Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas: The Food That Is Needful

The Church honors the memory of St. Rose of Lima on August 23.  I confess to a particular affection for this first canonized saint of the Americas because I attended St. Rose of Lima School in Newark, New Jersey from kindergarten through fifth grade and, amazingly, another St. Rose of Lima School in Freehold, New Jersey for sixth through eighth grades.  That coincidence pleased my mother since I was able to wear the same school tie – SRL!

St. Rose was a seventeenth-century Third Order Dominican – a mendicant order. Those in consecrated life profess what are known as the “evangelical counsels” – poverty, chastity, and obedience.  Luke 12:32-34 leads us to consider the first of those counsels, in which Jesus encourages His disciples to “sell your possessions,” give all to the poor, and thus have “treasure in the heavens.”  Offering a good psychological motivation, as well as a theological one, Our Lord observes: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” …