Rose of Lima 			August 23
Mystic
Rose was born in Lima in 1586 to parents of Spanish descent. From her childhood she lived a severely austere way of life. Her family did not appreciate her determination to remain unmarried, but she resisted all their pleas. Rose seems to have taken Catherine of Siena as her model. Refused permission to enter an order, Rose joined the third order of Saint Dominic when she was twenty years of age.
Reckoning that anything that might endanger her relationship with God should be rooted out, and because her beauty was admired, Rose used to rub her face with pepper to produce disfiguring blotches. Excessive practices of mortification were part of the spirit of those times. Later, she wore on her head a thick circlet of silver studded on the inside like a crown of thorns. She ignored all attempts by friends and family to dissuade her from her course. She lived as a recluse in a hut in the garden.
When her parents fell into financial trouble, Rose worked in the garden all day and sewed at night. During the last years of her life, Rose set up a room in the house where she cared for homeless children, the elderly and the sick. This was the beginning of social services in Peru. Her care was in sharp contrast to the corruption and exploitation of the period.
She died in 1617 at the age of thirty-one after a long illness that seems to have been both physical and psychological. She was canonised in 1671, the first saint of the Americas.
For Liturgical Use
Rose was the first canonised saint of the Americas. She was born in 1586 in Lima to parents of Spanish descent. She had an ardent love of God and, reckoning that anything that might endanger that love must be rooted out of her life, she imposed upon herself severe austerity and mortification. Objections and ridicule from her family and friends did nothing to dissuade her. In the last years of her life Rose cared for homeless children, the elderly and the sick. She died at the age of 31 in 1617.
Sentence
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but stands for ever.	
				Psalm 125:1
Collects
Merciful God,
for love of you
Rose of Lima took up the cross and embraced suffering;
may we learn from her 
to regard material possessions lightly
and to show the radiance of your love to all we meet;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Jesus our Redeemer,
blessed are you in Rose the sufferer,
minister to the poor and oppressed;
blessed are you in the poor of Lima,
who chose her to be their saint.
Psalms	16	119:153-160
Readings
Isaiah 50:7-9		God will help me
Hebrews 9:11-14		To serve the living God
Mark 10:35-45		Not to be served but to serve
Post Communion Sentence
Jesus said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”		Matthew 16:25