Young lady athlete

Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all,
but one receiveth the prize?
So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery
is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown;
but we an incorruptible.

I therefore so run, not as uncertainly;
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
But I keep under my body,
and bring it into subjection:
lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others,
I myself should be a castaway.
1 Cor 9:24-27

These words of St. Paul rang in the heart of little Isabel. She was a beautiful child and could have had any man or life she wanted, but she wanted God.

From the time she was a little girl, she devoted herself to God with an amazing intensity. As she grew, so did the intensity of her devotion as she sacrificed all things to God and disciplined herself strictly in her pursuit of union with Christ. She took the name Rose as well as the habit of a third order Dominican and she secluded herself in her father’s garden. After she died, on August 24, 1617 at the age of 31, miracles blossomed.

In 1671, St. Rose of Lima became the first person born in the Americas to be canonized and her memory is celebrated on this day.