaste in heart and mind, receive the hundredfold reward promised to all who despise the deceptive goods of this world.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, three times.
Supplication as on the Fourth Day.
SIXTH DAY
We cannot sufficiently admire, St Rita, the spirit of prayer and penance which formed the distinctive mark of your holiness and by which your life became a continuous flower-chain of prayers and holy contemplations.
We, St Rita, do the very opposite! When we are assailed by terrible passions, far from mortifying ourselves and begging God to help us overcome the, we encourage them.
Worse still, we go in search of what will lead to eternal perdition.
We recognise the imperative need of penance and prayer and beg you to obtain for us from Jesus the favour that through prayer and resistance we may never again fall into sin, but may be made worthy to share everlasting joy with you.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, three times.
Supplication as on the Fourth Day.
SEVENTH DAY
Oh St Rita, burning to take part in the sufferings of Christ's Passion, see Him granting your prayer, after a sermon you heard on the subject, preached by St James della Marca.
So fired up were you that on returning to your room, you shed tender tears of compassion for Jesus. You suffered an ulcer on your forehead for fifteen years, without complaint in remembrance of His severe sufferings.
Oh St Rita, obtain for us from Jesus the grace patiently to bear illness and any temporal ills He may send us, so that, having escaped eternal punishment, we may glorify Him forever in Paradise.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, three times.
Supplication as on the Fourth Day.
Photograph by Catherine Nicolette of Luky's devotional Novena book
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