Every year on 22nd of May – the Feast of St Rita of Cascia – members of the Exmouth Foundation travel to Honiton to join others from around the country and the world to celebrate with the Augustinian Recollects at St Rita’s Centre.
A marquee is erected in the beautiful gardens to the rear of the buildings with a raised altar decorated with roses.
The roses are an important part of the story of St Rita of Cascia. If you want to find out more about the life of St Rita of Cascia please go to www.stritascentre.org where you will find a fascinating story of her life.
This year 13 of us travelled over to Honiton. It was a beautiful sunny day and after a welcoming tea
or coffee and biscuits we joined the other people gathering in the marquee waiting for the celebration to begin.
The celebration started with a mass concelebrated by various priests from the diocese and the friars from St Rita’s and this year the principal celebrantwas an 
invited Canon from Dorset. At the end of the service the roses were blessed and distributed to all present. We were invited to choose more roses to take home for the sick at the end of the day.
We were all then offered the use of the beautiful gardens to enjoy our picnic lunch plus more free drinks and biscuits. We could also take the opportunity of visiting the Chapel and the shops.
The Chapel is a place of quite and tranquillity where you can pray and enjoy the amazing stained-glass windows.
We sat to eat our lunch in the gardens. It was a great opportunity to catch up with each other’s news and views and relax in the sunshine.
At 3.30 Fr. Frank Umendia O.A.R. celebrated Benediction.
Fr Frank also blessed religious items that people had brought.
The day came to a close with a free draw for all those who had bought something from the shop. Lorraine won first prize of 3 bottles of wine.
We then collected our roses to take home for sick members of the parish.