During her funeral this week Mother Angelica was praised for espousing “a practical spirituality for the man in the pew”. In a two-hour ceremony broadcast live on EWTN, the network she founded, Fr Joseph Wolfe of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word also said: “You cannot understand Mother Angelica without reference [to] the one that she loved with a passion: Jesus, the Eternal Word, who became man and dwelt among us.” Fr Wolfe told of the time that a teenage Rita Rizzo suffered from a stomach ailment for nearly four years. He said that she had recalled of those events: “When the Lord came in and healed me, through the Little Flower [St Thérèse of Lisieux], I had a whole different attitude. I knew there was a God. I knew that God loved me and was interested in me. I didn’t know that before.” In a letter, Mother Angelica had said: “Before I was cured I was a lukewarm Catholic ... When I think of all that He has done for me and how little I have done for Him, I could cry.” The priest also read a recollection from Sister Mary Michael the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration’s mother vicar. She said: “Being a spiritual daughter of Mother Angelica has been a unique, privileged experience. Mother had a wealth of spiritual knowledge.” However, Sister Mary Michael added, “she had to use ‘yelling theology’.” To which Fr Wolfe added: “Most of us have experienced that, her yelling theology! Problems and challenges did not discourage Mother,” Fr Wolfe said. “No pity parties allowed ... Mother was not afraid to do what seemed ridiculous.”