SAINT FEAST DAY 6 JULY: ST MARIA GORETTI

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 6th of July

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST MARIA GORETTI, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

St Maria Goretti was born in 1890, at Ancona in Italy, of a poor Italian family. She was stabbed to death by a youth who was attempting to rape her. Before she died, in hospital, she declared: “I forgive him for the love of Jesus, and I pray that he may come with me to Paradise.” She was canonised in 1950.

PRAYER:

Father,

source of innocence and lover of chastity,

you gave Saint Maria Goretti the privilege

of offering her life in witness to Christ.

As you gave her the crown of martyrdom,

let her prayers keep us faithful to your teaching.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Amen.