Moreover, in the story of the “woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years,” Jesus said to her: “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” Her faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ moved her to believe with all her heart, mind, and soul that if she touched his cloak, she shall be cured. Jesus cured her and so her faith restored her into communion with her fellow believers. Sin separates us from the Body of Christ, the Catholic Church, and, more importantly, sin separates us from our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the head. However, when we turn away from temptation and sin, through the power and help of the Holy Spirit, we return into communion with the faithful people of God and reconcile ourselves to God. We are the prodigal children who return to the loving embrace of our Father in heaven. This is the call to a life of holiness and faith, which not only Saint Maria Goretti lived throughout her life, as short as it was, but in the life of her killer, Alessandro Serenelli, who found redemption in the love and mercy of God.
From Franciscan Media, Saint Maria Goretti was “the daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer, had no chance to go to school, never learned to read or write. . [She] made her First Communion not long before her death. . . On a hot afternoon in July, Maria Goretti was sitting at the top of the stairs of her house, mending a shirt. She was not quite 12 years old, but physically mature. A cart stopped outside, and a neighbor, 18-year-old Alessandro, ran up the stairs. He seized her and pulled her into a bedroom. She struggled and tried to call for help. ‘No, God does not wish it,’ she cried out. ‘It is a sin. You would go to hell for it.’ Alessandro began striking at her blindly with a long dagger. . . Maria Goretti was taken to a hospital. Her last hours were marked by the usual simple compassion of the good—concern about where her mother would sleep, forgiveness of her murderer (she had been in fear of him, but did not say anything lest she cause trouble to his family), and her devout welcoming of Viaticum, her last Holy Communion. She died about 24 hours after the attack.”
“Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years in prison. For a long time he was unrepentant and surly. One night he had a dream or vision of Maria Goretti gathering flowers and offering them to him. His life changed. When he was released after 27 years (three years early due to his good behavior), his first act was to beg the forgiveness of Maria’s mother” (Franciscan Media). On Christmas Eve, Maria’s mother replied to him, saying: "’If Maria forgives you, and God forgives you, how can I not also forgive you?’" The two went together to Midnight Mass and received Holy Communion kneeling side by side. Alessandro also publicly confessed his sin before the congregation and asked for their pardon as well. Assunta then adopted Alessandro as her own son.” At her canonization, “a 66-year-old Alessandro Serenelli knelt among the quarter-million people and cried tears of joy.” The stories of Alessandro, the woman with hemorrhages, and the daughter of the official gives us hope that we are never far from God’s love and mercy.







