About the episode
In grade 7 Religion class, we were all asked to pick a confirmation saint. I randomly picked St. Maria Goretti, who at the time I liked because I thought she was really pretty. Little did I know that this wasn't a random choice, and God had a plan for me all along.
The thing is, I didn’t choose her for her virtue or patronage. Instead, I chose St. Maria Goretti because my 12 year old self decided that she was the prettiest girl saint in my saints book. In the illustration in my book, she had long blonde hair, blue eyes, a blue and pink robe and she held lilies in her hand.
St. Maria Goretti, who is one of the youngest canonized saints in the history of the Church, is the patroness of youth, young women, purity, and victims of rape. I did learn about that as a kid when I did research, but I never realized how much her patronage in my life would mean to me until many years later.
In our world today, purity and chastity are two things are a real struggle. I myself was not immune to it just because I was a practicing Catholic, and I was especially not immune to it when I had stepped away from my faith for a quick hiatus. But in the time that I turned away from God, I let my guard down and quickly found myself getting hurt emotionally and physically. I found it hard to forgive myself for what I had done, and it was especially difficult to forgive those who had hurt me.
But St. Maria Goretti was really the bigger person in her story and ultimately chose to love and forgive the person who hurt her.
Listen to the episode
The following music tracks were featured in this week’s episode:
"Delamine" by Blue Dot Sessions
"Life Is" by Scott Buckley
"Hymn" by Scott Buckley
"She Moved Mountains" by Scott Buckley
"Drift" by Scott Buckley