St Ita’s name means ‘thirst for holiness’. I think of that often – how we start our lives in Christ with such thirst, such hunger, such openness to God’s grace, only to slowly become tired and open ourselves once again to the barren voices of this world. Those voices that carry no seed of Life in them, those voices that drain us of the God-given energy that feeds our thirst for holiness.
It is St Ita’s Feast today. May she intercede on our behalf before Christ, may she welcome us and guide us into holiness the way she guided her orphans. She is known as ‘the foster mother of God’s saints’ because she took care of over one thousand children in her monastery, many of whom have also been canonised as saints. St Brendan the Navigator himself is one of her orphans.
I write this on the boat to the Holy Mountain. I shall keep all of you in my prayer while we are here and I ask that you pray for us too. May our thirst for holiness return to our hearts and take complete control over our being. This thirst will take us to Christ, and in Him we shall discover that we are all one.
My love in Him, fr seraphim
