# The feast of St. Maria Goretti
*2016-07-05*

> Bill Young reflects on the life and martyrdom of St. Maria Goretti and offers a prayer for purity and courage.

## The life of St. Maria Goretti

Today is July 6th, the feast day of St. Maria Goretti. At the age of 12, Maria was threatened with rape by a local man. When she refused his advances, he stabbed her to death. In an act of profound mercy, she forgave him on her deathbed, and he later converted. St. Maria is a patron saint for young people, girls, victims of rape, and those who have lost their parents.

## A prayer for fortitude and purity

In honor of St. Maria, we offer this prayer: Heroic and angelic St. Maria Goretti, we kneel before you to honor your preserving fortitude and to beg your gracious aid. Teach us a deep love for the precepts of Holy Church. Help us to see them in every voice of our Father in heaven. May we preserve without stain our baptismal robe of innocence. May we who have lost this innocence kneel humbly in the Holy Presence and, with the absolution of the priest, may the torrent of Christ's precious blood flow into our souls and give us new courage to carry the burning light of God's love through the dangerous highways of this life until Christ our King shall call us to the courts of heaven. Amen.

## A model for our youth

Let us pray for our youth, that they may use St. Maria as a model and a goal for their own lives. We may sometimes think that saints are unattainable because they seem so great, but it is often the simple saints who do simple things who become the greatest saints.

*Great sanctity is found in those who faithfully do simple things for the love of God.*