Canticle of Chiara

The Feast of Saint Francis 2009!

2009-10-03T18:21:00.003-04:00

HAPPY FEAST OF THE SOLEMNITY OF THE SERAPHIC FATHER, SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI! (I'm not sure whether Solemnities for Saints can be observed on a Sunday, but I will go ahead with this anyway)

As many of my readers might have gathered, I tend to be a bit verbose. So, in honor of the Saint who embraced simplicity as a way of approaching God, I will keep this quite simple.

Although the below "Prayer of Saint Francis" was not actually written by him...(and also I'm not a fan of the tune to which it is set)...the words are very much in the spirit of Francis.

When I am feeling overwhelmed and worried, I often recite this prayer and it takes me out of myself. Somewhere I've read that worries come from someone taking her focus off of God and instead placing it on herself. This prayer always helps me realize that all my actions are in the hands of God, and I am able to relax because I am simply His instrument.

May each and every one of you allow yourselves to be the Lord's instrument on this day and every day!

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF HOLY MOTHER CLARE, 2009

2009-08-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

PAX ET BONUM! I WISH YOU ALL A MOST WONDERFUL SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF SAINT CLARE…”SANTA CHIARA”!

This is a particularly appropriate year to be celebrating the Feast of Holy Mother Clare, who turned poverty in a way to become closer to Christ. Whether or not our situations can be described as “poverty,” nearly everyone has been touched in some way by this recession….the loss of a job, savings account, a livelihood. In turn, these losses cause blows to our pride. As dramatically pious as Clare’s cutting off her beautiful hair appeared, it was an act that left her and others uncomfortable. Everything that she had that made her the sweetheart of Assisi was stripped from her….her noble title, wealth, home, family, clothing, jewels, and beauty. Her actions thereafter, in the eyes of the world, were not remarkable….she lived a quiet life of prayer and penance. Despite her poverty and rejection, Clare allowed God’s light to shine through her…and as prophesied before her birth, she became a “light to illumine the whole world.” Like Christ, Clare’s life echoes the words of my favorite scripture passage:

Isaiah 53: 1-12: Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.

I will be the first to admit that I have seldom written blog posts this past year, and the ones that I have written have not been profound….I apologize to those who found the donkey story a bit schmaltzy, but it was a story that had been swimming in my head for years and I finally wanted to write it down. Although the feast days of my favorite Saints used to be huge deals for me in years past….with my two weeks of countdowns, parties, etc…..I’ve let many of the feast days this year peacefully come and go with personal reflection but not a whole lot of to-do.

Nonetheless, I think it might be God’s will that I have taken a short break from His Saints and focused on Him instead. I have run spiritually off-track… and while all my Saints are interceding for me, it is ultimately only Christ who can fix me. My faith had been in a rut long before the economy exploded. Even when the market was stable, the girl who had an “impressive” resume and award-winning credentials from a top-20 school and who was named “most likely to succeed” could not find a job or even a so-called purpose. On the spiritual level, I was a case of a failed vocation and couldn’t even get my Sunday School students to participate. The more assiduous my efforts were to land a job, my hours of cover letters, action verbs, cold calling, “networking,” and other career buzzwords were to no avail. At 24 and without a job, I convinced myself that I was not ‘bearing any fruit.’

In the midst of this “quarter-life crisis,” a spiritual mentor pointed out that my accomplishments, popularity, success, possessions…or lack thereof….did not affect God’s love for me. In fact, the way I based my self-worth on other people’s approval displeased God. Only when I realized that through Christ, I am totally accepted by God- whose opinion is the only one that truly matters- would I be comfortable in my own skin. Why was I trying so hard to prove something to myself and others when I was already totally loved and accepted by Christ?

So, I started to prayerfully reflect on this idea, and if you think about it, Christ’s light shone through the lives of all the Saints- including St. Clare- precisely because they understood that their popularity or achievements in no way affected Christ’s redemptive love. Clare’s life illustrates that even when we are stripped of the things that make us attractive- wealth, social stature, beauty- it has no impact on how God sees us. Clare’s faith was so powerful that even when her family threatened her to return to her old way of life under pain of death, God’s will was the only thing that mattered to her. Even then, God’s will might not have been entirely clear to her….but she let Him lead her by the hand, blindfolded. Slowly and after much prayer, I stopped correlating my career progression with God’s approval and didn’t stress over the fact that I was still jobless and living at home. Sure, my 20s hadn’t turned out to be like my teenage “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” fantasy, but I figured that God would lead me into something else according to His will.
Without getting into details, my newly-found freedom through God’s love ultimately led me into a job. At first, I felt Christ working through my every day in spite of my weaknesses. However, many days I forget that God will be there to take care of me and instead I let perfectionism take control . When I base my self-worth on my achievements, it leaves me worn out and anxious…because it becomes all about me, rather than directed towards God.

Hopefully this holy day can be a turning point for me to once again embrace the testament of Holy Mother Clare- poverty, failure, insignificance, rejection, and shame cannot dissuade God from using us as instruments of His Kingdom! Clare’s life is one more beautiful example of how the Saints ultimately point the way towards Christ. I pray that all of you have a peaceful and prayerful day, and ask you to pray for me too! As Holy Father Francis would say, “Peace and All Good”… “Pax et Bonum!”

The Worthless Colt: A Palm Sunday Story

2009-04-01T22:17:00.002-04:00

Dear Readers,

This little story has been in the works for several years, swimming around in my head. It was only until tonight that I forced my stubborn self to finally write it down! Having ridden mules, donkeys, etc. and becoming frustrated with their frequent stopping, starting, biting, and hee-hawing, I’ve always been bemused by God’s apparent love for donkeys. A donkey carried Mary to Bethlehem and carried Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, as well as many other Biblical accounts of donkeys. Even though they are stubborn and rather unpleasant animals, they nevertheless hold a special place in God’s heart! In a difficult economic time, perhaps this will show that we draw our worth not from what we do ourselves but what God does in us.

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A long time ago, a merchant lived in a small village on the outskirts of a very large city. As a businessman, the merchant measured everything he owned according to its monetary value. He meticulously examined the value and expense of each piece of his inventory to every animal in his barn. Among his most valued possessions was a strong female donkey; for years, the merchant rode upon her back to faraway destinations and she carried his many purchases back to the village. Because of the donkey’s strength and endurance, he became one of the most well-traveled and prestigious merchants in the land.

Much to the merchant’s delight, the donkey gave birth to a colt. The colt was larger than most newborn donkeys and within days he could stand on his four legs and trot around the stable. The merchant was so pleased with his donkey’s dividend that he generously fed the growing colt. Although he spent more money than he would ordinarily allocate for animal feed, the merchant presumed that once fully grown, the colt would more than make up for the expenses. Even though food and other niceties were lavished upon the colt, the merchant was not gentle with his animals and so the colt feared his master. Even if a hen did not produce eggs within a given week, the merchant would pluck and roast her! Many times the colt watched his mother being whipped by the merchant if she was slow from weariness after a long journey. As a result, the colt’s once-strong mother gradually weakened after so many whippings! This went largely unnoticed by the merchant, since he placed so much hope in his soon-to-be grown colt.

The time finally came when the colt grew large enough to be ridden upon and carry cargo. The merchant wished to debut his strong colt at a famous bazaar, so he loaded the colt with packs of his finest inventory and a beautiful embroidered saddle with a tasseled harness. When the merchant mounted the saddle and gave the animal a small kick, but the colt did not move. The colt still did not budge after a second and harder kick. After kicking with all his might and yelling “let’s go!” the merchant only felt the colt’s muscles tighten even more. The merchant realized that donkeys are naturally stubborn, but how could an animal be as stubborn as this?

After several more attempts to move the colt, the merchant dismounted, went inside the barn, and returned with his whip.

“Let’s see if this will unfreeze you,” growled the merchant as he lashed the whip across the colt’s back in a quick solid stroke.

The colt felt the sting of the whip and reared onto his hind legs. To relieve the pain, the colt bucked back and forth. Still feeling the pangs, the colt forgot about the cargo on his back and rolled onto the ground. The packs burst open, and the merchant’s vases were crushed and the white fabrics became stained with mud. The colt had ruined over a half of the merchant’s inventory! Meanwhile, the villagers gathered around the scene and laughed at merchant, who grew more livid by the second.

“So much for your exotic voyages,” shouted one neighbor. “This useless animal won’t even take you across the street!”

“Useless?” shouted the merchant. “I will show you all what this colt is worth! Such a magnificent animal simply needs to be broken! You’ll see, I’ll make up for this spoiled merchandise twice fold!”

The next morning, the merchant sent for a stableman who was known to have broken the wildest of animals. Even with a sharper and longer whip, the stableman could not push or prod the colt to move a single inch. Soon, the word had spread that the famed stableman, who had never before failed, could not prevail against the merchant’s colt.

A few hours later, a renowned animal doctor arrived at the merchant’s door. She was known to have sedated wild dogs and drawn milk from dry cows. The animal doctor prepared an elixir especially for this difficult case and she guaranteed that she could move the stubborn colt. She forced the elixir into the colt’s mouth, but the taste was so bitter that the animal bit the doctor’s hand and bucked back and forth. Rubbing her wounded hand and ego, the doctor stormed out of the town while cursing the merchant.

“You wretched animal,” shouted the merchant. “I have spent a quarter of my savings on you, and yet cannot carry anyone or anything. Even worse, you have ruined my reputation as well as my most expensive goods! Since you are a completely worthless and nobody would dare buy you, I will simply kill you!”

By then the sun went down and the merchant remembered that it was the beginning of the Sabbath. Since the law forbade him to perform any labor on the Sabbath, the merchant resolved the kill the colt in two days. Dejectedly, the merchant took a rope and tied the colt to a plank outside his hut. For the next day, the colt anxiously awaited his death and wished that he could have had a chance to say goodbye to his mother. But he was a worthless animal, the colt thought to himself, so how could he possibly face his mother?

That following night, the colt could not get a wink of sleep. He stared into the darkness and watched for the traces of the early morning sun as he listened to his master snoring inside the hut. The villagers awakened and the street slowly came to life. They were more talkative than usual this morning, as there was chatter about a great king making a splendid entrance into the nearby city.

Amidst the throng of talkative townsfolk, two strangers wandered into the village. One of the men whispered into the other’s ear while pointing at the colt. His stubborn reputation had spread far and wide, thought the colt to himself! The two strangers moved towards the hut and the other man began to untie the colt’s rope.

As the stranger was working at the rope’s knot, a crowd of villagers gathered around and laughed at the two men.

“Why are you doing this?” asked a few townspeople.

“Haven’t you heard that this stubborn colt is completely worthless?” asked another woman.

The colt had no idea why the men were untying the rope. Perhaps the merchant had sent for these men to come and kill him!

After the strangers finally loosed the rope, they turned to the crowd and answered, “The Lord has need of him.”

The shorter of the two men gently pulled on the rope and the colt rose to his feet and followed. The chortling crowd grew quiet in amazement. It was ironic that the merchant was still asleep inside the hut while the impossible was happening!

After leading the colt for about a mile, the two men confidently moved through a colorful crowd of strangers and presented the colt to a wiry young man. The colt looked at the man and he felt relaxed. There was something authoritative yet gentle about this man, so unlike the merchant, the stableman, and the animal doctor. The colt also recognized weariness in this man, similar to his worn and whipped mother. This was a man who needed to be carried by a strong and gentle animal.

A couple of other men in the party approached the leader and asked, “are you sure this is what you wanted, master? There are thousands gathered at the entrance of the city- shouldn’t you want a horse instead?”

The young man stroked the colt’s mane as he said, “Behold, your king is coming to you humbly, and mounted on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

The young man’s companions simply nodded and they laid white garments across the colt’s back. Out of habit, the colt’s muscles stiffened and his hair rose. Then, the colt felt the man’s slight body mount his back and gently pat his neck. And the colt moved.

The colt took long and confident strides towards the city gate. He noticed a crowd of thousands waving palm branches and shouting praises. Perhaps they were gathered to greet the king about whom the villagers had spoken. But why was the crowd clearing the way for this worthless colt and his humble rider? And why were the people bowing and shouting “Hosanna” to the young man?

……………………………………………….

Later that afternoon, the merchant rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stepped outside his hut. He turned to the colt, which he had tied up the day before.

“I had almost forgotten all the trouble you caused me, you worthless animal! How am I to get rid of you?” asked the merchant.

Before he could answer his own question, a crowd of villagers descended upon the merchant’s hut. Nearly a hundred people were shouting at him and waving money in his direction. “How much for the King’s colt?” they asked.

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A few years later, the merchant had sold all of his goods and stopped his travelling. After all, he always had to welcome visitors who wanted to see for themselves the famous donkey that had carried the King to His glory!

"Figuring it Out" with Saint Colette

2009-03-05T20:35:00.002-05:00

I hope that everyone is having a peaceful Lent thus far! I also wish you all a most happy Feast of St. Colette!

After several years of trying, I still have not managed to get through Walled in Light, Mother Mary Francis’ book on the life of St. Colette. However, I found this very well-written and honest account of her life on the website of the Poor Clares of Ty Mam Duw, Wales. Please take time to read some of Colette’s prayers, letters, etc. on the same website. Colette may not be as popular as some Saints, but her life is just as inspiring…after all, it should be obvious right now that along with Sts. Clare, Francis, and Anthony, I also have big devotions to lesser-known Saints!

As much as I love love love Mother Mary Francis, I found what I read thus far out of Walled in Light to be a bit too hagiographic: aka, it tends to exaggerate her other-worldliness. I particularly like the Ty Mam Duw article because it explores some of her weaknesses. The young Colette would be described in today’s terms as a “job hopper”: she tried several different vocations before discovering that none of them were quite what God had intended.

What’s more, she never really ‘figured it all out’ or ‘settled down’- she simply put all her faith, love, and energy into her particular situation and placed the rest in God’s hands. I also think that Colette is an inspiration to those who think that they have ‘failed’ by not being able to go through with traditional religious life. I fall into that category and sometimes get down on myself for not having the strength to become a cloistered Poor Clare Colettine nun. However, St. Colette technically was not a “nun” since she traveled from place to place nor was she an official “Poor Clare” as she did not belong to one particular monastery: most accounts of her life indicate that she was a Franciscan sister of the Third Order, rather than the Second Order to which most Poor Clare nuns belong. In spite of her untraditional calling, Colette is considered to be one of the most important reformers of the Franciscan Order and the co-patroness of the Poor Clares.

Colette’s life shows us that God can make saints out of us during tough times and in unusual ways….even if we never really get around to ‘figuring it all out.’

Me and St. Scholastica, Scholastica and Me

2009-02-10T00:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Feast of St. Scholastica, everyone! Along with Francis, Clare, and Anthony of Padua, Scholastica is one of my most talked-about Saints….almost to the point where many people get ‘weirded out’ by my enthusiasm. Many young men have been scared away when I’ve mentioned that if I ever have kids, I would like to name my daughter after St. Scholastica…I’m still trying to come up with a nickname that will roll off the tongue a bit more easily.

Since mourning doves are common in Virginia, my friends and family have heard me retell the legend of St. Scholastica’s death (her soul went up to heaven in the form of a dove) way too many times. When I came across an icon of St. Scholastica in a religious bookstore, I expressed my enthusiasm way too loudly…all the customers gave me that ‘is she crazy?’ glare. I finally gave up looking on Scholastica holy cards, so last year I resorted to making my own, much to the amusement of the local “Kinkos” staff.

Sure, most people have never heard of St. Scholastica before and images of her are not as ubiquitous as St. Therese, St. Francis, and St. Anthony…but even the aforementioned social embarrassments haven’t squelched my devotion to this Saint. Similarly, I think that everyone has some sort of quirky devotion…even though it might not be to a Saint. I know a lady who travels the country and lovingly collects matchbooks to display on her walls. One of my high school friends avidly played Frisbee. Another friend was convinced that Karl Malden was attractive and couldn’t be convinced otherwise. Even Sebastian Flyte of “Brideshead Revisited” had his Aloysius. And don’t even try telling my brother that Europop and Scandinavian progressive metal is uncool.

I’ll admit that Frisbee conjures up images of the 1970s and I think that Europop is over the top campy, but no amount of rhetoric, embarrassment, or obscurity can tear these people away from their beloved hobbies, interests, and quirks. The Catholic geek in me can’t be stopped either. But all this shows how God loves us, just as we love our off-the-wall quirks. Despite how dorky, obscure, “crazy,” and sometimes sinful we humans can be, God loves us in spite of it all. Nothing can stop God from loving us despite our weaknesses…and not even death could tear away His love for us. It is because of this that the Saints point us toward God…whether they are as well-known as St. Francis and St. Bernadette, or more obscure like St. Blandina or my St. Scholastica.

So have yourself a happy St. Scholastica Day and please don’t get “weirded out” if you hear me talking about this awesome Saint!

A few of my past “Scholastica” posts:

http://canticleofchiara.blogspot.com/2008/02/feast-of-st-scholastica.html
http://canticleofchiara.blogspot.com/2007/02/st-scholastica-early-saint-of-modern.html
http://canticleofchiara.blogspot.com/2006/10/st-scholastica-patron-saint-against.html
http://canticleofchiara.blogspot.com/2006/02/benedictine-blessings-feast-of-st.html

Remembering Frank Parater, Servant of God...my first post of 2009!

2009-02-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Pax et Bonum, everyone, and Happy New Year! While the first weeks of the year have indeed been difficult for so many of us, I hope that you all have found joy in the many little blessings that God gives us. In that regard, I know that readership of my blog has decreased due to my writers’ block and other circumstances, but I’m grateful for those of you who still check back from time to time!
I figured that today, the “Feast” of Frank Parater, Servant of God, would be an ideal day to end my writers’ block and start posting again. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my obsession with Frank Parater, here are some of my past posts which delve into my devotion to this saint-in-the making:

2006- First post on Frank Parater

2006- Another one of my early reflections on "Frank"

Frank Parater- An Unlikely Hero

Frank Parater and "The American Dream"

Echoing the theme from St. Therese’s Story of a Soul, Frank wrote the following in a letter written months before his death: “I shall not leave my dear ones. I will always be near them and be able to help them more than I can here below. I shall be of more service to my diocese in heaven than I could ever be on earth.” In particular, Frank wanted to pray for the denizens of our home state of Virginia.

Over the past year, I’m sure that Frank has been praying overtime from his office in heaven! Within the past couple of months, tens of thousands of people in Virginia- and the rest of the country- have lost their jobs and savings, including many of my friends. For those of us who were already without jobs, employment was nearly impossible to find.

In my own case, months of futile job searching, hundreds of resume revisions, and fruitless cover letters left me embittered, anxious, and blind to the many gifts God has given me. However, I began to rethink this way of valuing myself when I randomly came across this quote from St. John of the Cross: “All goods were given to me when I no longer sought them through self-love.” It’s been quite a struggle overcoming the “employment=success=happiness” mindset and I often backslide, but I am strengthened by the way Frank Parater courageously channeled his gifts towards God and others. Thus, I’ve discovered over the past six months that happiness does not come in the form of a salary- it comes from prayer, reaching out to friends, helping family members, and asking the Holy Spirit to channel our gifts and talents according to His will. Besides, I feel much more in touch with my Franciscan roots now that I’m shopping in thrift and dollar stores rather than hitting the mall each week like I used to do several years ago.

When Frank left his Virginia childhood of scouting and camping trips behind to attend an unfamiliar overseas seminary, he was understandably anxious. Similarly, we are all a bit frightened to see our youthful ambitions slip away as our country moves into uncharted territory. However, the lives of past saints like Frank Parater illustrate that God always gives His children the grace to courageously shine Christ’s light in the most dark and difficult circumstances. In spite of ourselves, our prayers have been answered.

Not Your Average Catholic Bookstore...

2008-12-16T20:15:00.003-05:00

Here in the South, it’s not every day that you find a Catholic bookstore. It’s even rarer to find a GOOD Catholic bookstore. Even at GOOD Catholic bookstores in large cities, I rarely find holy cards/medals of more obscure Saints like St. Scholastica.

Ave Maria Sacred Art based in Richmond, VA is a rare exception; it’s probably the best Catholic bookstore I’ve been to, and being a Notre Dame alum, I have certainly seen my share of Catholic bookstores. In fact, this was the only place that carried my beloved St. Scholastica medal….I was so excited by this, that I kind of weirded out the sales clerk.

While I would love ya’ll to visit Virginia, I am all too familiar with the expenses of travel. The good news is that you can order the items from Ave Maria Sacred Art over the internet and they now ship internationally….so you’ll be able to give your extended family and friends St. Scholastica medals (or any of the other fabulous items from this store) as Christmas or New Years gifts!

Check it out. And if you’ll be in the Old Dominion, stop by the store and marvel at its coolness.

I'll use these at the next Notre Dame game....

2008-11-14T17:51:00.002-05:00

These "sports rosaries" from Abbey Press are a bit tacky, but they just might give us the miracle that the Irish need right now.

An Inspiring Blog

2008-11-11T11:43:00.002-05:00

Today I received a message from one of my friends, Phillip Gerard Johnson, who informed me that at 24-years of age, he has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He has beautifully written about the physical, mental, and spiritual anguish on his blog, In Caritate Non Ficta. His brutal honesty and trust in Christ's redeeming power is truly an inspiration. Phillip's trial underscores what I wrote in my last post; saints abound here on earth. They have trials, doubts, and setbacks, but God's power ultimately shines through and transforms them. May we all pray for Phillip, and others like him, who are going through extremely difficult times.

Here is another inspiring blog, written by a young man who triumphed over a serious form of cancer.

As Frank Parater said, "Remember, the Sacred Heart never fails those who love Him." May this give us comfort.

The Feast of ALL Saints!

2008-10-31T16:49:00.002-04:00

Happy All Saints Day! All Saints Day is one of the most exciting days of the year, since the Church celebrates all of the souls who are now in heaven….saints that are officially canonized as well as those who are not. Both categories of saints are equal in holiness, and I shall speak to both.

In my circle of acquaintances, I’m known as the “Saint Girl”….not because I’m in any way close to sainthood, but because I can randomly roll out of the top of my head the patron saints of numerous causes (for instance, Saint Chad is the patron of disputed elections). It’s not any surprise that I really enjoy helping my students who are preparing for confirmation pick out Saint names….although I’m waiting for one of the girls to follow my suggestion of Saint Scholastica. Indeed, Saints are the Church’s answer to the need for superheroes; the coolest part is that, unlike Superman or Wonder Woman, these are real people that had to deal with the same temptations and problems as us in order to live a life of extraordinary holiness. In his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton describes how fun it can be to learn about the lives of the saints:

“It is a wonderful experience to discover a new saint. For God is greatly magnified and marvelous in each one of His saints: differently in each individual one. There are no two saints like: but all of them are like God, like Him in a different and special way. In fact, if Adam had never fallen, the whole human race would have been a series of magnificently different and splendid images of God, each one of all the millions of men showing forth His glories and perfections in an astonishing new way, and each one shining with his own particular sanctity, a sanctity destined for him from all eternity as the most complete and unimaginable supernatural perfection of his human personality.”

Since the process of canonization is a long and difficult journey (the cause of Servant of God Frank Parater is a case in point), even the holiest people may not ever become Saints (with a capital “S”). However, all saints in heaven are equal in God’s eyes and are no more or less holy than those who are canonized. Thus, while we may or may not be eventually canonized, we all can nonetheless aspire to sainthood and find saints in our everyday lives. This idea can best be described by a simple little hymn that I heard when I was a child:

I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there's not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.

"You don't have to be a monk to live like one..."

2008-10-23T14:35:00.002-04:00

I hope that all of you had a wonderful octave of St. Francis! Sorry for not posting in a while…some of my loved ones have recently been sick, so I’ve been tending to those matters. Please keep us in your prayers!

I always thought that it would be really cool if there was a lay monastic organization that stretched across different Catholic Orders….well, after one of my friends sent me an email with a link to this website, I discovered that there already is!

Monkrock.com is managed by the “Oblates of the Last Transitus,” an “integrated lay association of monastics.” What is particularly appealing to me is that their patron saint is Holy Father Francis! Read more about their mission here.

Pax et bonum to you all. I look forward to posting in the near future!

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI!

2008-10-02T11:29:00.000-04:00

HAPPY FEAST DAY OF THE SERAPHIC FATHER, SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI! That is….happy EARLY Feast Day! I must publish my annual St. Francis Day post a bit earlier this year, because I will be out of town for a wedding on October 4th and will not have internet access. However, I wish you all a blessed and joyful feast day!

One of the perks of the Catholic faith is that we have been blessed by the examples of so many Saints who have gone before us! When I was a little girl, I devoured the stories of the Saints with the same excitement that children have when reading a fairy tale. As I grew older, I began to consider how I could incorporate the lives of these extraordinary men and women into my own. During times of trouble, the first thing that often comes to mind is how a particular Saint reacted to a similar situation. Thus, it is so important to remember that Saints were ordinary people who overcame difficult times and situations by showing extraordinary holiness- while experiencing normal human fears, temptations, and weaknesses.

Saint Francis is so well-loved by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, that we tend to focus on his halo and not on his humanity! However, Francis was an ordinary person who achieved extraordinary holiness simply by making trust in God the center of his life! At times, I struggle so much with truly putting all my trust in God….I’m a chronic worrier….and sometimes doubt my ability to ever attain such faith. However, my hope is restored when I consider St. Francis’ early years and realize that he and I aren’t all that different.

Francis was a talented, lively, and promising man who had resources to worldly success at his disposal. As a young man, Francis dreamed of becoming a wealthy and famous knight who would accomplish great things; his family and friends wholeheartedly encouraged this ambition. Similarly, so many people of my generation grew up with great ambitions that were continually flamed by our families, mentors, friends, educators, and overall culture. In my own case, I managed to shine during my high school and college years with the assumption that I would be a “success” once I entered “the real world.”

For Saint Francis, “the real world” turned out to be a war with the nearby town Perugia. Decked out in the finest military regalia and convinced that his ambition to become a knight would be fulfilled, Francis excitedly rode into battle. He soon discovered that war was not a glamorous adventure, but a very frightening tableau of human suffering….which became more apparent after he was taken as a prisoner. After his release, Francis returned to Assisi as a quieter, more contemplative young man. A children’s book recounts that Francis would roam the countryside and experienced “sadness” as he tried to figure out where his ambitions went wrong.

The shattering of youthful ideals and subsequent sadness that Francis experienced is not uncommon to young people of my generation. In fact, I just read a book called “The Quarterlife Crisis” (by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2001) that describes the sadness, anxiety, and confusion that twenty-somethings experience after graduating from college. After going through sixteen-plus years of academic life where expectations are clearly stated and we are encouraged to “follow your dreams,” we are shocked when we realize that post-college life is much more vague, difficult, unglamorous, and confusing than we expected. Worry and fear grows as we realize that our former ideas of what it means to be “successful” just don’t hold up anymore and we try to figure out our true calling in life. In my own case, I’ve realized since graduation that my former notions of “success” were a bit flawed and am still trying to figure out my life’s purpose. For many twenty-somethings, this discernment is a process of trial and error.

After spending some time in Assisi, Francis decided to give another try at being a soldier. Shortly after embarking on this second attempt, Francis came down very ill and once again returned to Assisi. During his illness, God spoke to Francis and gave him an idea as to the true meaning of success.

“Tell me Francis,” He asked. “Which is better? To serve the servant or the Lord?”

Francis answered, “To serve the Lord, of course.”

God responded by saying, “Then why make a master of the servant?”

“Why make a master of the servant?” I suppose that’s one of the best pieces of career advice that a twenty-something could receive. Even if a person has good ambitions, his or her efforts should be directed towards serving God.

But what if we don’t yet know what we are meant to do with our lives? Even after this revelation from God on his sickbed, Francis didn’t quite know how to carry out God’s will. He subsequently heard a voice from God telling him to “rebuild my Church.” So, Francis took some of his father’s money and started a kind of endowment fund to rebuild the crumbling church of San Damiano. After being mocked by the townspeople as a madman, imprisoned by his father, and brought before the local bishop, Francis eventually realized that God is ready and willing to take full care of us….as long as we open ourselves to trust in His providence.

As an act of perfect trust, Francis relinquished all his father’s possessions and recognized that he would be taken care of by “Our Father.” Now that he had given up any means of worldly livelihood, Francis didn’t really have any idea of what to do next. If I was in this position, I would be in a state of severe worry! However, Francis’ story points out that worrying about “what next?” is useless and unnecessary…..somehow God will take care of us, even if the odds are against us. It’s been my experience that the more desperate the situation, the more we realize how only God can give us what we truly need and desire…. we can’t base our happiness on material wealth, a job, fame, etc. As in Francis’ case, I guess the road to sainthood begins with a simple act of trust.

Even after this beautiful and dramatic renunciation of earthly goods, Francis still hadn’t figured out God’s overall plan for him, nor did he reach overnight recognition as a holy man. Some sources said that he roamed around the countryside for the next several years as a beggar and doing odd jobs. He continued rebuilding San Damiano while tending to a group of lepers. In summary, Francis simply lived his life day-to-day while performing simple and small acts of love. It was through these simple acts of love that Francis eventually attracted followers to his way of life. He never really planned to become the founder of one of the largest and most influential religious Orders in Church history….it just happened to turn out that way, one act of love at a time.

What lessons can we draw from this? In my own case, I should stop asking myself “how am I going to become a prominent and ‘successful’ Christian woman?” Instead, I should put all of my worries into Christ’s hands and concentrate on doing His will one day at a time. After all, as Francis and so many other Saints point out, true “success” boils down to fulfilling God’s will in our own unique situations. During these rough times that my generation and many others are experiencing, Francis teaches us that we will overcome the sorrow and confusion through trust in God and acts of love done in His name. As St. John of the Cross once noted, “All goods were given to me when I no longer sought them through self-love.”

May Holy Father Francis bless us this day and always. In closing, I will leave you with the well-known “Prayer of St. Francis.” While I know that many of you have already read or heard this reflection, it is a beautiful reminder that we can follow Francis’ example by simple, selfless acts of love:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

The Feast of St. Therese, The Little Flower

2008-09-30T21:32:00.006-04:00

The past couple of weeks have been quite difficult for many people in our country. Massive unemployment and economic turmoil reminiscent of the Great Depression might have caused many of us to lose faith in our country and in our economic system. This week’s Feasts of St. Therese and St. Francis are most welcome during these troubling times, since these two Saints lived their lives with complete trust in God’s providence, even during very difficult circumstances.

If you haven’t read St. Therese’s autobiography Story of a Soul, please try to pick up a copy of this wonderful book. The movie Therese is very inspiring, but leaves out many beautiful details of the book.

As an extra motivation for you to read the book, I’ve included a few of my favorite excerpts below:

“One day I was worried about the happiness of the blessed in Heaven. I knew that some saints are greater than other, being possessed of more glory. Well, what about the lesser saints? are they unhappy because of this? Pauline took my little thimble and a large drinking glass belonging to Papa. She filled both to the brim with water. Then, smiling into my anxious face, she told me to look closely. "Which is fuller? The thimble or the glass?" At once I understood. The little thimble represented one soul, the large glass another. Each could hold no more water than Pauline had put in it. Without any trouble I realized the example could also be applied to Heaven. Here the saints reflect just that beauty and perfection which God had decided for them. Each is "full", and there can never be any sorrow because some are little thimbles and others large glasses.”

“I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the Lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus' garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God's glances when He looks down at His feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.”

Therese was 24-years-old when she wrote her autobiography shortly before her death. This year I am also 24, and I am in awe of this Saint who was able to attain such a beautiful trust and closeness to God at a young age. Thus, on my birthday, I asked St. Therese to especially look over me during my 24thyear and help me to develop a greater trust in God and become the person that He wants me to be. I’m certainly a very long way from Therese’s relationship with Jesus, but it’s certainly a start!

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Vocation Retreats!

2008-09-24T14:34:00.002-04:00

Sorry for not posting in a while...here in Virginia, it's ragweed season, so I've been rather sick for the past couple of weeks. Needless to say, I'll need to start preparing for the Feast of Holy Father Francis next week!

The following post is looooooonnnnng overdue....The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity are a wonderful group of active sisters based in Wisconsin. A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about their congregation, and since that point, it seems as though they've continued to grow! Their vocation website is one of the best I've ever seen, and underscores the call to live in the world, but not of the world. That being said, their "Franciscanized World" section of the website contains beautiful songs by popular artists, posts on vocation and the Christian life, and much more.

One of the sisters asked me to post the following information on their vocation retreats. If you think you might have a call to the religious life, I encourage you to check it out! :

"CHOOSE GOD"
Vocation Retreats for Young Adult Catholic Women

LIVING RADICALLY FOR GOD WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE”
We, the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity invite young adult single women ages 18 - 35 to join us for retreats on:

Oct. 17-19, 2008
Dec. 5-7, 2008
Feb. 20-22, 2009
May 29-31, 2009

Begins Friday 7.00 pm.
Concludes Sunday 12.30 pm.

Registration is required for this event. To register simply complete the form on the link below.

The cost is $25.00 for the weekend.

Retreats will be held at
Holy Family Convent (map)
2409 S. Alverno Rd.
Manitowoc, WI 54220
smaryannsp@fscc-calledtobe.org

http://www.fscc-calledtobe.org/living/index.php/2008/06/05/vocation-retreats-for-young-adult-catholic-women/

Patron Saint of TV Goes Commercial- No Pun Intended

2008-08-29T18:40:00.004-04:00

As the patron Saint of television, it looks like St. Clare will be reaching beyond the cloister to become a regular on kitschy retailers’ shelves. Archie Mc. Phee Co., who brought us campy curios like the Pope Innocent III action figure and the Last Supper Longbox, is now peddling a plastic figurine of St. Clare at a Lady-Poverty-worthy price. Granted, this “artistic” representation isn’t entirely accurate- as a fashionable lady, Holy Mother Clare probably wouldn’t have cared for that very orange habit (here is a similar, but more artistically accurate product from the ‘50s). Despite the habit mishap, it still gives me hope that this latest knick-knack will cause some skinny-jeaned hipsters (and other Archie McPhee enthusiasts) to develop a devotion to St. Clare.

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF SAINT CLARE!

2008-08-11T00:00:00.001-04:00

HAPPY FEAST OF THE SOLEMNITY OF THE SERAPHIC MOTHER, HOLY MOTHER CLARE! PAX ET BONUM! This is pretty much the biggest day of the year for my blog, and deservedly so, since St. Clare of Assisi was such a wonderful Saint.

Instead of posting to a link to an external website like I often do, I’d like to make this year’s St. Clare post come from the heart….forgive me in advance if I seem a bit rambling.

July of 2007 stands out as one of the most painful months for me. A character from one of my favorite books, Brideshead Revisited, describes to a friend the meaning of a vocation: “It means you can be a nun. If you haven't a vocation it's no good however much you want to be; and if you have a vocation, you can't get away from it, however much you hate it.” After a weekend-long retreat last year with my beloved Poor Clare Colettines, I became pretty sure that I fell into the former category; I loved the Poor Clares so much and especially loved St. Clare….but I simply didn’t have the strength to give up other loved ones in my life. God was calling me to simply remain in the world. I tearfully explained my turmoil to the wonderful Mother Abbess, who was very understanding. We agreed that it would be best if I not visit until I was at a point where the Poor Clares wouldn’t be a distraction for me….sort of like a person who is engaged refusing to visit an ex boyfriend/girlfriend.

The ensuing few months were rather difficult, especially since the Feast of St. Clare fell three weeks afterwards and I wouldn’t be able to celebrate with my Poor Clares at the monastery. At first, I felt rather estranged from St. Clare- I thought to myself, what right do I have to be devoted to St. Clare when I can’t even measure up to her ideals? In spite of all this, I have ironically strengthened my devotion to St. Clare since that difficult weekend in July.

I realize now more than ever that St. Clare chose a life of enclosure and poverty not for the spiritual advancement of herself and her fellow Poor Ladies, but rather to devote herself to us in the world. Her piety is not exclusively for cloistered religious, but rather a faith that can be practiced by everyone no matter their state in life.

By embracing poverty, Holy Mother Clare placed herself in solidarity with those who struggle to make ends meet and have economic anxieties. This is especially pertinent during these tough economic times…St. Clare and her daughters can pray for us in a special way, because they understand the harsh realities of poverty. To put it in more positive terms, St. Clare’s love of poverty has shown me that there are other ways to build Christ’s kingdom beyond our society’s traditional definitions of “success.” It is when we fail to attain “success” by our own merits that we realize that we can do nothing without God.

St. Clare lived in rather tumultuous times. The church had its various struggles, her region of Italy was plagued by warfare, and Saracens unsuccessfully tried to raid her humble monastery of San Damiano two times. On a more personal level, St. Clare’s choice to follow St. Francis invoked the anger of her family, she was plagued by illness, and the subsistence of her monastery relied solely on the generosity of others. Clare surely would have had a reason to be constantly “stressed out!” However, the Rule of St. Clare emphasized the importance of being silent in order to listen to the calm voice of God. Furthermore, St. Clare wholeheartedly trusted in God’s promise that “I will care for you always” (read this post for the full story) even when the Saracens tried to plunder her monastery and Assisi.

I’ll honestly admit that I lack Clare’s staunch faith and composure. Indeed, I’ve given myself over to worrying more than a few times over the past year. Several months ago, there was a day when I was frantically worrying about everything in my life that seemed to be amiss- serious family health issues, uncertainty about my future, worries regarding widespread problems facing our country, etc. I was so “on edge” that I simply couldn’t focus. So, I decided to say a prayer to my beloved St. Clare. Moments later, I was reminded of the following excerpt from Clare’s writings:

'Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!
Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!
Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance
And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead Itself
through contemplation!
So that you too may feel what His friends feel
as they taste the hidden sweetness
which God Himself has reserved from the
beginning for those who love Him'.

You might have to read it over a few times, as it seems a bit abstract at first glance. I find it rather difficult to interpret the meaning of it by using words….but whenever I read this passage, I know in my heart what it is that Clare is trying to tell us. I especially love the first line: “Place your mind before the mirror of eternity.” I interpret it as Clare telling us that our mind should really only be concerned with eternal matters, namely matters dealing with our faith. Furthermore, she exhorts us to offer up our anxieties to God and surrender to His peace through prayer and contemplation. Whenever I worry, I remember those words and I become a bit more peaceful.

Through Clare’s intercession, I have been reminded that we should not let disappointments or shortcomings hold us back from pursuing God. Clare shows us that as Christians, we are simply called to love and trust in God whether we are in the religious life or building the Kingdom in the world.

Thank you all so much for your readership and support. May God reward you on this most special day!

I love you so much, Santa Chiara! Happy Feast Day! Please pray for us!

Reclaiming Mary Magdalene's Reputation

2008-07-21T17:03:00.001-04:00

Today is the Feast Day of one of my favourite Saints….Saint Mary Magdalene. St. Mary Magdalene is officially the patroness of penitents, hairdressers, pharmacists, perfumers, and reformed prostitutes, among other things. After coming up with a few more ideas of my own, I’m sure Mary Magdalene would be happy to take these other causes under her belt:

Fear of being judged: Whether or not she was the actual woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11), Mary Magdalene has often been associated with this story. At the end of the story, Jesus asks the woman “has no one condemned you?” After she responds “No one, Lord,” He tells her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and do not sin again.” We can presume that the woman (aka, Mary Magdalene) followed Our Lord’s command and gave up her sinful life to follow Him. This was probably difficult enough. However, I can imagine that she probably had to contend with others judging her even after she had long given up her sinful ways. A former prostitute probably didn’t fit with many people’s idea of the “ideal” disciple. Chances are people whispered about her behind her back and made uncharitable remarks about her shady past. Or, perhaps Mary Magdalene feared that people would pass judgment on her, regardless of whether they were actually doing so.

I’ll admit that I’m one of those people who constantly fear others judging me. Sometimes I just don’t see myself as the archetypical “Catholic girl”…I often wear a bit more makeup and pink clothes than some of the jumper-clad girls at mass; I’m unable to tell you much about the latest Papal Encyclical, and other minor discrepancies. Oftentimes, I get down on myself and convince myself that others are disapproving of my spiritual style. There have been very dark times in my life in which I have stopped saying the rosary, attending adoration, etc. out of fear that I “just don’t fit in.”

Despite the many insecurities that Mary Magdalene may have felt, she was able to put aside her misgivings and be a staunch follower of Christ. Whether or not people disapproved of her, she moved ahead and lead a life of courage, penitence, and was one of the few followers at the foot of the cross. I’m sure that Mary Magdalene is a Saint upon whom we can call when we feel a bit insecure and when we feel as though we don’t quite fit in.

Victims of Gossip: Everyone dislikes being the subject of gossip, especially when the things being said about us are false. Indeed, Mary Magdalene was the subject of false gossip during both her earthly and heavenly life. Needless to say, the media has brazenly continued to make completely false claims about Mary Magdalene’s identity. Thus, I’m sure that Mary Magdalene is a perfect Saint to call upon when people are saying false things about us and our loved ones.

People in grief: At the Notre Dame Basilica, beautiful paintings of the Stations of the Cross encircled the church. In the final stations, I couldn’t help but notice the beautifully poignant representation of Mary Magdalene: her expression of tearful grief is almost tangible. Many of us have had times of grieving in our lives when we simply cannot hold back our emotions and we feel completely alone. The image of Mary Magdalene clinging to the foot of her cross in her emotional anguish is a powerful representation of her placing her own grief in union with the sufferings of Christ. It was in that same cross that Mary Magdalene ultimately found Easter joy.
On a less serious note, Mary Magdalene is usually depicted as a blonde….perhaps she is the unofficial patron Saint of blondes!

Nuns in Australia: Jamberoo Abbey

2008-07-19T21:02:00.002-04:00

I was just watching World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney on EWTN. May God reward all the dedicated people who were present in Sydney for WYD, especially the Holy Father and others who came from distant parts of the world; I had the chance to visit Australia when I was eleven, and the change of weather and jet-lag really put a damper on my visit. It looks like the Holy Spirit had infused the Holy Father with stamina!

It's so inspiring to see so many young people on-fire with their faith, and I'm thoroughly convinced that the Catholic Church is alive and well in Australia!

As witnessed by the large turnout of religious men and women at WYD, there are many vibrant religious communities in Australia. After doing some research, the Benedictine Nuns of Jamberoo Abbey in New South Wales seem like an especially inspired community. This section of their website eloquently outlines the charism of contemplative nuns as part of the greater mission of the Body of Christ. Props to the sisters for also including this nice reflection on Sts. Benedict and Scholastica. The website also includes a tour of their abbey, which is a perfect example of how sacred architecture can be both modern and reverent.

If any of you know of other religious communities in Australia, let me know! To those who travelled to Sydney, have a safe trip home!

Sisters of the Visitation in Rockville, VA

2008-07-14T20:43:00.002-04:00

About a year and a half ago, I had moved to an area of Virginia not too far from a Sisters of the Visitation monastery. When I told one of the Poor Clare sisters that I planned to visit the Visitation Sisters (no pun intended), she jokingly said, “now don’t go cheatin' on us!” Perhaps God, with His sense of humor, answered her request; the following July 4^th, a friend and I decided to drive to the Visitation Monastery, only to find that the public chapel was locked! All joking aside, I’ve heard that the Visitation Sisters of Monte Maria Monastery in Rockville, VA are a wonderful group of ladies; in fact, during a hurricane about five years ago, the Visitation Sisters let the Poor Clares stay with them. Also, before the sisters moved to Rockville, their monastery was located very close to where Frank Parater lived. Frank served as an altar boy for the sisters, and he was very much influenced by the order’s spirituality.

Even though I wasn’t able to explore Monte Maria last year, I was able to make a vicarious visit by reading a profile of the monastery that was just written up in the Catholic Virginian. You can read the article here. Also, I have a link to Monte Maria in the “Religious Orders” sidebar. According to the article, there are only twelve sisters at Monte Maria, but perhaps the article will inspire some vocations!

Blessed Marie Celine of the Presentation

2008-07-10T12:32:00.002-04:00

I just picked up the mail, and my Poor Clares had sent me a holy card of the Blessed Marie Celine of the Presentation. I hadn't heard of her before, but after reading this short biography, I learned about her short but saintly life. Fun fact: After her death, she appeared to many via fragrances, which earned her the nickname: "Saint of the Perfumes!" Maybe I should go looking for that old Chanel bottle....

The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul: The Sermon at Athens

2008-06-28T16:55:00.003-04:00

Today is the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, two of the most important Saints in the Church’s history. Although the two men had very different temperaments, experiences, and upbringings, they both were able to contribute their respective gifts and charisms to the Church. Last year, I posted a reflection on St. Peter; he is the model of hope, as he allowed the Holy Spirit to transform him from a hot-headed fisherman into an eloquent leader. This year, I would like to share with you a few of my reflection on St. Paul.

I will be frank and admit that I could do a much better job at reading the Epistles of St. Paul…or, for that matter, paying attention to the second readings during mass. Hopefully, by this time next year, I can provide you all with a more robust reflection on the writings of St. Paul. However, when I think about St. Paul, the following passage always stands out in my mind:

After Paul's escorts had taken him to Athens, they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there. Even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers engaged him in discussion. Some asked, "What is this scavenger trying to say?" Others said, "He sounds like a promoter of foreign deities," because he was preaching about 'Jesus' and 'Resurrection.' They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean." Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.' 7 What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.' Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination. God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will 'judge the world with justice' through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead."

When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, "We should like to hear you on this some other time."

And so Paul left them.

But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

As a person who has taken many public speaking classes, Paul’s sermon at Athens was truly ingenious. He perfectly adhered to one of the main tenets of oratory: consider your audience. Paul masterfully used concepts of Greek philosophy as a springboard to show how Christianity was the ultimate expression of the Truth that the philosophers had so ardently been seeking. The solid logic, eloquent words, and emotional impact should have been a recipe for a positive response. However, something just didn’t “click,” and most of the audience treated Paul as a mere curiosity and an object of mockery.

Several lessons can be drawn from Paul’s experience at Athens:

Sometimes we can do our very best at something, but fail to get positive outcomes. Whether it is trying to “ace” an exam or land a job offer, or attempting to share the truth of Christ with a loved one, sometimes our prayers and efforts don’t immediately give us desired results. Our Lord empathizes with us during these times, because he also experienced temporal disappointments; after trying his best to shoulder His cross, He fell three times! Even after preaching in his hometown, Christ’s peers were so angered at his words that they almost ran him over a cliff (Luke 4: 16-30)! We should follow the example of Christ and St. Paul, who refused to become discouraged by these rather frustrating failures. When we have failed despite our best efforts, we need to realize that there are some things that only God’s grace can control and simply place the situation in His hands.

For instance, there have been many times in my life when I’ve acquired a “hero” complex; I’ve convinced myself that my prayers and efforts will be able to convince a friend to return to God. In the case of one of my friends, I made subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to get him interested in the Church. Even though I was sincerely “trying my best,” he became rather angered and bluntly told me to shut up. Finally, I decided to place my friend’s situation in God’s hands and simply prayed for him. I eventually fell out of contact with this person for about a year, but in the meantime, God placed other people in his life that helped him on his spiritual journey. Ultimately, this friend was baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil. Perhaps my efforts several years prior to his conversion had some small influence on his spiritual decisions.

Similarly, although Paul’s Sermon at Athens was an immediate failure, perhaps his efforts that day simply planted a seed in the minds and hearts of his audience. Perhaps some of the Athenians that chose to follow Paul after his sermon returned to their city and influenced some of those initial skeptics and scoffers. Or, perhaps it was God’s grace alone who gradually helped them to grasp the Truth. A retrospective on Christian theology shows that many aspects of Greek philosophy support Christian teaching (e.g., the idea of resurrection, the pursuit of Truth), which underscores the long-term impact of Paul’s sermon. Paul never lived to see the fruit of his many efforts, but God likes to build His Kingdom according to His own blueprints and timetable.

While I gave the above example of my friend who ultimately converted, I am sad to say that I’ve had friends whose outcomes have not been as positive. A couple friends decided to cut off most communication with me, so talking to them is not really an option. However, I remember the words of Pope Benedict XVI: "time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties that press upon us from every side." I can’t physically reach out to these friends, but I certainly can pray for them. Also, I must focus on steps that I can make as an individual to better follow God’s will. Similarly, I have no doubt that St. Paul both prayed for the Athenians and tried his best to witness to the people that he encountered in his subsequent travels.

In closing, for those of us who often become discouraged by our failures and personal weaknesses, St. Paul offers these words of hope:

About this person I will boast, but about myself I will not boast, except about my weaknesses. Although if I should wish to boast, I would not be foolish, for I would be telling the truth. But I refrain, so that no one may think more of me than what he sees in me or hears from me because of the abundance of the revelations. Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this,that it might leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA!

2008-06-13T07:58:00.002-04:00

Dear friends,

Happy Feast of Saint Anthony!

As you can tell from some of my posts over the past six months, I have been in great need of intercessory prayers; my family has a slew of health problems and there are many changes going on in my life as well. Consequentially, I’ve had St. Anthony on “speed dial” for the past half a year or so.

Many of us have friends and loved ones in our lives who are literally ‘always there for us.’ Those are the people who will listen when you call them up late at night in order to “vent.” Those are the folks who are always willing to do favors for you, make you laugh, and act as cheerleaders when you feel anxious. Even though we can’t physically see them, Saints are also people that we can always count on. For the past few months, I’ve had St. Anthony on my proverbial “speed dial”…and he almost always “picks up.” No wonder why he is one of the most popular Saints! Indeed, Saint Anthony epitomizes St. Therese’s promise “I will spend my days in heaven doing good upon earth.”

Whether we have lost our car keys or need prayers for the health of a loved one, Anthony is usually liberal in interceding for us. In some cases, he even grants our unspoken prayers, which is something that I had experienced:

Many of you had read in my past blogposts about how I fell away from the Church in my late teens and did not “convert back” until I was a sophomore at Notre Dame. During the years that I had fallen away, I classified myself as a “Deist,” which is someone who believes that God is impersonal, does not intercede in world events, and has left the world to function according to rational laws. I simply didn’t believe in any teaching that was not “rational.” You could imagine my skepticism when on a family trip to Italy I was told that Saint Anthony’s vocal chords and tongue were incorrupt. If this was true, it had to have some scientific explanation and certainly could not be attributed to divine intervention. However, I grudgingly went with my family into the (very Baroque) Basilica of St. Anthony to pass by his relics. As I passed by his relics, my disbelief was suspended; his tongue and vocal chords were perfectly intact, just as if they had been taken out of a live human being moments before. I still remained a “Deist” for the next few years, so this wasn’t exactly t a “road to Damascus” moment. However, this experience helped me to consider that perhaps there are some things in this world that are beyond human “reason”- perhaps God’s divine Reason is far more powerful than ours, and perhaps He did intervene in some human events. I am confident that St. Anthony had something to do with my subsequent re-embrace of Catholicism.

Whether St. Anthony helps you find a lost wallet, find a job, or find God, I hope that you come to recognize him as a powerful friend and intercessor. Thank you, Anthony…you’re my heavenly “BFF!”

Saint Anthony of Padua: Saint of Miracles

2008-06-11T14:04:00.003-04:00

This upcoming Friday the Thirteenth, we have no reason to be superstitious, because that day is the FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY!

Saint Anthony is widely known as the “Saint of Miracles,” and that is certainly not a misnomer! Immediately after his death, St. Anthony began granting miracles to those persons who prayed for his intercession- so much to the point that he was very quickly canonized!

In many areas of our lives, we are told to “aim high.” If that is the case, why should we not “aim high” in our spiritual life and ask for a miracle? If we ask God for a miracle in good confidence, our great faith will surely be to His delight, even if he might answer our prayers in a way that is different from what we expected. To reflect the importance of putting great faith in God’s power and the intercessions of His Saints, St. Anthony wrote the following hymn. This hymn is sung in his Basilica on the Feast of Saint Anthony:

If then you ask for miracles,
Death, error, all calamities,
Leprosy and demons fly,
And health succeeds infirmities.

The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs you do restore;
While treasures lost are found again,
When young and old your aid implore.

All dangers vanish at your prayer,
And direst need does quickly flee;
Let those who know your power proclaim,
Let Paduans say: these are yours.

To Father, Son may glory be
And Holy Spirit, eternally.

This is a link to a wonderful website dedicated to Saint Anthony. There you can read about the many prayers that were answered by this great Saint, including some of the miracles that are attributed to him!

St. Norbert's Conversion

2008-06-06T16:11:00.004-04:00

There are many Catholic holy men and women who don't have as many devotees as more well-known Saints, but have equally intruiging testimonies. St. Norbert, whose feast day is today, falls into that category of lesser-known Saints. Perhaps St. Francis and his followers had a devotion to St. Norbert, since both saints experienced a conversion on the road towards God.

Click this link to read a short biography of St. Norbert.

St. Norbert's story shows us that conversion takes many different forms. Norbert and Francis didn't necessarily live egregiously sinful lives prior to their conversions, but biographies of both men recall that they led worldly lifestyles- e.g., God's voice was drowned out while they were trying to seek the other good things that this life has to offer. This goes to show that we don't necessarily have to be criminals in order to experience a conversion in our lives.

The Norbertine Canonesses are the female contemplatives who chose to style their lives after St. Norbert's spirituality. There is currently only one Norbertine monastery in the United States, located in California; unfortunately, they don't have a website, but you can view a slideshow on their community here. If you ask me, they have one of the loveliest habits around! Here is a link to a wonderful blog dedicated to the Norbertine Order, including information on the history of the Norbertine nuns.

Have a nice weekend, and try to stay cool- it's certainly going to be a hot week for us East-Coasters!

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!

2008-05-30T14:29:00.002-04:00

Happy Feast of the Sacred Heart! Thank you all for your prayers in response to my last post- I would appreciate your continued prayers!

When I went to mass this morning, I learned that this will be the only time in most of our lifetimes that the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart will fall during the month of May. Thus, today we have the opportunity to commemorate Mary (since May is her special month) and the Sacred Heart!

I've devoted a number of my past posts to the Sacred Heart, including a reflection from last year, an overview of St. Margaret Mary's life, and a post about Frank Parater's devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Also, here are a few links to Visitation Monasteries, including Monte Maria, which is located about a half hour from my apartment:

Monte Maria Visitation Monastery, Rockville, VA

Mont Deux Cours, MA

Visitation Monastery, Mobile, AL- I haven't posted on this monastery before, but check out the pictures, it looks ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! If any of ya'll have been here before, please leave a comment and tell me!

Be Still, My Soul

2008-05-25T22:27:00.004-04:00

Dear friends- Please keep me and my family in your prayers...we all are heading into a time of great anxiety. Hence, I might not be able to post as regularly for the next couple of weeks, but I would appreciate it if you could keep us in your prayers. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of Memorial Day weekend! While it's still the month of May, don't forget to say a few 'Hail Mary's' in honor of Our Lady!

I was in a local Christian bookstore a couple of weeks ago, and the radio played this gorgeous hymn called "Be Still, My Soul". Apparently it's a well-known Lutheran hymn, but having grown up in a 'Gather Parish' I never heard it before. The lyrics perfectly express the importance of having confidence during times of anxiety...indeed, there are many times I wish that I could just turn 'off' my worries like flipping a lightswitch! Click on this link right to hear the tune and read the beautiful lyrics!

May God reward you for your patience and prayers!

- Chiara :-)

Ven. Francis Libermann: Friend of the Holy Spirit

2008-05-12T14:19:00.002-04:00

Happy Pentecost! I hope that you all had a wonderful Mothers’ Day/Pentecost yesterday. I find Pentecost a truly exciting day- it’s so wonderful to imagine how the fearful and timid apostles became courageous, eloquent evangelizers after being filled with the Holy Spirit. Just like the apostles prior to the descent of the Holy Spirit, we all have individual weaknesses and temptations that we must constantly battle. The story of Pentecost reaffirms that we are never left to overcome our weaknesses all on our own; God has the power to help us become the person that He wants us to be through the interplay of His Holy Spirit.
In honor of the descent of the Holy Spirit, I would like to share with you the story of Venerable Francis Libermann, the founder of the Spiritan missionaries. Not only did Libermann have to struggle against external circumstances, such as anti-Semitism and the death of his mother, but he also overcame his own depression and fear of rejection. You can read an overview of Libermann by clicking this link. Here is another excellent reflection of the role of the Holy Spirit in Libermann’s life.

Libermann’s story reminds us that whenever we face doubts, despair, and rejection, we should ask the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with hope and confidence.

"O Divine Spirit, I wish to be like a feather before you, so that your breath may carry me wherever it pleases, and I may never offer it any resistance."
Francis Libermann (1802-1852)

Saint Isidore, Pray for Us!

2008-04-30T19:39:00.002-04:00

Dear Friends of Chiara,

I apologize for being incommunicado for over a month! Then again, I guess I couldn't live up to my St. Clare's ideals unless I became "cloistered" for a little while! In any event, thank you all for your patience!

My absence can be best explained by some major technical difficulties I've been experiencing with my blog's title and sidebar graphics- I designed the major elements of the blog when I was in college and had free access to Dreamweaver and a place to store my graphics. However, Dreamweaver is not an inexpensive program, so after graduation I lost access to it- which left me to the mercy of my very basic HTML skills. The biggest problem has been finding a free website where I can store my title and sidebar graphics; the site I've been using for the past couple of years hasn't been very reliable, and the problem was compounded when the site underwent major changes last month. If anyone knows a reliable website where I can store my graphics for free, please let me know!

After going through this, I began wondering if there was a patron Saint of the internet- I figured if there is a patron Saint of television (my own Saint Clare!), then there should be a patron of computers and the internet. Lo and behold, the Church creatively named St. Isidore of Seville as the official patron Saint of computers and the internet. Here's a short explanation as to how the Church arrived at that decision:

So, how does Saint Isidore of Seville become the patron saint for the Internet? The Observation Service for Internet, who drew it's mission from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, researched the Internet and related technologies to select a patron saint that best reflects the concerns and ideals of computer designers, programmers and users. The saint chosen by the Observation Service for Internet was Saint Isidore. "The saint who wrote the well-known 'Etymologies' (a type of dictionary), gave his work a structure akin to that of the database. He began a system of thought known today as 'flashes;' it is very modern, notwithstanding the fact it was discovered in the sixth century. Saint Isidore accomplished his work with great coherence: it is complete and its features are complementary in themselves.

I will be going on a short vacation for the next week or so, but to paraphrase Our Lord when He ascended into Heaven...I will be back very soon! Thank you so much for your patience. Pax et Bonum!

A Beautiful Good Friday Legend

2008-03-21T16:25:00.004-04:00

In memory of Christ's passion and death on this Good Friday, I would like to share with ya'll a beautiful legend about the dogwood tree, on whose wood Jesus was crucified:

At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood had reached the size of the mighty oak tree. So strong and firm was the wood that it was chosen as the timber for Jesus' cross.

To be used for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the dogwood. While nailed upon it, Jesus sensed this, and in his compassion said. "Because of your pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used for a cross. Henceforth, it shall be slender, bent, and twisted, and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross–two long and two short petals.

"In the center of the outer edge of each petal will be the print of nails. In the center of the flower, stained with blood, will be a crown of thorns so that all who see it will remember."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-17T21:47:00.003-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope that you all experienced the joy of the Irish today!

My dad and I were just watching a segment on the History Channel about the Irish in America, which reminded me how the Irish people in this country exemplified the hope, joy, and endurance of the Catholic faith. I simply had to thank God for making me part Irish! At my graduation from Notre Dame in 2006, the keynote speaker and President of Ireland Mary McAleese delivered a wonderful speech about the endurance and hope of the Irish. You can read this address by following this link.

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, I also wanted to share with you the link to one of my favorite Poor Clare websites- the Poor Clares of Galway, Ireland. Their website epitomizes in a very Irish was the joyful simplicity of Poor Clare life.

Erin Go Bragh! (Ireland Forever!)

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF ST. JOSEPH!

2008-03-15T15:33:00.003-04:00

HAPPY SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF ST. JOSEPH!!!

I apologize for this somewhat haphazard post...I would have had a countdown, except I only recently realized that the Church moved the Feast of St. Joseph (which traditionally is celebrated on March 19th) to today due to the fact that March 19th falls during Holy Week.

An interesting fact that I learned over the past year is that Pope John XXIII had a huge devotion to St. Joseph. You can read all about his love of St. Joseph in this article.

Finally, I would like to share with you all a very nice prayer to St. Joseph. Remember, he is a very powerful intercessor!

Appeal to St. Joseph

O BLESSED ST. JOSEPH, tenderhearted Father, faithful guardian of Jesus, chaste spouse of the Mother of God, I pray and beseech thee to offer to God the Father, His Divine Son, bathed in Blood on the Cross for sinners, and through the thrice Holy Name of Jesus, obtain for us from the Eternal Father, the favor we implore . . . Amen.

O JOSEPH, foster Father of Jesus, most pure spouse of the Virgin Mary, pray for us daily to the Son of God, so that, armed with the might of His grace and loyally fighting the good fight here on earth, we may be crowned by Him at the hour of our death. Amen.

Have a happy Feast Day of St. Joseph and a prayerful upcoming Holy Week!

The Feast of Saint Colette!

2008-03-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Many of you may not be familiar with Saint Colette of Corbie, one of my favorite Saints- other 14th and 15th Century such as St. Vincent Ferrer and Joan of Arc have been more famous throughout the ages. However, Saint Colette is a very important Saint, as she is the co-foundress of my beloved Poor Clare Colettines.

The story of Colette's life has personal significance for me, since I've recently been filled with much uncertainty about my direction in life. When she was a young adult, Colette also went through a time in her life when she has trouble discerning God's plan for her. For instance, Colette spent time at several different monasteries before deciding that God wanted her to reform the Poor Clares, and experienced frustration along each step of the way. However, throughout her discernment process, she learned to put God's will above her own desires and approach her search patiently and prayerfully. Here are two prayers by St. Colette that illustrate her desire to place God at the center of her discernment:

The Dedication Prayer of Saint Colette

O Blessed Jesus,I dedicate myself to You

in health,

in illness,

in my life,

in my death,

in all my desires,

in all my deeds.

So that,I may never work henceforth

except for Your glory,for the salvation of souls,and for that which

You have chosen me.

From this moment on, dearest Lord,

there is nothingwhich I am not prepared

to undertake for love of You.

LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS…

Let us always regret

that we have but one heart

with which to love God,

and that this heart is so poor and weak.

But such as it is,

God asks it of us!
Let us give it to Him

Constantly and completely.
Let Him have this poor heart

for time and eternity.

In a world where so many young adults seek immediate answers, we can surely learn from the young Saint Colette's patience, perseverence, and trust in God as she tried to figure out His plan for her. In the spirit of Saint Colette, I'd like to share with you all one of my favorite prayers, written by the late Thomas Merton:

Thomas Merton's Prayer of Trust

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road although I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Happy Feast Day, Saint Colette! Please pray for us!

Saints and Sartorial Genius

2008-02-27T23:32:00.005-05:00

Even though I can’t sew, I’m always doodling sketches of clothing. Therefore, it shouldn’t be any surprise that the one TV show that I watch happens to be Project Runway. For those who aren’t familiar with the show, Project Runway is a fashion design competition in which fourteen designers are successively eliminated by means of undergoing design “challenges.” Some of the challenges have been rather unorthodox…designing from candy wrappers, creating wrestling costumes, and the latest designer to be eliminated used human hair as part of his material! In the latest elimination, it was decided that Rami Kashou, one of the most talented of the contestants, would be one out of three designers to hold an exclusive fashion show at New York’s Fashion Week. This ordinarily wouldn’t be a bloggable happening for me, except for the fact that Rami used St. Joan of Arc as the inspiration for his collection! His Joan-inspired designs are both beautiful and innovative.

Joan of Arc has definitely been on my mind recently- a few weeks ago I watched the beautiful 1928 silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Also, here is a very nicely written children’s story on the life of St. Joan. This story, written by Lawton B. Evans, is taken off of The Baldwin Project site:

THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC

THAT we may understand the part that Joan of Arc played in the history of France we must know that at the beginning of the fifteenth century the king of France, whose name was Charles, was a half mad and totally incompetent ruler. His son, also named Charles, was a young and pleasure-loving boy, who thought very little of his kingdom.

The consequence of this was that the kingdom of France was at this time torn by dissensions and open to invasion. England was one of its enemies. [266] King Henry of England had agreed with the queen of France that he was to marry her daughter and be the heir to the French throne. In this way, the young Charles, who was known as the dauphin and who was a rightful ruler, was entirely ignored. Of course this brought on war between the two countries, in which France suffered a great deal.

The English entered France. Henry married Catherine, the dauphin's sister, but shortly after, he, as well as the poor mad king of France, was dead. All this brought about much confusion, for now the heir to the throne of England, who was only nine months old, was contending through his party for the throne of France, and the friends of the young dauphin, Charles, contended that he should be the king of France. Charles was proclaimed king, but had not been crowned at Rheims according to the ancient custom of the French kings.

The beautiful land of France was filled with war and strife. In every part of it the English and French were fighting. Villages were plundered, towns were burned, the poor people suffered much hardship, and it seemed as if nothing would be left to the unhappy inhabitants of these fair lands. This is the time when the story of Joan of Arc begins.

[267] At the little town of Domrémy, which is a village of Lorraine, there lived a farmer whose name was Jacques D'Arc. He had several children, among whom was a beautiful little girl named Jeanne, but we have always known her as Joan of Arc. She grew up as other little girls of her station, until she was about thirteen years of age. She went to church and said her prayers, but she never learned to read and write, for very few people learned to read and write in those days.

Since her parents were poor, Joan had much housework to do, but when the household tasks were finished she and her mother and sisters would sit and spin and sew and talk about the unhappy conditions of the country. The mother would say to her children, "What is to become of our beautiful France? The English are over-running the country, destroying our crops, killing our men, burning our towns, and our poor little dauphin cares for nothing but his pleasure. Would that the good Lord would send some one to rid us of the English!"

Out in the fields Jacques D'Arc and his three sons plowed and sowed and reaped and looked after the sheep, fearing all the time that the English soldiers would come by and destroy their crops and kill their cattle. In this way, between industry and [268] fear, the family lived on quietly, just as many simple people did in those days.

At last Joan became thirteen years of age. The wretched state of affairs in France continued; in fact, they were becoming worse. News came to the little family of dreadful happenings everywhere. Sometimes soldiers passed and told them that the English were besieging Orleans and that the French would not be able to hold out much longer. Sometimes wandering friars would come by bringing sad news of the condition of the country.

Joan became more and more thoughtful. She heard with great sadness that the dauphin, Charles, who was yet an uncrowned king, was living in idleness, trifling his time away and taking no interest in the troubles of his country.
She said to her mother one day, "Would that I were a man, that I might be a soldier, or at least that I might go to the dauphin and tell him to lead his people to war and drive the English from our shores!"

One evening Joan was seated in the little garden in front of the cottage, sewing. She was thinking of the dauphin and of France and the distress of the poor people everywhere. As she sat thinking, suddenly it seemed to her that a bright light shone between her and the church, which was close by. [269] She heard a voice speaking to her, saying, "Joan, you must be a good girl, and go often to church, and you will yet be of great service to your country."

The child was frightened at first, and spoke to no one about the light and the voice which she had heard. Every day voices sounded in her ears, each time saying, "Joan, you will be of great service to your country some day." Some of these voices she thought were those of saints. At another time she thought she heard the voice of Michael, the archangel, saying to her, "Joan, arise and go to the king of France and help him. It is for you to win his battles."

These voices spoke to Joan always when she was alone and in the open air and walking about the fields or through the woods near by. For five years the voices spoke to the young Joan, but she did not know what they meant nor what she could do. She asked herself, "How can a young peasant girl be of any service to the king of France? He would not believe me if I should tell him my story. But I cannot stand these voices any longer and I must tell some one. what I have heard."

She told her story to her uncle, who took her to a French lord, who lived close by. Together they told their simple story, but the lord, whose name was Robert, laughed loudly at the thought of the [270] young girl who proposed to help France in this time of trouble. So he said to Joan's uncle, "Take this child away. She is mad. Send her back to her mother."

Her words were very steadfast, her look was very serious, and her face was very sweet. She insisted that the voices still spoke to her and that she must go. At last Robert said, "Take the child to the king and tell him what she has heard. At least it can do no harm." So with two friends, Joan of Arc started out on her journey to the king's court.

She had on armor and breastplate and wore boy's clothes. Her hair was cut short, and one could not tell her from a young squire who was going to battle. She was mounted on a splendid horse and attracted much attention as she rode through the country. Robert himself had given her a sword.

For eleven days she and her escort rode through the country, traveling mainly by night for fear that the English soldiers would arrest her on the way. Finally they came into the beautiful country of Touraine and rode along the banks of the river Loire. Soon they came in sight of the great castle of Chinon, where lived the king. The castle stood upon a great cliff above the little town, and in it [271] the king was having his pleasures, with but little thought of the condition of his country.

For two days Joan waited in the town before she was allowed to see the king. At last one evening, just about dark, some one said to the king, "There is a young girl below who says she has a great message for your majesty. She says she has heard voices from on high and that she is appointed by God to rid your majesty of your enemies."

The king smiled and said to himself, "This at least will amuse me for awhile," and then ordered the girl to be admitted to his presence.

The castle was crowded with members of the court. There were several hundred present when Joan and her friends, lighted by torches, were taken through the corridors and passages into the great hall where the king stood. The king had dressed himself very plainly so that he could not be distinguished from the others. Joan had never seen him, but when she entered the hall she walked straight up to him and knelt before him, saying, "My king and master, may God give you a long and happy life!"

Charles tried to confuse her by saying, "I am not the king, but there he stands," and pointed to a courtier near by.

But Joan was not to be deceived. "No, gentle [272] dauphin, thou art my king and master. It is you to whom I speak and to none other." Arising from her knees, she said, "I am Joan, the maid. I am sent to the king by heaven, to tell you that you shall yet be crowned at Rheims, according to the ancient custom of the kings of France."

Joan stayed around the court for several days while the weak king made up his mind what to do. The ladies of the court questioned her about the voices which she had heard. She was examined by bishops and by other learned men, but to all who questioned her she gave the same answer, "I have heard voices from on high and they have told me to go to Orleans and drive the English from that town and then lead the king to Rheims, where he might be crowned."

Now Orleans, a city on the Loire river, was reduced to a state of great distress. The place was faithful to the king of France and the English had laid siege to it. They had built towers around its walls and from these towers they fired upon the inhabitants, killing many of them and driving others into the cellars. It was to this place that Joan begged King Charles to allow her to lead an army.

At last Charles and his counselors agreed that she should have her wish. She was provided for in every way. She was given a banner of snow- [273] white linen on which was embroidered a figure of the Saviour with an angel kneeling at each side. Her armor was pure white inlaid with silver. Her sword was one which had lain many years buried in a dead knight's tomb. She rode upon a great black horse that was accustomed. to battle.

In this way, one spring morning, she and a large following set out for Orleans. Joan rode at the head of the army, her face very serious. The men were awed by her appearance and by her gentle reproofs, and ceased their oaths and foul language. In fact, the army moved forward singing hymns and accompanied by chanting priests.

As she neared Orleans the English were quite astonished at the appearance of the approaching army. They looked down from their towers in amazement as Joan and her forces approached, but did not try to prevent her and her forces from entering the town. They said to themselves, "The more we can get in this town the more we will capture in the end."

As Joan's white armor gleamed through the evening dusk the people of the town crowded around to see and to touch her and to kiss her hand. They had all heard of what she had said and many of them believed that she had been sent by God to deliver them from their oppressors. She was lodged [274] in a house whose owner furnished such food as he had to her and her little army. Joan merely dipped bread in wine and water, saying that she would eat nothing else until Orleans was delivered.

The presence of the army cheered the people of Orleans and gave them great hope. They made many bold sallies from the town and one by one the English towers fell. The strongest of them, however, remained untaken. It was commanded by an English knight named Glansdale. Joan decided herself to lead the attack upon this tower.

Clad in her white armor and riding her black horse, she drew her sword, though she had never used it, and ordered the gates to be opened and her men to sally forth. In her hands she bore the embroidered banner, which could be seen from every part of the field of battle. Joan was in constant danger everywhere, but she seemed to bear a charmed life. She stood unhurt amid the cloud of arrows that fell about her and which were directed at her.

As she was standing at the foot of the great tower one arrow struck her in the breast. In fact, she had already prophesied that she would be wounded on that day. With her own hands she drew the arrow from the wound, and getting down from her horse she asked some one to pour oil upon the wound and bind it up with linen. Then re- [275] mounting her steed, she showed herself again to her host, and cried, "On, ye Frenchmen! One more effort and the tower is yours!"

The Frenchmen, seeing Joan again mounted, rushed forward with yells of courage. The English, who thought she had been killed, saw with dismay her boy-like figure riding through the field of battle and her white banner streaming in the wind. She seemed inspired of God, as she turned her face toward the skies. Again she cheered her followers. "Forward in the name of God! The place is yours in an hour!"

At last the tower was taken, and Glansdale, attempting to escape across a bridge, fell into the stream below and was drowned. He and his men had crossed the moat as Joan had moved along the lines, calling out, "Yonder goes the witch!" and calling her evil names. When Joan saw Glansdale and his men drowning in the stream she stopped and shed tears and said aloud, "I have great pity for the souls of those men. May God forgive them their sins!"

The town of Orleans was now out of danger, for the English marched away the next day. From that day Joan was no more known as Joan of Arc, but became known all over France as the Maid of Orleans.

[276] One part of her mission was now accomplished, but the other remained to be done, and that was to see the dauphin crowned king of France. Going back to his castle, she begged Charles to go at once to Rheims, where he might be crowned, but the poor king put it off from time to time, for it seemed to him best that he should stay where he was in idle safety, rather than to risk battle and, perhaps, his life.

While the king was delaying, the Maid spent her time clearing the English from the country round about. The great French generals were now her friends. In fact, so splendid was her following and so successful was she in her battles, that many of the French leaders were jealous of her success and began to look upon her with suspicion and with no kindly thoughts. Said they one to another, "Perhaps, after all, she is a witch and may be leading us into trouble instead of leading us to victory. We had better be careful." So it came about that the Maid had almost as many enemies as she had friends in France.

At last, in the middle of the summer, the king was persuaded to go to Rheims, where he was crowned, and so the second part of her great ambition was accomplished. With her banner in her hand the Maid rode beside the king into the ancient [277] town. The archbishops anointed Charles with oil, and on his head they put the crown of France.

Then the Maid of Orleans knelt at the king's feet and said to him, "My lord and king, the pleasure of God is now fulfilled. It was His will that I should raise the siege of Orleans and that I should lead you to this city to be crowned king. You are now the true king of France, and this fair country is yours. I hope you will rid it of all its enemies and do justice to all your people.

At the ceremony there were many friends from Domrémy who knew her as little Jeanne. There were her father and her uncle, who were very plain, simple people, and who once had looked with sorrow on her leaving her home dressed as a man and righting with rough soldiers. It was a joyful sight to them now to see her riding by the side of the king, receiving such honor from his hands.

When the ceremony was over, her friends from Domrémy quietly went back to their homes, expecting the Maid to follow them. But in this they were disappointed, for they never saw the girl again. The Maid was not satisfied with having accomplished the two great purposes of her life, and which the voices had told her she must do. Orleans was free and the king had been crowned, but the English still had possession of Paris and other places in [278] France. She persuaded the king to lead an army against Paris. There she fought as bravely as ever, but without success. Charles, who did not like fighting, retired from the wars and left that city in the hands of his enemies.

The next spring the Maid led an army into Picardy, to attack the English, who were threatening one of the towns. As the English approached, she said to her army, "We will sally forth to fight them before they reach the town. Guard the gates behind us."

Her forces went forward to battle, but suddenly the English appeared in great numbers, and her men, seized with panic, retreated towards the town whence they had come. To the consternation of those in the town, the English barred the way of the retreating forces. Then they made the cruel mistake of closing the gates of the town, leaving the Maid and her army outside.

In this way Joan was taken prisoner and led in triumph to the English camp. "At last we have you, thou witch and sorceress," said her taunting captors; "you shall no longer lead the French to victory, for we shall make short work of those inspired by the devil. You shall hear other voices than those of which you have spoken."

She was taken from one prison to another. Once she attempted to escape, and once she flung herself [279] from a high tower, but was not injured by the fall. After a few months she was imprisoned at Rouen where her fate was to be decided. There she was treated shamefully. She was kept in a dungeon shut up in an iron cage. She was chained to her bed and watched day and night by rough soldiers who taunted her with her misfortunes.

King Charles, whom she had so bravely helped, and the French generals, by whose side she had fought, made no effort to ransom or to relieve the unhappy girl. She suffered in silence, and always she said to those around her, "I am sustained by a higher power than an earthly one. I have succeeded in my mission and no torture that you can inflict can conquer my spirit."

At last the day came at Rouen, of which the English were in full possession, when she was tried by a court of judges, and sad to relate, those judges were mostly French, and the charge was sorcery and witchcraft and other crimes. She told the story of her life and of the voices which she had heard, and always maintained that the voices were from God. The trial continued for days and even weeks, and in the end the Maid was condemned to die.

One spring day, in the early morning, she was taken to the old market-place at Rouen, where a stake had been driven into the ground. To this stake she was [280] chained, and around her was piled a lot of wood.

She begged that she might hold a cross in her hand. One of the English soldiers who was on guard, broke a stick and fashioned the pieces in the form of a cross and handed it to her. The Maid took it and pressed it to her bosom and lifted her face to the sky. Then the cruel soldiers set fire to the wood and the flames slowly enveloped her form. Her last words were, "The voices I heard were of God. They still sustain me. They have never deceived me."

With these words upon her lips, the flames enveloped the form of the young girl and she died a martyr's death. Among all the heroes that France loves, whether they be soldiers or statesmen or even kings, there is none that is loved more tenderly or reverenced more sincerely than the little maid of Domrémy, whose wonderful courage has made her known to all the world as the Maid of Orleans.

It’s so awesome that Rami picked such a wonderful Saint as the muse for his beautiful final collection. Way to go, Rami!

THE FEAST OF ST. SCHOLASTICA!

2008-02-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

Early February is always a very special time for me, since the feast days of two of my favorite saints fall within days of each other- Servant of God Frank Parater on February 7th and Saint Scholastica on February 10th.

Last year, I had a very late night on the eve of the feast of St. Scholastica. In fact, I almost forgot to wake up in time to go to St. Scholastica Day mass! Not to mention that my alarm was broken…but fortunately another “alarm” came to my rescue: right outside my bedroom window, a beautiful gray dove started to coo very loudly. According to legend, St. Scholastica’s soul ascended into heaven in the form of a dove after she died. Perhaps her soul came back down in the form of a dove in order to wake me up!

We have very little information on Scholastica’s life, beyond the fact that she was the sister of St. Benedict and the founder of the first women’s monasteries in Western Europe. I’ve already shared with you the legend that explains why she is the patroness against rainstorms. A few days after that incident, she supposedly died- and that’s when legend asserts that her soul rose to heaven as a dove. I think that this image of one’s soul rising to heaven as a dove is very powerful, and many Saints have in fact compared the soul to a bird. St. Therese employs this image in one of my favorite excerpts from Story of a Soul:

I look upon myself as a weak little bird, with only a light down as covering. I am not an eagle, but I have only an eagle's EYES AND HEART. In spite of my extreme littleness I still dare to gaze upon the Divine Sun, the Sun of Love, and my heart feels within it all the aspirations of an Eagle.

The little bird wills to fly towards the bright Sun which attracts its eye, imitating its brothers, the eagles, whom it sees climbing up towards the Divine Furnace of the Holy Trinity. But alas! the only thing it can do is raise its little wings; to fly is not within its little power!

What then will become of it? Will it die of sorrow at seeing itself so weak? Oh no! the little bird will not even be troubled. With bold surrender, it wishes to remain gazing upon its Divine Sun. Nothing will frighten it, neither wind nor rain, and if dark clouds come and hide the Star of Love, the little bird will not change its place because it knows that beyond the clouds its bright Sun still shines on and that its brightness is not eclipsed for a single instant.

At times the little bird's heart is assailed by the storm, and it seems it should believe in the existence of no other thing except the clouds surrounding it; this is the moment of perfect joy for the poor little weak creature. And what joy it experiences when remaining there just the same! and gazing at the Invisible Light which remains hidden from its faith!

O Jesus, up until the present moment I can understand Your love for the little bird because it has not strayed far from You. But I know and so do You that very often the imperfect little creature, while remaining in its place (that is, under the Sun's rays), allows itself to be somewhat distracted from its sole occupation. It picks up a piece of grain on the right or on the left; it chases after a little worm; then coming upon a little pool of water, it wets its feathers still hardly formed. It sees an attractive flower and its little mind is occupied with this flower. In a word, being unable to soar like the eagles, the poor little bird is taken up with the trifles of earth.

And yet after all these misdeeds, instead of going and hiding away in a corner, to weep over its misery and to die of sorrow, the little bird turns towards its beloved Sun, presenting its wet wings to its beneficent rays. It cries like a swallow and in its sweet song it recounts in detail all its infidelities, thinking in the boldness of its full trust that it will acquire in even greater fullness the love of Him who came to call not the just but sinners. And even if the Adorable Star remains deaf to the plaintive chirping of the little creature, even if it remains hidden, well, the little one will remain wet, accepting its numbness from the cold and rejoicing in its suffering which it knows it deserves.

O Jesus, Your little bird is happy to be weak and little. What would become of it if it were big? Never would it have the boldness to appear in Your presence, to fall asleep in front of You. Yes, this is still one of the weaknesses of the little bird: when it wants to fix its gaze upon the Divine Sun, and when the clouds prevent it from seeing a single ray of that Sun, in spite of itself, its little eyes close, its little head is hidden beneath its wing, and the poor little thing falls asleep, believing all the time that it is fixing its gaze upon its Dear Star. When it awakens, it doesn't feel desolate; its little heart is at peace and it begins once again its work of love. It calls upon the angels and saints who rise like eagles before the consuming Fire, and since this is the object of the little bird's desire the eagles take pity on it, protecting and defending it, and putting to flight at the same time the vultures who want to devour it. These vultures are the demons whom the little bird doesn't fear, for it is not destined to be their prey but the prey of the Eagle whom it contemplates in the center of the Sun of Love.

O Divine Word! You are the Adored Eagle whom I love and who alone attracts me! Coming into this land of exile, You willed to suffer and to die in order to draw souls to the bosom of the Eternal Fire of the Blessed Trinity. Ascending once again to the Inaccessible Light, henceforth Your abode, You remain still in this "valley of tears," hidden beneath the appearances of a white host. Eternal Eagle, You desire to nourish me with Your divine substance and yet I am but a poor little thing who would return to nothingness if Your divine glance did not give me life from one moment to the next.

O Jesus, allow me in my boundless gratitude to say to You that Your love reaches unto folly. In the presence of this folly, how can You not desire that my heart leap towards You? How can my confidence, then, have any limits? Ah! the saints have committed their follies for You, and they have done great things because they are eagles.

Jesus, I am too little to perform great actions, and my own folly is this: to trust that Your Love will accept me as a victim. My folly consists in begging the eagles, my brothers, to obtain for me the favor of flying towards the Sun of Love with the Divine Eagle's own wings!

As long as You desire it, O my Beloved, Your little bird will remain without strength and without wings and will always stay with its gaze fixed upon You. It wants to be fascinated by Your divine glance. It wants to become the prey of Your Love. One day I hope that You, the Adorable Eagle, will come to fetch me, Your little bird; and ascending with it to the Furnace of Love, You will plunge it for all eternity into the burning Abyss of this Love to which it has offered itself as victim.

St. Therese, LETTER TO SISTER MARIE OF THE SACRED HEART, Chapter IX - My Vocation Is Love (1896), Story of a Soul

Scholastica was a woman who was hidden from the world and has largely been hidden in the pages of history. Like Therese, perhaps Scholastica also felt at times that she wasn’t strong enough to accomplish large things….so instead the invested herself in little acts of love and trusted in God’s mercy. Ultimately, by living a life full of small acts of love, Scholastica was able to ascend as a “little bird” to her true home in heaven!

I am very grateful to Scholastica for interceding on my behalf so many times over the past year. I hope that your prayers are also answered on the feast of this wonderful Saint!

Frank Parater and "The American Dream"

2008-02-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Feast of Frank Parater, Servant of God! Today is one of the most special days of the year for me, as I have a huge devotion to Frank. Click here to read an inspiring account of his life and learn more about my devotion to him!

One of the main tenets of the so-called “American Dream” is that a person can achieve “the perfect life” if they are goal-oriented, hard-working, affable, and have a positive attitude. The Servant of God Frank Parater, whose feast day is today, was a person who seemed to embody those “All-American” qualities. He was patriotic, an active parish and civic volunteer, a talented public speaker, an avid book-lover and writer, and valedictorian of his grammar school, high school, and undergraduate college. When he entered the Boy Scouts, he was initially awkward and gangly, but through hard work and virtue, he became one of the very first Eagle Scouts in this country. In fact, he was the youngest person to be named the director of the Boy Scout Camp. Indeed, Frank was a true athlete and outdoorsman. After many long hours of study, Frank was ultimately accepted to the Pontifical North American College….which is, for seminarians, the equivalent of receiving a Rhodes Scholarship. In virtually all his endeavors, Frank was extremely popular and well-liked.

Most of us have probably encountered such high-achieving people in our lives- the hard-working kids in school who always break the curve, are extracurricular all-stars, and get into top colleges. The people who embody “The American Dream.” Nonetheless, our mainstream culture asserts that in order to perfectly achieve “The American Dream,” we need to direct our virtue, hard-work, and optimism towards worldly success. Unless a high-achiever has a prominent career and a fantastic salary, our culture holds that his or her hard work has been in vain.

Indeed, Frank’s digression from these worldly ideals is part of the reason why we should admire him. Frank believed that being “perfect” should be our goal, but he had a different definition of perfection- a perfection that could only be achieved with God’s grace. To that end, Frank placed serving God above everything else in his life. This “Rule of Life” that Frank drew up for himself in is a testament to his true priorities- it included daily Mass and Holy Communion, praying the rosary and Memorare daily, weekly confession, reading a chapter of Scripture daily, and living with the abiding conviction that "the Sacred Heart never fails those that love Him." The following is an excerpt from his journals where he explains part of his Christ-centered philosophy:

Be a man and then you'll be a good priest. Don't be petty; be large minded. Don't be a bluffer; no man can keep from having his bluff called. Don't boast; an egotist is the worst boast; cultivate humility. 'Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart.' Be frank, but not critical. A word of praise does more good than a sermon on fault finding. Be gentle - 'a gentleman never inflicts pain.' Love the poor…Remember all mean are humans and let your charity be unbounded: but be strict with yourself (not scrupulous) remembering that some day God will judge every action of your life as a merciful Judge. The sunny smile with hearty handshake is the foundation stone of a successful life. (Rule, 1918)

The way that Frank placed God and following His will as the ultimate objective of his life- and ultimately, his death- is truly an inspiration for me. Like Frank, I have been a high-achieving person for all of my life. Unfortunately, I often mix up my priorities and think that my personal and academic achievements will only have significance if I am successful in a worldly sense. In turn, I become very discouraged and negative when I hit a roadblock and don’t see the material results of my hard work and past achievements- I even question whether I am truly following God when things don’t turn out the way I had hoped. Frank too hit a major roadblock when his lifelong effort to become a priest was interrupted by a fatal illness. However, instead of falling into despair and sadness, Frank knew that his suffering could also be a powerful way to love God. This sense of hope and redemption is expressed in a letter that he wrote to his mother:

Pray hard for your boy. The path God has destined me to walk glistens before me like the shimmering path of moonbeams on the water. But how many pitfalls, briars, and thorns have been hidden along that way. Beg God to give me the grace of one thing - 'to do His will perfectly.' That alone is enough. However hard the cross may be, however rough the way, I know it is God's will and I shall have grace to persevere until the end. 'Thy Will be done,' beg the Cor Jesu to give me the grace to make it my motto, the standard of my life. And then whether I die within the year or live to a ripe old age, I shall die happily and willingly, praising the Lord.

Frank’s faith-based perspective of “success” is something I plan to really work on in the upcoming Lenten season. Although they lived in different cultures and time, Frank Parater falls in line with some of my other favorite Saints and holy people- Saint Clare, Saint Francis, and Pope John Paul II. All of the aforementioned people were high-achievers and could have achieved worldly success if they wanted to. Instead, they dedicated their gifts and talents to God and the Church and were consequently “high achievers” in terms of holiness!
On a final note, Frank Parater is an extremely powerful intercessor. Just last week, he granted a very big favor in response to something to which my family and I had been praying. Please, don’t be afraid to ask Frank Parater to intercede on your behalf- I’m sure that he’s always happy to listen to your prayers.

Happy feast day, Frank! I love you!

A "Wilde" Conversion Story

2008-01-26T22:30:00.000-05:00

Being sick for the past few days means that I’ve been doing a lot of “resting”- aka, reading and watching TV (after all, St. Clare is the patroness of television!) Given a choice between watching the uber-offensive and degrading Miss America “pageant” (which is just about as classy as its Las Vegas location),and the 1952 version of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, I chose the latter. After watching Earnest and having seen adaptations of a couple of other his plays, I can’t deny that Wilde was an amazingly talented artist with a dazzling wit. Wilde’s incisive humor, truly a God-given talent, is generally free of the baseness to which many modern-day comedians have resorted. I had also heard rumors that Wilde ultimately converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, despite having led a scandalous life. A little internet research tonight confirmed my premonition of Wilde’s conversion to Catholicism.

In the spirit of my December post on Edif Piaf, Oscar Wilde’s conversion is another case of a tormented individual who ultimately experienced God’s love and mercy via the Catholic Church. “Oscar Wilde, Roman Catholic” is a great article by Jeffrey Tucker, who gives a great analysis of the Catholic undertones in Wilde’s artistic works and recounts the touching story of his deathbed conversion. Indeed, Wilde’s conversion is a confirmation that Christ’s love and mercy is open to everyone and anyone that opens their heart to Him and His Church!

A Truly AMAZING Movie...

2008-01-11T20:58:00.000-05:00

I seldom cry during movies (not counting the movies that are so awfully bad that they bring me to tears). It’s even more rare for me to cry during a comedy film- the only time I remember crying during a comedy was when I went to see Sweet Home Alabama during my first semester at college, and I wept because it reminded me how I was homesick for the South. Putting all that aside, the movie that I went to see yesterday marks the first comedy that was so beautiful, so powerful, so moving, that it actually brought tears to my eyes.

That movie was Juno, not to be mistaken with the vengeful Roman goddess after which the title character is named. You couldn’t really ask for more out of a movie- witty dialogue, offbeat but uproarious humor, an admirable heroine, innovative direction, an eclectic soundtrack, superb acting….and most of all, a strongly PRO-LIFE message. All of those strengths blend together so well, and the end result is a charming film that has universal appeal and which manages to drive home the message of the sanctity of life without being at all “preachy.”

Juno’s success is a landmark for the pro-life movement, partly because the film has reached such broad audiences. Indeed, some of my friends who never really thought about those kinds of issues were very moved by this movie’s message.

Here is a review and synopsis of the film- don’t let the blurb about profanity, nudity, crudeness, etc. scare you off from a wonderful movie…I really don’t remember seeing any nudity or hearing all that much profanity. So PLEASE PLEASE support the pro-life cause by going to see this AMAZING movie and taking LOTS of friends with you!

St. Clare on the Big Screen

2007-12-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

It’s that time of year again….when it’s getting cold outside so I often just stay in and watch movies. One of the films I decided to watch was “Millions,” which had been rated highly by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The film is a very well-done story about a five-year old boy named Damien who loves to read about the lives of Catholic Saints and has conversations with his favorite Saints. In the film, the Saints actually appear on-screen and become a reality for Damien. I was particularly excited when the first Saint who appears to Damien happens to be the patroness of this blog! Below is a description of the scene involving Damien and St. Clare:

The scene…Damien, the imaginative five-year old protagonist of the movie, is sitting in his cardboard box playhouse next to the railroad tracks and is reading a picture book called ‘Six O-Clock Saints.’ .Suddenly the playhouse begins to shake and a fifty-something year-old woman dressed in a white habit, wimple, and dark blue veil beams down from above into the little boy’s playhouse. She has a halo over her head, and is carrying a large monstrance in her hands. She sets down the monstrance on the ground, sits down across from Damien, and lights up a cigarette. The ensuing dialogue is as follows:

Damien: Clare of Assisi! 1194 to 1253!

St. Clare: That’s right! (in a rather thick British accent)

A pause. St. Clare keeps smoking and looks around.

St. Clare: I had a hermitage meself once . I used to go and hide up there. If anyone needed me, I’d send them a vision. Sort ‘em out That’s why I’m the patron saint of television. I was like…. human television!

Damien: You’re the patron Saint of television?!

St. Clare: It keeps me busy…you know?

Damien: Are you allowed to smoke up there?

St. Clare: You can do what you like up there, son. It’s down here you have to make the effort.

That’s about the extent of St. Clare’s appearance in the film. Later on in the movie, St. Francis makes a shorter but somewhat more dignified appearance. Even though I was more amused than offended by the depiction of St. Clare, the producers could have been more accurate without having to compromise the humor of the scene. I’d be a curmudgeon to pick apart every single inaccuracy of what otherwise is an excellent children’s movie….however, you might find interesting the real reason why St. Clare is the Patron Saint of Television:

One Christmas Eve St. Clare was too ill to rise from her bed to attend Mass at the new Basilica of St. Francis. Although she was more than a mile away she saw Mass on the wall of her dormitory. So clear was the vision that the next day she could name the friars at the celebration. It was for this last miracle that she has been named patroness of television.
http://www.lbisaintfrancis.org/stclareparish.htm

The rest of the movie is definitely worth a watch and its lessons of spiritual poverty would make the real St. Clare (minus her Marlboros) very proud!

I hope that everyone has a joyful and blessed Christmas season!

Edith Piaf and St. Therese

2007-12-03T19:38:00.000-05:00

Colder weather combined a case of the sniffles means that I've been staying in and watching alot of DVDs lately. Since I'm a fan of French cinema (Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of my favorite films of all time), I decided to rent La Vie en Rose. La Vie en Rose powerfully tells the story of the talented but tortured French singer Edith Piaf. I was especially touched to learn that Edith Piaf had a very strong devotion to St. Therese throughout her entire life. Even though Piaf lived a life that many considered scandalous, it seems to me that she posessed Therese's same childlike desire to love. In the following essay that was written in conjunction with the film's release, the Carmelite Friar J. Linus Ryan expands upon Piaf's devotion to St. Therese:

Edith Piaf and Thérèse of Lisieux
by Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O. Carm.,
National Co-Ordinator, St. Thérèse Relics Visit 2001.

“I thirst for LOVE, fulfil my hope.” [Thérèse PN 31, 6]

In 1999, a book associated the two Christian names Edith and Thérèse with the sub-title ‘The Saint and the Sinner.’

Today the film ‘La Vie en Rose’ (recently released in France under the title of ‘La Môme’—young girl) and showing in Ireland since June 22, 2007, continues to bring them together. Is this a legend? No, it is the truth. In fact, the very first picture on screen shows a desperately ill Edith Piaf on stage in a state of collapse earnestly invoking St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

The Facts:

How has life brought them together? Born in 1913, Edith, abandoned by her mother, was entrusted by her father to her grandmother Louise Gassion. At the age of 7/8 Edith had an inflammation of the cornea (keratin) which for three years had been making her gradually blind. Louise, her grandmother, was a cook in a brothel in Bernay in the province of Eure (not far from Lisieux) and the child was looked after by the women who lived there. They were devastated by her handicap until somebody related a miracle which had become the talk of the town in 1908: the cure of Reine Fouquet, 4½ years old, who also had a keratin. Coming from a working class area of Lisieux she had been cured on the 26th March 1908 having prayed at the grave of Thérèse in the cemetery of Lisieux. “If Thérèse cured the little Fouquet girl she will have to cure my Edith” said the grandmother and off she went with Edith and the women from the house. Taking the train for Lisieux, they climbed up to the cemetery on the hill, as did the thousands of soldiers during the 1914/18 war. They prayed, they returned home with some clay and each evening at Bernay they put a clay bandage on the child’s eyes and lo and behold eight days later Edith was cured.

During her whole life Edith Piaf had a great devotion to Thérèse, wearing her medal around her neck and she kept a little statue of Thérèse on her night table and also in her stage dressing room. Sometime later through ‘Story of a Soul’ (St. Thérèse’s Autobiography) she discovered the journey and the message of Thérèse. Whenever she came on stage she prayed to her and petitioned her. She brought her friends and lovers to her at Lisieux.

Today in Lisieux there are people who remember having seen Edith and Marcel Cerdan, the world boxing champion, before his prize fight in the United States in 1949.

All those who knew Edith are witness to the fact: Thérèse is the intimate friend to whom she entrusts everything.

Is it possible to explain this privileged connection?

Yes. On first reading ‘little Thérèse’ touches simple people by her faith and confidence which put her in direct contact with God. You can ask her anything and that is fine. She spends her heaven, as she promised, doing good on earth. In Lisieux thousands of people come to entrust to Thérèse their sorrows, anxieties and problems and come back afterwards to thank her. It is not unusual to find non-Christians among them. The journey of the Relics of Thérèse through the world (including Ireland) confirmed: “Thérèse is blessed by God”. All the signs of the ‘Storm of Glory’ (Pope Pius XI) that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century are occurring today.

But there are other traits in common between the two women:

Their personal history. Thérèse as a child loved by her sisters and her father was marked at the age of 4½ years by the death of her mother. She was affected by a nervous condition at this loss until at the age of 10 years she was cured by the Blessed Virgin (Our Lady of the Smile). Edith also suffered from maternal abandonment even though she was surrounded by love. As a child and adolescent she suffered greatly from emotional distress. Both of them suffered from the same affective weakness which would mark their whole life: “Am I loved?” asks Thérèse She relates one year before her death that in one of her dreams she asks the question: “Is the Good God content with me?” [Ms B, 2Vº]

The Surname of Edith:

Louis Leplée in 1935, who engaged Edith to sing in a cabaret, wanted to give her a singer’s name: he found that Edith Gassion didn’t sound good. “You remind me of a little sparrow of Paris: you could be called the sparrow kid ‘La Môme’ but it is already taken; then why can’t we call you Piaf?” (Piaf means little sparrow). Thus was born the name Edith Piaf.

Thérèse loved little birds; in her spiritual testament one year before her death she develops a beautiful parable in which she compares herself to a weak little bird, loved by the sun, the Sun of Love. [Ms B, 5]

It is above all in their deep experience that Thérèse and Edith are united: describing in different ways their life of love.

In Thérèse’s case the love she has for “her beloved Spouse”, from a language point of view, is symbolised by flowers and objects (her little crucifix). The images of the ‘Canticle of Canticles’ are repeated with their poetic strength.

Her faith in the Eucharist is not abstract, it is the dialogue of a beloved with her lover. “For lovers solitude is necessary, a heart to heart which lasts night and day . . . just one glance of Yours makes my beatitude . . . I live on love.” When she is in the dark night of faith she interprets it as a test of love.

The romantic life of Edith is a succession of lovers often great stars; but she isn’t sensual, she is looking for tenderness. She is disturbed when she realises that her connection with Marcel Cerdan is endangering a family, a wife and children. Because she herself has suffered a great deal she is very sensitive to the suffering of others. Her last connection with Théo Sarapo is a final SOS to love “Non, rien de rien, je ne regrette rien.” (No regrets)

It is because of the search for love that she finds in Thérèse that Edith is attracted by her. Both of them discover themselves in Mary Magdalene of the Gospel.

Reflecting on her life two years before her death, Thérèse tells us that if she hadn’t met Jesus she also would have been lost. “I know that without Him I could have fallen as low as St. Mary Magdalene and the profound words of Our Lord to Simon resound with a great sweetness in my soul. I know that ‘he to whom less is forgiven LOVES less’, but I also know that Jesus has forgiven me more than St. Mary Magdalene since He forgave me in advance by preventing me from falling.” [Ms A, 38Vº]

She had a particular love for the pardoned sinners that Jesus hasn’t condemned, but to whom He has offered the possibility of a new start.

Through ‘Story of a Soul’ Edith Piaf feels also that she belongs to the same race as Mary Magdalene. Thérèse leads her towards the tenderness of God. Whatever happens for herself as well as for her lovers, Edith knows that for those who love nothing is ever lost. When she comes with them to Lisieux leading them into this trust, she proposes to them the abandonment of Thérèse to the Merciful Love of God. “If I had committed all the crimes in the world I wouldn’t hesitate to throw them into the furnace of love.”

Jesus, who knew the heart of Magdalene, knows the heart of Thérèse and the heart of Edith. They have plunged “into the shoreless Ocean of Love.” [Ms C, 34]

Happy St. Elizabeth of Hungary Day!

2007-11-15T18:29:00.001-05:00

Happy Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary!

To read many posts on this great Saint, please refer to my blog's November, 2006 archives.

I apologize for being kind of M.I.A. for the past month or so...my company has been going through busy season. Things should be winding down after the next week, so I should be able to make more posts just in time for Advent!

Thank you so much for your patience. Chiara will return!

The Book of Saints and Heroes

2007-10-24T22:37:00.000-04:00

With All Saints Day coming up next week, I've been reminiscing on the many saint stories that were told to me when I was a kid. In fact, I enjoyed the saint stories more than fairy tales. Hagiographies that are designed for children are often the most enjoyable accounts of the lives of saints- they couch everything in simple terms, contain beautiful pictures, and they don't shy away from pious legends. It's no wonder that I developed devotions to many of my favorite Saints- including St. Clare- after reading these stories as a child.

In surfing the internet this evening, I found a website dedicated to the online preservation of antique childerns' books. Included on this website was a 1912 childrens' book about the Saints- The Book of Saints and Heroes. This book vividly captures the lives of many well-known Saints.

Check out this story on St. Colette! It's probably the best account of her life that I've come across.

The above picture was also taken from this book's chapter on St. Francis. It's one of the most beautiful pictures of him that I've seen!

Happy 110th Birthday, Frank!

2007-10-10T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today is the 110th Birthday of the Servant of God Francis Joseph Parater….whom I lovingly refer to as “Frank.” For those of you who recently started reading my blog, I have a HUUUUGGGGE devotion to Frank.

Here is my post from his Feast Day this past February

This is my post from the year before, which happens to be one of my personal favorite posts.

I attribute my coming back to the Church a few years ago to Frank’s intercession. In fact, if God ever blesses me with children some day I plan on naming my first born son “Francis Joseph Parater.” Had I become a nun, I would have wanted my name to be Sister Francis Joseph of the Sacred Heart….nonetheless, Poor Clares can’t choose their own names although I believe the postulants can “drop hints.”

Since Frank’s Feast Day last February, I have read most of Therese’s Story of a Soul. Given that Frank’s own spirituality greatly resembled that of Therese, it is no wonder that Story of a Soul was one of his favorite books. The stories of their lives are eerily similar, too. Both Frank and Therese were very attached to their loving families, but both made the courageous choice to ultimately leave their homes in favor of God’s call. Both saints struggled with that choice- Therese felt almost guilty about leaving her ill father, and Frank was very sad to leave his physically weak mother. However, Frank and Therese both turned to Our Lord for their strength in times of trouble….right until the very end of their lives.

The most striking similarity between Frank and Therese are their courageous early deaths. Both died of very painful illnesses, which took its toll on them physically, mentally, and spiritually. In spite of all this, Frank and Therese vowed to offer up their great suffering for the souls of others. They even promised to give themselves to others in heaven; Therese remarked “I will spend my time in heaven doing good on earth,” and Frank’s last testament states “I shall not leave my dear ones. I will always be near them and be able to help them more than I can here below. I shall be of more service to my diocese in heaven than I could ever be on earth.”

Indeed, both saints have proven to be powerful and loving intercessors, which is a testament that they have both lived up to their earthly promises to help others while they are in heaven.

Happy Birthday, Frank! Thank you, Therese! I love you both!

St. Francis and St. Clare

2007-10-06T10:03:00.001-04:00

I hope that everyone had a WONDERFUL St. Francis Day!

Many thanks to one of my friends who sent me the link to the following article. It perfectly elaborates on the relationship between St. Clare and St. Francis. As one correction to the article, I don't think that the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon depicts the Saints' relationship as romantic at all. But let the article speak for itself!

ROME, OCT. 4, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of a commentary written by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, on the relationship between Sts. Francis and Clare.* * *

It has become commonplace to speak of the friendship between Clare and Francis in terms of falling in love. In his essay "Falling in Love and Loving," the sociologist F. Alberoni says that "the relationship between St. Clare and St. Francis has all the characteristics of falling in love, sublimated or transferred to the Godhead."Francis, like any man even if he is a saint, may well have experienced the attraction of woman and the call of sex. The sources tell us that in order to overcome a temptation of this kind the saint once rolled around in the snow in the depths of winter.But it was not Clare who was the object of the temptation!

When a man and woman are united in God, this bond, if it is authentic, excludes all attraction of an erotic kind, without even a struggle. He or she is, as it were, sheltered. It is another kind of relationship. Between Clare and Francis there was certainly a very strong human bond, but it was paternal or fraternal in kind, not spousal. They were like two trees joined by their foliage, not by their roots.

The extraordinarily profound understanding between Francis and Clare, which features so strongly in the Franciscan epic, does not come from "flesh and blood," like that between Eloise and Abelard, or Dante and Beatrice (to quote two equally famous examples). If it had done so, it might have left some trace in the literature, but not in the history of sanctity. In one of Goethe's well-known expressions, we could call the friendship of Francis and Clare an "elective affinity," as long as we understand "elective" not only in the sense of people who have chosen each other, but who have made the same choice.Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote that "being in love does not mean looking at each other, but looking together in the same direction."

Clare and Francis really didn't spend their whole lives gazing at each other and feeling good together. They exchanged the fewest of words, probably only those reported in the sources. There was a tremendous reserve between them, so much so that at times the saint was affectionately chided by his brothers for being too harsh with Clare.

Only at the end of his life do we see this rigor in the relationship soften, and Francis visits his "little plant" more and more frequently in search of comfort and confirmation. As death draws near and sickness consumes him, San Damiano becomes his refuge, and it is at her side that he intones the Canticle of Brother Son and Sister Moon, with its praise of "Sister Water," "useful, humble, precious and chaste," which might have been written with Clare in mind.

Instead of looking at each other, Clare and Francis looked in the same direction, and we know what "direction" that was in their case. Clare and Francis were like two eyes always looking in the same direction. Two eyes are not just two eyes, I mean, not just one eye repeated. Neither of the two eyes is just an extra or a spare eye. Two eyes looking at an object from different angles give depth and relief to the object, enabling us to enfold it in our gaze. That is how it was for Clare and Francis.They looked at the same God, the same Lord Jesus, the same crucified one, the same Eucharist, but from different "angles," each with their own gifts and the sensitivity proper to a man and a woman: masculine and feminine. Together, they understood more than two Francises or two Clares could have done.

Recently, a good television film was made, called "Francis and Clare," produced by Fabrizio Costa. It will run on Channel 1 of Italian Television (RAI Uno) on Oct. 6 and 7, and will soon be seen on English-language television, as it was originally shot in English. Better than Franco Zeffirelli's "Brother Sun and Sister Moon," it manages to avoid the romantic charm of a human love story.

In the past there was often a tendency to present the personality of Clare as too subordinate to that of Francis, exactly like a "sister Moon" who lives in the reflected light of "brother Sun." The latest example of this is John M. Sweeney's study "Light in the Dark Age: the Friendship of Francis and Clare of Assisi."All the more praiseworthy, then, the fact that the authors of this television fiction have chosen to present Francis and Clare as two parallel lives, interweaving and unfolding synchronically, with equal space given to the one and the other. This has never been done in this form before, and it echoes the sensitivities of today and contemporary efforts to highlight the important presence of women in history. But in this case, it is not a matter of ideological spin, but a portrayal of reality.

Watching the preview of the film "Francis and Clare," what struck me most was the symbolic opening scene. Francis is walking through a meadow and Clare follows him, almost playfully putting her feet in the footsteps left by Francis. He, asks her: "Are you following in my footsteps?" She replies brightly: "No, much deeper ones."

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF HOLY FATHER FRANCIS!!!!!!

2007-10-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

PAX ET BONUM, FRIENDS!!!! HAPPY SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF THE SERAPHIC FATHER!!!

In the week or so leading up to today, I had been listening to a mix-CD that I made of songs that remind me of St. Francis. Included on this CD are songs like “All Creatures of Our God and King,” “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus,” “All Good Gifts,” “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” “On This Lovely Day,” and “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.” After listening to these Francis-inspired songs, I began to contemplate the immense faith that Francis had.

It was certainly rash, and even foolish, for a man like Francis to suddenly forsake the plans that had been in store for him since his youth….he was raised to eventually become a merchant, like his father. When he finally decided to give his life to God, his future was very unclear. Where would he live? Where would Francis get his clothing and food from? What would he “do” for a living?
These are questions that plague many young people. In a time when there is so much pressure put on teens and young adults to define rather nebulous futures, many young people- myself included- spend a large amount of time worrying. In high school, we worry whether we’ll be able to get into a choice college, be able to pay for college, and also worry about our choice of college. After those problems are resolved and we have made it into college, we worry about new issues. What subject will we major in? Will we be able to pass a particular class? Will we be able to find gainful summer employment? As graduation draws near, a whole new set of questions arise. Will we find jobs? Will we get into grad school? The biggest question of all, “What do we want to do with our lives?”

About a month ago, I had a conversation with a young women from one of my church groups. She noted how important it is to place such worries and questions God’s hands, trusting that He will lead us in the right direction. She said something like, ‘a year from now, you’ll be looking back and wondering why you were so worried about your future when God eventually worked everything out for you.”

Francis is the embodiment of this simple trust in God’s love and providence. At first glance, it seems foolish to place one’s livelihood in God’s hands….but Francis understood that when we spend less time worrying about ourselves and trust in God’s providence, we’re able to spend more time loving and living for God and our neighbors. I pray that eventually- through St. Francis’ intercession- I will be able to embrace such a faith-filled mentality!

Below is a prayer by St. Francis:

Almighty, eternal, just and merciful Godgive us miserable ones

the grace to do for You alone

what we know You want us to do

and always to desire what pleases You.

Inwardly cleansed,Interiorly enlightened

and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit,May we be able to follow

in the footprints of Your beloved Son,our Lord Jesus Christ,and, by Your grace alone,may we make our way to You,Most High,Who live and rule

in perfect Trinity and simple Unity,and are glorified

God almighty,forever and ever. Amen

Our Father, Who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy Name;

Thy kingdom come,Thy will be done,on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

We adore You, Lord Jesus Christ,

in all Your churches throughout the whole world

and we bless You because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world

St. Francis Countdown: The Transitus

2007-10-02T19:07:00.000-04:00

I received the following notice about a very special event held by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR's) in commemoration of the Transitus of St. Francis!

Don't know what the Transitus is? The Transitus of St. Francis is the night of October 3rd, the eve of his Feast Day! It commemorates the night that Francis passed from death into the arms of God. Many Franciscan communities all over the world celebrate the Transitus in various ways. The CFR's perform a play about the life and death of St. Francis...I hear that it's very beautiful and entertaining. Below is the information:

LOCATION:St. Adalbert's Church (next to St. Crispin Friary) 420 East 156 St.Bronx, NY 10455(718) 665-2441

Here are two articles with pictures from the play they put on last year and the year before:

2006: http://www.franciscanfriars.com/fr.%20glenn%20letters/frglenn847.htm

2005: http://www.franciscanfriars.com/fr.%20glenn%20letters/frglenn572.htm

No matter where you are in the world, I hope that everyone has a wonderful and prayerful Transitus!

Be on the lookout for my St. Francis Day post on Thursday!

St. Francis Countdown: The Seraphic Father

2007-10-01T20:54:00.001-04:00

The next day came, that is, the Feast of the Cross. And St. Francis, sometime before dawn, began to pray outside the entrance of his cell, turning his face toward the east. And he prayed in this way:

"My Lord Jesus Christ, I pray for you to grant me two graces before I die: the first is that during my life I may feel in my soul and in my body, as much as possible, that pain which You, dear Jesus, sustained in the hour of Your most bitter passion. The second is that I may feel in my heart, as much as possible, that excessive love with which You, O Son of God, were inflamed in willingly enduring such suffering for us sinners."

And remaining for a long time in that prayer, he understood that God would grant it to him, and that it would soon be conceded to him to feel those things as much as is possible for a mere creature.

Having received this promise, St. Francis began to contemplate with intense devotion the Passion of Christ and His infinite charity. And the fervour of his devotion increased so much within him that he utterly transformed himself in Jesus through love and compassion. And while he was thus inflaming himself in this contemplation, on that same morning he saw coming down from heaven a seraph with six resplendent and flaming wings. As the seraph, flying swiftly, came closer to St. Francis, so that he could perceive him clearly, he noticed that He had the likeness of a crucified man, and his wings were so disposed that two wings extended aobve his head, two were spread out to fly, and the other two covered his entire body.
(Brown, 190-191)

St. Francis Countdown: Francis and Friendship

2007-09-30T20:59:00.000-04:00

Thomas of Celano tells a story about Francis' availability for and generosity in friendship. It is included here because it illustrates the importance and gratuitousness of true friendship. Brother Riccerio imagines himself unworthy of Francis' love but discovers not only that he is already loved deeply by the Poverello, but, also that such love is neither reward nor recompense, but rather pure gift.

A certain brother, Riccerio by name, a noble by birth but even more noble in his conduct, one who loved God…was led by a pious spirit and a great desire to attain and possess perfectly the favour of holy father Francis; but he feared greatly that St. Francis despised him for some secret reason and therefore made him a stranger to the favour of his affection. That brother thought, in as much as he was a God-fearing man, that whomever St. Francis loved with an intimate love would merit to be worthy of the divine favour; but on the other hand, he to whom St. Francis did not show himself well disposed and kind would, he thought, incur the anger of the heavenly judge. These things that brother revolved in his mind and spoke about frequently within himself, but he did not reveal the secret of his thoughts to anyone.

For the rest, when on a certain day the blessed father was praying in his cell and brother Riccerio had come to that place, disturbed by his usual thoughts, the holy man of God became aware of his coming and of what was going on in his mind. Immediately he sent for him and said to him, "Let no temptation disturb you, son; let no thought exasperate you; for you are very dear to me…Come to me with confidence whenever you wish and talk with me with great familiarity." The brother was filled with the greatest admiration at this; and as a result was even more reverent; and so did he begin to open wide in his trust in the mercy of God.

(Celano, XVIII, 46-47)

St. Francis Countdown: Francis' Conversion

2007-09-27T20:38:00.000-04:00

This year's St. Francis Day will be particularly poignant for me, since I am currently the same age as Holy Father Francis was when he began his conversion. I can definitely relate to Francis' initial longings to try to find his place in life. Paradoxically, it was only after he relinquished his self-centred desires that Francis truly "found himself."

Below is an excerpt from Thomas of Celano's account of Francis' conversion:

When the father saw that he could not recall him [Francis] from the journey he had begun, he became obsessed with recovering the money. The man of God [Francis] had desired to spend it on feeding the poor and on the buildings of that place. But the one [Francis] who did not love money could not be deceived even by this appearance of good, and the one who was not bound by any affection for it was not disturbed in any way by its loss. The greatest scorner of the things of earth and the outstanding seeker of heavenly riches had thrown it into the dust on the windowsill. When the money was found, the rage of his angry father was dampened a little and his thirsty greed was quenched a bit by its discovery. Then he led the son to the bishop of the city to make him renounce into the bishop's hands all rights of inheritance and return everything that he [Francis] had. Not only did he not refuse this, but he hastened joyfully and eagerly to do what was demanded.

When he [Francis] was in front of the bishop, he neither delayed nor hesitated, but immediately took off and threw down all his clothes and returned them to his father. He did not even keep his trousers on, and he was completely stripped bare before everyone. The bishop, observing his frame of mind and admiring his fervour and determination, got up and, gathering him in his own arms, covered him with the mantle he was wearing. He clearly understood that this was prompted by God and he knew that the action of the man of God, [Francis] which he had personally observed, contained a mystery. After this he became his helper. Cherishing and comforting him, [Francis] he embraced him in the depths of charity.

This famous story of Francis renouncing his father's wealth was captured in the film "Brother Sun, Sister Moon." That particular part of the movie always brings tears to my eyes, as it perfectly captures Francis' affirmation of childlike innocence. Although it is dubbed in Spanish, you can watch this clip from the film on YouTube. Please watch this at your own discretion, since the scene does contain some non-sexual male nudity.

More to come!

St. Francis Countdown!!!

2007-09-24T18:45:00.000-04:00

Just as an alarm clock abruptly jars a person out of bed, today I suddenly realized that the feast day of Holy Father Francis is only a little more than a week away. This means that I will need to start "counting down" until October 4th!!!

To kick off the St. Francis Countdown, I'm going to direct you to an excellent and entertaining account of the life of Holy Father Francis. The following excerpt is taken from the well-known "Lives of the Saints." Even though the passage has some archaic verbage, it's a very good overview of St. Francis. The passage can be found on EWTN's website here.

More Francis stuff to come!

Benedict XVI Addresses Poor Clares!

2007-09-17T18:18:00.000-04:00

VATICAN CITY, SEP 15, 2007 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received in audience the Poor Clares from the convent of the Immaculate Conception at Albano, which is located within the territory of the pontifical villas at Castelgandolfo.

Addressing the nuns, Benedict XVI expressed his gratitude "for your daily support through prayer, and for your intense spiritual participation in the mission of the Pastor of the Universal Church. In the silence of the cloister and in the total and exclusive giving of self to Christ in accordance with the Franciscan charism, you provide a valuable service to the Church."

"The Pope expects you to be burning torches of love, your hands joined in a vigil of incessant prayer, completely detached from the world in order to sustain the ministry of he whom Jesus has called to guide His Church."

"Not always," said the Pope, "is public opinion aware of the silent dedication of people who, like you, seek to put the Gospel into effect 'sine glossa' with simplicity and joy. Nonetheless, you may be sure that the contribution you make to the apostolic and missionary activity of the Church in the world is truly extraordinary, and God will continue to bless you with the gift of many vocations, as He has up to now."

"May St. Francis, St. Clare and the many male and female saints of your order help you to 'persevere faithfully unto the end' in your vocations," the Pope concluded. "May the Virgin of Sorrows grant you the gift of following her divine crucified Son and of embracing with serenity the difficulties and trials of daily life."

A Prayer for Fr. Basil Moreau

2007-09-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today the Venerable Basil Moreau will finally become Blessed Basil Moreau! Congratulations to all of the wonderful Holy Cross Fathers!

Below is a prayer for Basil Moreau's intercession:

Lord Jesus, Source of all that is good, you inspired Basil Moreau to found the religious family of Holy Cross to continue your mission among the People of God.

May he be for us a model of the apostolic life, an example of fidelity and an inspiration as we strive to be followers of Jesus.

May the Church be moved to proclaim his saintliness for the good of all people. Lord Jesus, you said "Ask and you shall receive."

I dare to come to you to ask that you hear my prayer. It is through the intercession of Father Basil Moreau that I ask...May I learn to imitate his holiness and service and look to him confidently in times of need.

Amen.

Beatification of Fr. Basil Moreau, CSC!

2007-09-11T19:14:00.000-04:00

One of the biggest faux pas that a person make is to ask a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, "isn't Notre Dame a Jesuit school?" Even though many Jesuits are great priests, most Domers' would agree that they couldn't have gotten a finer education than from the University run by the Holy Cross Fathers. My return to the Catholic Church was largely influenced by interacting with many wonderful Holy Cross Fathers during my years at a student at Notre Dame.

For years the Congregation of the Holy Cross has promoted the cause for sainthood of their founder, Fr. Basil Moreau. Fr. Moreau's beatification this Friday, September 14th marks the culmination of years of prayer and hard work. It is with great pride that I will be doing a couple of posts on the life and spirituality of Fr. Moreau in the days leading up to his beatification.

Below is an excellent account of Fr. Moreau's life:

The Story of Basil Anthony Marie MoreauFounder of the Brothers, Priests, and Sisters of Holy Cross

"You did not choose me, I chose you". The Congregation of Holy Cross recognize this quotation as the special calling of their Founder, Basil Moreau. Basil was born to Louis Moreau and Louise Pioger, and his name was a providential choice, because the Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, Basil the Great, was to lead his protege' in a path of dedication of spreading the Word of God through education. For more than a century, members of the family of Holy Cross have established, directed, and supported institutions of learning, from maternal schools through Universities in the U.S., Europe, France, Canada, Asia, Africa, and South America.

As a child, Basil was a student of the Pastor of his parish. Always interested in his studies and anxious to learn more, it is said that while he attended the family animals in nearby fields, he always carried his study books. He loved to read and study, and those who knew him described him as an organizer who gathered his companions to participate in games and other activities which he planned. He was the one to teach pious young boys to serve Mass, perhaps an indication of his personal vocation. Impressed with his desire and success in learning, as well as his piety, the Parish priest of Laigné-en-Belin discussed his conviction with Basil's father, and made arrangements for the boy to enter the Minor seminary at Chateau Gontier. Basil and his father made the journey to the seminary on foot, a distance covered today by car in an hour and a half. What genuine interest, courage, and devotion was displayed by father and son!

Basil's spiritual formation and secular instruction continued in the major seminary until ordination in Le Mans in 1821. This was supplemented by two years spent with the Sulpicians in Paris. On his return to the Diocese of Le Mans, he was appointed professor of Philosophy, Dogmatic Theology and Scripture.

The example and teaching of Moreau continue to inspire the religious family of brothers, priests, and sisters of Holy Cross which he founded to serve the people of God. In mid-19th century Le Mans, Moreau (now a diocesan priest) faced the turmoil, uncertainties and danger experienced by the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the French Revolution. He dreamed of establishing a religious family of three separate and autonomous groups (priests, brothers and sisters) united in their work and in spirit and dedicated to service. Modeled on the Holy Family, each branch of the new religious family was dedicated to Jesus, Mary or Joseph.

Father Moreau assumed the direction of the Brothers of St. Joseph when their founder Father Jacques Dujarié became too ill to continue their direction. In addition to this group, Father Moreau began his own society of priests dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In response to the appeals from bishops, Fr. Moreau sent his religious in teams of brothers, priests, and sisters to minister in Algeria and the U.S. (1841), Canada (1847), Italy (1850) and India (1853).

In 1838 he gave a rule of life to a group of devout laywomen. These women assisted the priests and brothers at first by doing domestic work, then in teaching and nursing. These women became the Marianites of Holy Cross. Today, the women of Holy Cross form 3 distinct congregations: Marianites of Holy Cross, Sisters of the Holy Cross, and Sisters of Holy Cross. Men and women religious of Holy Cross minister in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia, engaged in a variety of ministries fulfilling their commitment to continue the mission of Jesus in the spirit of Fr. Moreau.

1799
Born February 11, 1799 in Laigné-en-Belin, a little village near Le Mans, France. He was the 9th of 14 children; his father was a wine merchant.

1814
Entered the diocesan seminary.

1821
Ordained a priest at age 22.

1835
Taught and served as assistant superior in Le Mans; named leader of the Brothers of St. Joseph founded by Fr. Jacques Dujarié. Founded the society of Auxiliary Priests.

1837
United the brothers and priests into the Association of Holy Cross.

1840
Professed vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

1844
Received the vows of Leocadie Gascoin and three Marianites.

1857
Received papal approval of the constitutions for the Association, which became the Congregation ofHoly Cross.

1866
Resigned as superior general, but continued an active preaching and retreat ministry.

1872
Celebrated his Golden Jubilee.

1873
Died on January 20 at age 73.

1955
The cause for his beatification was introduced in Rome.

Crises of Faith

2007-08-23T22:49:00.000-04:00

I had been at a loss as to what my posts should focus on next, until a friend of mine had kindly e-mailed to me an article on Mother Teresa this afternoon. Since I’ve had such a penchant for contemplative spirituality, I honestly never took the time to understand the spiritual factors that drive service-oriented religious persons. Partly due to both awe and ignorance, I always assumed that God gives a special kind of grace to those people so that their service to others is never deterred by feelings of spiritual dryness or emptiness. My misconceptions were certainly shattered after I read this thorough article on Mother Teresa’s lifelong spiritual struggles. Mother Teresa’s courage and perseverance in the face of stark spiritual depression only reconfirms the holiness of her life.

The testament of Mother Teresa’s struggles reassured me that spiritual dryness happens to very holy people. Many accounts of Saints’ lives completely ignore the spiritual emptiness that they might have experienced. Take the recent movie Therese, for example; it’s a very good movie, but it largely overlooks the depression that St. Therese went through during the last several years of her life. Because spiritual dryness of the saints is often overlooked, there is a tendency for us to blame ourselves when we begin to have such feelings. Nonetheless, it is important to understand that saints like Mother Teresa and many other holy people through the ages have experienced a complete lack of faith and a feeling that God was not working in their lives. Nonetheless, their perseverance and blind trust in God in spite of such doubts, fears, and depression helped them to grow in holiness.

As dark as the topic might be, it’s definitely helpful to hear accounts of how saints coped with their spiritual struggles. Hence, I will try to make several posts on the subject.

In the meantime, please read the article on Mother Teresa!

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE FEAST OF ST. CLARE!!!

2007-08-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

PAX ET BONUM!!! HAPPY FEAST OF THE SERAPHIC MOTHER, EVERYONE!!!!!! It doesn’t seem that long ago since I made last year’s St. Clare Day post, since much has happened over the past year. I’ve gone through a number of personal trials over the last year, but I am more convinced than ever that Holy Mother Clare is one of the most powerful heavenly intercessors. The example of her holy life has helped me to realize the importance of putting childlike trust in God during times of trial.

Specifically, Clare understood that prayer was the best way of coping with difficulties. I used to be rather skeptical of prayer, especially during the times when I didn’t have the energy or patience to pray. However, one of her daughters, a Poor Clare nun, once advised me to follow the example of Holy Mother Clare by persevering in prayer, even when I didn’t feel like doing so. In fact, Clare’s life teaches us that it’s especially vital that we pray during the times when it seems as if our prayers would be in vain. It was through St. Clare’s intercession that I gradually found the patience and perseverance to pray daily….and it soon became the foundation of my life. Thus, on this wonderful feast day, I hope that St. Clare intercedes in all of your lives!

In closing, I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from a letter written by St. Clare followed by a prayer for Holy Mother Clare’s intercession:

“Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!And transform your entire being into the imageof the Godhead Itself through contemplation”

“O wondrous blessed clarity of Clare! In life she shone to a few; after death she shines on the whole world!On earth she was a clear light, now in heaven she is a brilliant sun.O how great the vehemence of the brilliance of this clarity!On earth this light was indeed kept within cloistered walls, yet shone abroad it’s shining rays;It was confined within a convent cell, yet spread itself through the whole world.”

I HOPE THAT EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL ST. CLARE DAY, AND AS THE POOR CLARE’S ALWAYS SAY, “MAY GOD REWARD YOU!”

Chiara Countdown: Litany of St. Clare

2007-08-08T19:50:00.000-04:00

Litany of St. Clare

Lord, have mercy

Christ, have mercy

Lord, have mercy
Christ, hear us;

Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of Heaven; have mercy on us!
God, the son, Redeemer of the world,have mercy on us!
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us!
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us!
Holy Mary, Queen of Virgins,

R:..pray for us

St. Clare chosen of Christ...R..

St. Clare, lover of chastity...R

St. Clare, vessel of holiness...R

St. Clare, prayerful daughter of St. Francis...R

St. Clare, morning light...R

St. Clare, Mother and Foundress of the Poor Clares…R

St. Clare, humble follower of Christ…R

St. Clare, faithful imitator of St. Francis…R

St. Clare, humble servant of the servants of Christ…R

St. Clare, brilliant light of holiness…R

St. Clare, wonderful helper in need...R

St. Clare, full of joy…R

St. Clare, poor with the poor…R
St. Clare rich in merit and grace…R

St. Clare, loving spouse of the Crucified…R

St. Clare, seraphic adorer of the Blessed Sacrament…R

St. Clare, mighty protector of Assisi…R

St. Clare, mirror of patience in suffering…R

St. Clare, comforter of the ill and infirm…R

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world....have mercy on us
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world....graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world.....have mercy on us
Pray for us , St. Clare....that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

LET US PRAY
O God, who inspired St. Clare of Assisi to shine her light on the Gospel and live a life of uncompromising fidelity, grant that through her merits and intercession, we may walk in the path of righteousness in this life so as to enjoy the life that will never end.

We ask this through Christ our Lord....AMEN

Chiara Countdown: The Tavola of St. Clare

2007-08-07T18:15:00.000-04:00

After doing so many posts on St. Clare, I can't believe that I haven't made a post about the Tavola yet! The Tavola is probably the most famous icon of Holy Mother Clare:

The tavola is the work of the Saint Clare Master and dates to the thirteenth century. It is a portrait of Saint Clare and the eight insets along the sides depict the most important events in the life of the saint. The tavola should be viewed starting from the bottom left.

Here, we can see Bishop Guido as he hands an olive branch to Saint Clare. This is followed, in order, by the scenes showing Saint Clare being taken in by the friars at the Porziuncola, her taking of the veil and her father's attempt to force her to abandon her intention of taking her vows. On the right is Agnes, who is being held back from following her sister Clare, the scene in which a cross appears on a loaf of bread before the Pope's eyes, the saint on her deathbed and her funeral, which was attended by the Pope.

The Poor Clares of Ty Man Duw have a wonderful explanation and reflection of the Tavola of St. Clare. Instead of reproducing the reflection for you on my blog, here is the link to the Poor Clares' website.

The Tavola indeed proves that a picture is worth a thousand words!

Chiara Countdown: Clare's Life

2007-08-05T20:08:00.000-04:00

Look into this mirror.....

What do you see when you look into the mirror? Clare saw the reflection of Christ. Her name means clear, unshadowed light. .....When her mother, Ortulana, was pregnant, she went to pray before the crucifix and heard a voice say, "You will bear a bright light." Clare was that child, born around 1193 in Assisi, in Umbria - a name which means, Shadowland. If you visit Assisi today, you will find the Basilica of St Francis on a spur jutting out at the edge of the town. But Clare's Church is in the heart of Assisi.

.....She belonged to a noble family. Her father was a crusader knight. Her mother, who was a devout woman, had been on pilgrimage to Rome, Jerusalem and St Michael's at Monte Gargano, quite a feat for a woman in that time. Clare had two younger sisters, Catherine, [known later as Agnes], and Beatrix. Her family supported the interests of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry II, against the Holy See, and as a result of this, she found herself in 1199 a refugee with the rest of her family, in Perugia. An amnesty permitted her to return in 1202.

.....She received the education of a Lombard gentlewoman, and though in later life she was fond of describing herself as "your worthless handmaid," she wrote it in unmistakably elegant Latin.

.....She was about 12 years old when Francis, a son of that merchant class which had once driven her family out, suffered his bewildering conversion.

.....Clare in her Testament, tells us herself that before Francis had as much as one brother, sang out prophetically in French whilst rebuilding St Damians:

"Come and help me in the work of building the monastery of San Damiano, because ladies are yet to dwell here who will glorify our heavenly Father throughout his holy, universal Church by their celebrated and holy manner of life."

.....We know that via her kinswoman Bona, she sent food for the brothers who later worked there. Clare's cousin Rufino, regarded by Francis as a saint, was amongst the first friars, and it may have been from him that Francis learned of Clare. But Assisi was a small place; a young woman refusing to marry, refraining form staring out of windows, and spending her time in prayer and good works, is a light on a hill top that cannot be hidden.

Walk in the light.

....Francis sought to "capture this noble prize from the world". They met on several occasions - in secret, naturally. On Palm Sunday of 1212, Clare went to Church attired in her best clothes, but when the time came for the distribution of the palms, she did not go forward. Perhaps that was the prearranged signal, perhaps at that moment she was paralysed with fear. Certainly, she understood the meaning of the palm. It is the symbol of martyrdom. .....That night she fought her way through a pile of heavy pillars and discarded lumber to a little used door in her Palazzo. Some have thought it to have been that door by which the dead alone were carried out, and which, because of superstition, was left otherwise unused.

.....In the darkness she ran down the hill to St Mary of the Angels. There, Francis and the brothers waited, with lighted torches; Clare's hair was cut off and she received the poor habit of the lesser brothers, held at the waist by a knotted cord. Then they took her to San Paolo in Bascia, the nearest house of Benedictine women, to have the right of sanctuary. Clare was going to need it. The following morning, her relatives came hotfoot. They tried persuasion, threats, and every means to get her back, "they employed, violent force, poisonous advice and flattering promises," [Legend of St Clare, 9]..

...Holding delicately to the altar cloth with one hand, she pulled off her head covering and revealed her shorn hair. This palpable argument silenced the opposition. They fell back and left her to it.

.....When the fuss had died down, Francis took Clare to San Angelo in Panzo, a Beguinage. Here she was joined by her fifteen year old sister, Agnes. And, since there was, no protecting right of sanctuary there, her uncle, the head of her family, tried to drag Agnes away. But Glare's prayers prevailed. .

....Then Francis, hastily summoned, gave Agnes the habit took them to San Damiano 's.

Building in faith.

....Clare had faith. She had given away her heritage and, though she only had a few companions, she approached the Holy Father, Innocent III, to grant her an extraordinary privilege; the Privilege of Holy Poverty; the moral and canonical right not to be forced to own property. The Pope, more usually inundated with the opposite sort of request, was so stunned that he assented. "We confirm with our apostolic authority, as you requested, your proposal of most high poverty, granting you by the authority of this letter that no one can compel you to receive possessions.".

....In 1226 Francis died, and Thomas of Celano, in his first life of St Francis, attributes this lament to Clare and her sisters:.....O Father of the Poor, .....O lover of poverty, .....when we are tempted who will make us strong? .....You who every temptation knew, .....and well knew how to overcome -.....who will comfort us when we are tried? .....You were our helper in times of distress .....O most bitter going forth, .....O most feared farewell, .....O most dreaded death

........One may wonder what there was to weep over. Clare had organised herself from the first; within a year of her leaving the world, Francis was all set to go to the Holy Land. Francis had been of little practical use to Clare. He had been of little practical use to anyone. Practicality was not his forte. Francis was the wing of the Spirit on which they had all flown. It is hard to find yourself a bird with a broken wing.

The Map of History.

....The community around Clare grew steadily. The early sources of our Franciscan history make life in the 13th Century sound like a garden of birds and troubadours. In reality it was a bloody battlefield in which the armies of the Emperor waged a semi-continuous war with the forces of the Pope. Assisi was on everyone's marching route. They lived in constant fear, too , of "Tartars, Saracens and other enemies of God and of Holy Church", [testimony of Sr Fiippa. 18. Acts of Ganonisation] The heirs of Gengiz Khan were sweeping over Europe from the east, and the princes of Arabia rising up from the south. Spain and Portugal were at this time, Moorish conquests. The Crusades had failed, a fact few were willing to admit. And the last thing the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II wished to do was to wage a holy war.

.....It was an apocalyptic time in which to live. Innocent III, the visionary creator of the "Modern Papacy," was trying to rid the Church of secular intervention and reform the clergy. At the IV Lateran Council he saw himself as the scribe in Ezekiel's Vision, marking the saved with the sign of the Tau, a sign which St Francis appears to have used as his autograph, and which has become a symbol of our order......And in the midst of this stands Clare, vowing poverty in a deliberately chosen life of enclosure - a profound paradox.

.....The dissensions which now rent the Franciscan Brothers had begun before Francis had died. It was Clare who was now the focus of Francis' first companions. Leo and Angelo called her "Our Abbess", and the breviary from which Francis had prayed was lodged with the sisters at San Damiano as a symbol of the middle course which in actuality, their Father had chosen. Francis had not wanted to own storehouses, or advise princes, or ride horses, but also, he had possessed a breviary, prayed the Divine Office and been willing to let men like St Anthony, teach the brothers.

.....The order was divided between some who virtually wanted to own universities, and others, who thought that even the Pope, was not allowed to define poverty.

Lady Poverty.....Clare, frail in health, possessing no weapons but prayer, and perpetually enclosed, stood in the middle, in utter fidelity to Lady Poverty.

.....She had her own trials. The order's first Cardinal Protector became Pope in 1227. He loved Clare. In 1220, after celebrating Holy Week with the sisters, he wrote:

"My very dear sister in Christ! From the very hour, when the necessity of returning here, separated me from your holy conversation and tore me away from that joy of heavenly treasure, such a bitterness of heart, such an abundance of tears and such an immensity of sorrow have overcome me.... I entrust my soul to you and commend my spirit to you, as Jesus on the cross commended his spirit to the Father..."

.....But he also felt it was his duty to look after her. .....He afflicted her with the Rule of St Benedict, an excellent institution the objectives of which could not even be said to run parallel to those of the Franciscan way. Above all it saw poverty in a wholly different light. It was also very rigid; poverty is a freeing gift and the poor must adapt themselves to what God gives to them; only the rich can order their days as they please.

.....Houses of the sisters had sprung up in many of the places where the brother Friars had preached. Some of those to hear the good news were already Benedictine women religious. Not all of these had contact with San Damiano 's.

.....Clare's sister Agnes was sent to Monticelli, and, apparently, to several other houses in Italy as a herald of poverty. Clare is also known to have sent sisters to Prague and to Spain. Prague was the home of the most distinguished convert to Lady Poverty: St Agnes, a Bohemian princess who had rejected the hand of the Emperor Frederick II in order to follow her vocation. .....Before and after the death of Pope Gregory IX, both Agnes and Glare separately entreated the Holy See for a more authentic rule of life. They were not successful. .....Eventually, around 1250, Clare began to write her own rule. She was the first [and only, strangely enough] woman to do so. It was presented to Pope Innocent IV as Clare neared her death. The Holy Father was in Perugia, and bringing an entourage of Cardinals, he came to visit Clare. When she begged him for absolution from her sins, he said with tears, 'Would that I had as little need of absolution, as you!".....Back in Perugia, Innocent signed the confirmation of Clare's rule and a friar, in haste, brought it to her. She kissed the papal seal many times. .....Brothers Angelo, Leo and Juniper were among those at her bedside......Clare spoke to her soul, saying,
"Go without anxiety, for you have a good escort for your journey. Go, for he who created you has made you holy. And, always protecting you as a mother her child, he has loved you with a tender love. May you be blessed, 0 Lord, you who have created my soul!"

She died on the 10th August, 1253.

Chiara Has Returned!

2007-07-31T18:31:00.000-04:00

Dear friends of "Canticle of Chiara,"

I realize that I haven't posted in over a month! Thank you for your patience....I've had alot going on in my personal life over the past month, which has prevented me from posting.

However, I've come back just in time to get ready for the blog's biggest day of the year: The Feast of Holy Mother Clare!

Look for more "Chiara Countdown" posts in the near future!

Pax et Bonum,

Chiara :-)

St. Peter: The Apostle of Hope

2007-06-28T22:46:00.000-04:00

In my last post, I expressed to you all how much I wanted to emulate the humility, self-assurance, and constancy of St. Thomas More…but at the same time, I find it so difficult to attain those virtues. More was indeed a wonderful Saint, but it seemed as though his not caring what others thought of him was a quality came easily to him. In speaking to a loved one last night, I spoke of my desire to find a Saint who really struggled against his/her own pride, self-consciousness, and other personal weaknesses. Right in time for Friday’s solemnity, this person suggested the perfect Saint for those who struggle with personal weaknesses: St. Peter.

St. Peter is a Saint whom I had heretofore taken much for granted. Saint Peter is one of the foremost examples of Saints who through God’s grace wound up living a life of extraordinary holiness in spite of a great deal of personal weaknesses. What were those weaknesses?

One of St. Peter’s greatest weaknesses, and a flaw with which I can commiserate, was his preoccupation with what other people thought of him. For instance, he was always getting in arguments as to who was the greatest apostle. Furthermore, right before he denied Jesus, he was more focused on being suspected and punished by the onlookers rather than on staying true to Our Lord.

In the Gospels, Peter tended to be brash and lacked common sense. It was this brashness that led him to protest Christ’s prediction of death, cut off a servant’s ear in Jesus’ defense, and propose setting up booths at the Transfiguration.

In spite of his many weaknesses, God chose Peter to be the first Pope; it was the grace of the Holy Spirit that molded Peter into a great leader. In a time when we are told that if we are to overcome our weaknesses at all, we must do so on our own or through the use of some worldly method, it’s refreshing to hear Peter’s story which tells us that Our Lord is here to mold our characters into the way that He intends…as long as we let Him. Sometimes, as might have been in Peter’s case, Our Lord chooses for us to simply learn to accept our weaknesses rather than to have our personal flaws disappear entirely. For instance, even though Peter still probably remained naturally brash throughout his whole life, throughout time he learned to tame his natural reactions so that by the time that he writes his Epistles, the gruff fisherman has become a tender shepherd; in 1 Peter 3:4, he advises his readers to “have the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.”

As Peter’s life demonstrates, God does not give up on people despite our many weaknesses. Instead, God freely imparts His grace upon us to turn us into instruments of His love. Hence, if you become frustrated in trying to overcome a personal weakness, the following verse from 1 Peter 5:10 might provide some encouragement: “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.” Take hope in this words, for St. Peter himself was the apostle of hope!

St. Thomas More: Model of Confidence

2007-06-25T19:49:00.000-04:00

I have been remiss in not making a post about one of my favorite Saints- St. Thomas More! Friday, July 22nd had been his Feast Day. St. Thomas More is probably the Saint whom I most wish that I could emulate; he also happens to be the Saint whose personality is most different from mine. One fruit of the Holy Spirit that St. Thomas More had been especially blessed with was extraordinary humility. On account of his humility, More didn’t care about being liked by everyone and did not fear being disliked by others. Hence, More didn’t change his personality or opinions around different people- he was the same man in every situation. He had what we in the modern era would call self-confidence- yet his self-confidence wasn’t based on self-love, but rather based on a firm knowledge that God’s love for him was all mattered.

It’s often extremely difficult to achieve even a minimum level of self-confidence, much less the level of confidence that More had. However, I’ve found a two helpful prayers from the North American College Manual of Prayers (which I lovingly call my “Nack Book”). The prayers are on adjacent pages; the first was written by St. Thomas More, the second was written by Cardinal Merry del Val. While they might not be instant confidence-boosters, I’ve found that saying them over time has given me a greater inner peace:

A Godly Meditation

Thomas More, 1478-1535

Give me grace, good Lord

To count the world as nothing,

To set my mind firmly on you And not to hang on what people say;

To be content to be alone, Not to long for worldly company, Little by little to throw off the world completely And rid my mind of all its business;

Not to long to hear of any worldly things;

Gladly to be thinking of you, Pitifully to call for your help, To depend on your comfort, Busily to work to love you;

To know my own worthlessness and wretchedness,

To humble and abase myself under your mighty hand,

To lament my past sins,

To suffer adversity patiently, to purge them, Gladly to bear my purgatory here,

To be joyful for troubles;

To walk the narrow way that leads to life,

To bear the Cross with Christ,

To keep the final hour in mind,

To have always before my eyes my death, which is always at hand,

To make death no stranger to me,

To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell,

To pray for pardon before the judge comes;

To keep continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me, For his benefits unceasingly to give him thanks;

To buy back the time that I have wasted before,

To refrain from futile chatter,

To reject idle frivolity,

To cut out unnecessary entertainments,

To count the loss of worldly possessions, friends, liberty and life itself as absolutely nothing, for the winning of Christ;

To consider my worst enemies my best friends, For Joseph's brothers could never have done him as much good with their love and favor as they did with their malice and hatred.

Litany of Humility
Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930),Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved...

From the desire of being extolled ...

From the desire of being honored ...

From the desire of being praised ...

From the desire of being preferred to others...

From the desire of being consulted ...

From the desire of being approved ...

From the fear of being humiliated ...

From the fear of being despised...

From the fear of suffering rebukes ...

From the fear of being calumniated ...

From the fear of being forgotten ...

From the fear of being ridiculed ...

From the fear of being wronged ...

From the fear of being suspected ...
That others may be loved more than I,Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I ...

That, in the opinion of the world,others may increase and I may decrease ...

That others may be chosen and I set aside ...

That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...

That others may be preferred to me in everything...

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Poor Clares' "Covenant Day"

2007-06-20T21:39:00.000-04:00

Friday, June 22nd is Covenant Day, which is an extremely important day for Poor Clares all over the world. Not only does Covenant Day commemorate St. Clare and Our Lord rescuing Assisi from the Saracens, but it is also the day that Poor Clare monasteries around the world typically bring new postulants into the cloister. It's understandable how postulants are brought in on this day...just as Clare and her sisters must have been frightened out of their wits as the Saracens attacked, postulants also must be very frightened as they move into this entirely new phase of their lives. However, trust in God pulled St. Clare and her sisters through the darkness of their fear and so it will be for the new postulants. Please pray for them!

Below is the story of St. Clare and the Saracens:

In 1244, Emperor Frederick II, then at war with the Pope, was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, which was part of the patrimony of the Holy See. He employed many Saracens in his army, and a troop of these infidels came in a body to plunder Assisi. St. Damien's church, standing outside the city walls, was one of the first objectives. While the marauders were scaling the convent walls, Clare, ill as she was, had herself carried out to the gate and there the Sacrament was set up in sight of the enemy. Prostrating herself before it, she prayed aloud: "Does it please Thee, O God, to deliver into the hands of these beasts the defenseless children whom I have nourished with Thy love? I beseech Thee, good Lord, protect these whom now I am not able to protect." Whereupon she heard a voice like the voice of a little child saying, "I will have them always in My care." She prayed again, for the city, and again the voice came, reassuring her. She then turned to the trembling nuns and said, "Have no fear, little daughters; trust in Jesus." At this, a sudden terror seized their assailants and they fled in haste. Shortly afterward one of Frederick's generals laid siege to Assisi itself for many days. Clare told her nuns that they, who had received their bodily necessities from the city, now owed it all the assistance in their power. She bade them cover their heads with ashes and beseech Christ as suppliants for its deliverance. For a whole day and night they prayed with all their might- and with many tears, and then "God in his mercy so made issue with temptation that the besiegers melted away and their proud leader with them, for all he had sworn an oath to take the city."

Fresh Eggs + Poor Clares = A Sunny Wedding Day?

2007-06-14T20:09:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year....wedding season! With all of these tropical storms coming through every other weekend, what bride wouldn't want to ensure a way of having good weather on that special day? Now there's a way that she can, and all she needs are fresh eggs and Poor Clares!

It's been an age-old Spanish tradition for brides to bring fresh eggs to Poor Clare monasteries prior to their weddings as a gift for the nuns. Even though the nuns aren't required to do so, they usually pray to St. Clare- the patroness of good weather- that the bride have a gorgeous wedding day! And even though she isn't required to do so, St. Clare usually intercedes and good weather is said to almost always follow! More importantly, the nuns also pray that the couple have a blessed and fruitful marriage. Of course, it is also said that in order for the prayer to be answered, the bride must offer the nuns the eggs (or even a simple prayer request) with sincerity...not with the expectation of getting something back in return.

If you happen to read Spanish, here is a background on the tradition.

Here is a lively, first-person account of someone who attended the wedding of a bride who brought "huevos a las Clarisas." In English.

Whether or not you have balmy wedding-day weather, my prayers are with all couples who are getting married! As the Poor Clares would say, May God reward you!

THE FEAST OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA!

2007-06-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. ANTHONY!

I hope that each one of you all have the chance to celebrate the feast day of this wonderful Saint in your own special way. Why is St. Anthony one of my favorite Saints? In addition to his inspiring life, which is certainly a lesson as to how to offer up feelings of loneliness and disappointment, St. Anthony is probably the most powerful intercessory Saint I've come across. Not only is he wonderful at helping me find lost keys, sunglasses, papers, etc., but his intercession is very powerful in spiritual matters as well. For instance, whenever I start to feel overly timid, I say the powerful "St. Anthony's Brief" to myself:

Behold the cross of the Lord!
Fly, ye powers of darkness!
Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah
Jesus, the Root of David
Has Conquered
Alleluia!

Begone Satan!

St. Anthony is also a very powerful intercessor for overcoming feelings of inadequacy that might overtake us at times. For that purpose, here are some prayers that might help:

SHORT PRAYERS TO ST. ANTHONY

SAINT ANTHONY, RESTORER OF SPEECH TO THE MUTE
Dear St. Anthony, how tongue-tied I can be when I should be praising God and defending the oppressed. My cowardice often strikes me dumb; I am afraid to open my mouth. St. Anthony, Restorer of Speech to the Mute, release me from my fears. Teach me to praise God and to champion the rights of those unjustly treated. Please remember also all my intentions.

[Name them.] SAINT ANTHONY, CONSOLER OF THE AFFLICTED Dear St. Anthony, comforting the sorrowful is a Christian duty and a work of mercy. By word, attitude, and deed I should try to brighten their days and make their burden easier to bear. St. Anthony, Consoler of the Afflicted, may I remember when helping someone in sorrow that I am helping Christ Himself. Kindly mention my pressing needs to Him. [Name your special intentions].

SAINT ANTHONY MARTYR OF DESIRE
Dear St. Anthony, thou didst become a Franciscan with the hope of shedding thy blood for Christ. In God's plan for thee, thy thirst for Martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions.
[Name them.]

SAINT ANTHONY, PERFORMER OF MIRACLES
Dear St. Anthony, thy prayers obtained miracles during thy lifetime. Thou still seemest to move at ease in the realm of minor and major miracles. St. Anthony, Performer of Miracles, please obtain for me the blessings God holds in reserve who serve Him. Pray that I may be worthy of the promises my Lord Jesus attaches to confident prayer.
[Mention your special intentions.]

PRAYER TO ST. ANTHONY FOR LOST ARTICLESDear Saint Anthony, thou art the patron of the poor and the helper of all who seek lost articles. Help me to find the object I have lost so that I will be able to make better use of the time I will gain for God's greater honor and glory. Grant thy gracious aid to all people who seek what they have lost-----especially those who seek to regain God's grace. Amen.

Finally, it's important to remember that even when we don't have any intentions in particular, St. Anthony always loves it when we pray to him as our intercessor before Our Lord whom he loved so much!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

2007-06-11T20:48:00.000-04:00

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! So many people often think that the Sacred Heart is an antiquated devotion, but I've found devotion to the Sacred Heart to be ever more relevant in this day and age. In today's fast paced world, there's a tendency to become overstressed over certain things....I'm certainly guilty of that at times. Conversely, there can also be a tendency to go at too slow of a pace and not do enough. This lack of balance can affect all areas of life, whether it be work, prayer, or our personal lives. I've found that praying to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a wonderful way of trying to get back in balance. After all, if you think about it, a heart cannot function if it beats too slowly and it will experience problems if it beats too rapidly....why not rely on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the perfect heart, to give us the pace that we so very need? For that purpose, I've included a prayer to the Sacred Heart written by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque:

I, N... N ... give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being, save to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take Thee, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death. Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God Thy Father, and turn away from me the strokes of His righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in Thee, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Thy goodness and bounty. Do Thou consume in me all that can displease Thee or resist Thy holy will; let Thy pure love imprint Thee so deeply upon my heart, that I shall nevermore be able to forget Thee or to be separated from Thee; may I obtain from all Thy loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Thee, for in Thee I desire to place all my happiness and all my glory, living and dying in very bondage to Thee.

Written by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

St. Anthony Countdown: Prayer for Control of the Tongue

2007-06-10T20:47:00.000-04:00

Happy Corpus Christi, everyone!

If you ever have the chance to visit Padua in Italy, you must stop by the Basilica, because it houses the preserved vocal chords and tongue of St. Anthony. The summer after I graduated from High School, I had taken a trip to Italy, but since I was an atheist at the time, I didn't really enjoy the A-B-C tour...(aka, "Another Basilica or Cathedral" tour). I was of the view that everything could be explained via science and anything that fell out of that realm was pure superstition. At first I didn't believe my ears when I was told that St. Anthony's vocal chords were "miraculously" preserved....but when I was begrudingly taken into the Basilica and my family coerced me to pass by the Holy Relic, my incredulity was suspended. Perhaps it was through divine grace and St. Anthony's intervention that I came to consider that perhaps some things in this world can't be explained by science. Even though it would be two years before I came to accept Christ as my savior once again and came back to the Church, I did begin to believe in a God by the end of that trip to Italy. I can't help but think that it was via St. Anthony's intercession (not to mention the invercession of Sts. Clare and Francis, for I also visited Assisi on that trip) that I began my faith journey back to the Church. Hence, related to St. Anthony's tongue, here is a prayer to St. Anthony for control of the tongue. This is a prayer which I plan on using quite frequently!

PRAYER FOR CONTROL OF THE TONGUE

Dear St. Anthony, once again I greet thee and thank thee for thy readiness to come to my aid in my necessity. Slowly and surely my disposition improves. Thou has helped me to understand that my real fault lay in pride, preoccupation with myself, and lack of real concern for others. Now that I see this more clearly, thanks be to God, I do not think of myself as so hopeless. Thou used thy tongue to give praise to God, to preach in defense of the Faith and bring His message of salvation to sinners and to call down the blessings of Heaven on others. Please continue to help me so that I may use my tongue rightly, to be charitable when speaking of others and to others, to be ever ready to support them rather than wound them.

Because of thy powerful intercession with God, I am confident that thou wilt continue to assist me in my daily work. In the Name of Our Lord, Jesus, I ask thy aid. Amen.

Pray for us, St. Anthony, that we may be made worthy of Christ.

St. Anthony Countdown: His Life and Times

2007-06-08T22:59:00.000-04:00

Dear "Chiara" friends....

I'm so sorry for not posting as frequently as usual! You see, between moving to a new town here in Virginia and starting a new job, I haven't been able to post as often as I'd like to. However, thank you so much for your prayers, thoughts, comments, etc. As a note, there was a comment regarding my St. Clare photo gallery: it's been defunct for a long time, but over the course of the next month I'll work on getting a brand new one set up. Perhaps in time for Covenant Day on the 22nd! (Covenant Day is the day that commemorates St. Clare's rescuing her monastery from the Saracens).

Also, I'd be remiss if I neglected to count down to the Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua on the 13th! Not only is St. Anthony one of my favorite Saints on account of his uncanny ability to help me find lost keys, earrings, paperwork, cars in the parking lot, etc.....but St. Anthony is also a powerful heavenly intercessor when it comes to spiritual matters. I'll do another post on his spirituality, but first I would like to introduce you to his life and times:

St. Anthony of Padua is one of the most famous disciples of St. Francis of Assisi. He was a famous preacher and worker of miracles in his own day, and throughout the eight centuries since his death he has so generously come to the assistance of the faithful who invoke him, that he is known throughout the world.

St. Anthony's Youth & Conversion

St. Anthony was born in the year 1195 A. D. at Lisbon (Portugal) where his father was a captain in the royal army. Already at the age of fifteen years, he had entered the Congregation of Canons Regular of St. Augustine and devoted himself with great earnestness both to study and to the practice of piety in the Monastery at Coimbra (Portugal).

About that time some of the first members of the Order of Friars Minor, which St. Francis has founded in 1206 A. D. came to Coimbra. They begged from the Canons Regular a small and very poor place, from which by their evangelical poverty and simplicity they edified everyone in the region. Then in 1219 A. D. some of these friars, moved by divine inspiration, went as missionaries to preach the Gospel of Christ to the inhabitants of Morocco. There they were brutally martyred for the Faith. Some Christian merchants succeeded in recovering their remains; and so brought their relics in triumph back to Coimbra.

The relics of St. Bernard and companions, the first martyrs of the Franciscan Order, seized St. Anthony with an intense desire to suffer martyrdom in a like manner. So moved by their heroic example he repeatedly begged and petitioned his superiors to be given leave to join the Franciscan Order. In the quiet little Franciscan convent at Coimbra he received a friendly reception, and in the same year his earnest wish to be sent to the missions in Africa was fulfilled.
St. Anthony's Arrival in Italy

But God had decreed otherwise. And so, St. Anthony scarcely set foot on African soil when he was seized with a grievous illness. Even after recovering from it, he was so weak that, resigning himself to the will of God, he boarded a boat back to Portugal. Unexpectedly a storm came upon them and drove the ship to the east where it found refuge on coast of Sicily. St. Anthony was greeted and given shelter by the Franciscans of that island, and thus came to be sent to Assisi, where the general chapter of the Order was held in May, 1221 A. D..

Since he still looked weak and sickly, and gave no evidence of his scholarship, no one paid any attention to the stranger until Father Gratian, the Provincial of friars living in the region of Romagna (Italy), had compassion on him and sent him to the quiet little convent near Forli (also in Italy). There St. Anthony remained nine months as chaplain to the hermits, occupied in the lowliest duties of the kitchen and convent, and to his heart's content he practiced interior as well as exterior mortification.

St. Anthony, Preacher and Teacher

But the hidden jewel was soon to appear in all its brilliance. For the occasion of a ceremony of ordination some of the hermits along with St. Anthony were sent to the town of Forli. Before the ceremony was to begin, however, it was announced that the priest who was to give the sermon had fallen sick. The local superior, to avert the embarrassment of the moment, quickly asked the friars in attendance to volunteer. Each excused himself, saying that he was not prepared, until finally, St. Anthony was asked to give it. When he too, excused himself in a most humble manner, his superior ordered him by virtue of the vow of obedience to give the sermon. St. Anthony began to speak in a very reserved manner; but soon holy animation seized him, and he spoke with such eloquence, learning and unction that everybody was fairly amazed.

When St. Francis was informed of the event, he gave St. Anthony the mission to preach throughout Italy. At the request of the brethren, St. Anthony was later commissioned also to teach theology, "but in such a manner," St. Francis distinctly wrote, " that the spirit of prayer be not extinguished either in yourself or in the other brethren." St. Anthony himself placed greater value in the salvation of souls than on learning. For that reason he never ceased to exercise his office as preacher despite his work of teaching.

The number of those who came to hear him was sometimes so great that no church was large enough to accommodate and so he had to preach in the open air. Frequently St. Anthony wrought veritable miracles of conversion. Deadly enemies were reconciled. Thieves and usurers made restitution. Calumniators and detractors recanted and apologized. He was so energetic in defending the truths of the Catholic Faith that many heretics returned to the Church. This occasioned the epitaph given him by Pope Gregory IX "the ark of the covenant."
In all his labors he never forgot the admonition of his spiritual father, St. Francis, that the spirit of prayer must not be extinguished. If he spent the day in teaching and heard the confession of sinners till late in the evening, then many hours of the night were spent in intimate union with God.

Once a man, at whose home St. Anthony was spending the night, came upon the saint and found him holding in his arms the Child Jesus, unspeakably beautiful and surrounded with heavenly light. For this reason St. Anthony is often depicted holding the Child Jesus.

St. Anthony's Death

In 1227 A. D., St. Anthony was elected Minister Provincial of the friars living in northern Italy. Thus he resumed the work of preaching. Due to his taxing labors and his austere penance, he soon felt his strength so spent that he prepared himself for death. After receiving the last sacraments he kept looking upward with a smile on his countenance. When he was asked what he saw there, he answered: "I see my Lord." He breathed forth his soul on June 13, 1231 A. D., being only thirty six year old. Soon the children in the streets of the city of Padua were crying: "The saint is dead, Anthony is dead."

Pope Gregory IX enrolled him among the saints in the very next year. At Padua, a magnificent basilica was built in his honor, his holy relics were entombed there in 1263 A. D. From the time of his death up to the present day, countless miracles have occurred through St. Anthony's intercession, so that he is known as the Wonder-Worker. In 1946 A. D. St. Anthony was declared a Doctor of the Church.

"Call Stories": Poor Clare Rollerblading Towards God

2007-05-31T22:20:00.000-04:00

St. Therese always said that she wanted to go to heaven in an elevator....I guess that the Poor Clare Colettine in this news clip wants to rollerblade towards Our Lord! Either way, it looks like she's living a life full of contemplation and sacrifice. I found the article while trying to look for something else, but instead I found this news clip! This post will be part of a continuing series of "call stories" on my blog that will feature....well, you guessed it!....accounts of how nuns and sisters were called to that way of life! I like this particular "call story" insofar as it illustrates how it took a little bit of prodding in order for Sister Christina to become comfortable to the idea of the contemplative life. Furthermore, now that she's professed, it's not all that easy for her....there are alot of generational issues with some of her sisters that she must deal with. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did!

CLEVELAND -- Sister Christina usually has her eyes on heaven.

This day, however, she gazes downward, at the sidewalk. Arms pumping, veil flying, the 33-year-old cloistered nun skates into a turn on a path behind monastery walls, hoping that her wheels don't drop into the inch-wide valley between the concrete slabs.

When that happens, she takes a tumble, hitting the ground and rolling to avoid injury. “I know how to fall,” she says with a rueful smile.

What compelled the Gen-Xer -- a college graduate who enjoyed hanging out with friends; surfing the Internet for information on Gary Sinise, her favorite actor; and eating at Olive Garden -- to lock herself away from the world eight years ago?

Sister Christina didn't know then, but she knows now.

In many ways, the Poor Clare Colettine nun is representative of young women who choose to become nuns and are a product of their generation and society.
In one major way, she is not. Unlike many Catholic nuns, she was not raised Catholic. Growing up in suburban Syracuse, N.Y., she attended an Evangelical Covenant church with her parents and younger brother.

“I was really searching for something else,” she says in the monastery's parlor, a large room filled with light and plants.

She sits perched on a straight-back chair behind a 2-foot wooden partition topped with a mustard-color metal grate that reaches to the ceiling. “I didn't quite know what that was. I just felt like, ‘This isn't working for me anymore.’”
A high school classmate gave her a rosary, which is used in a prayer of meditation that draws on the intercession of Mary. She hid it in a dresser drawer.

“I was afraid to use it,” she says. “It seemed like I was praying to Mary. But I was attracted to it, and the more I prayed it, the closer, I think, I got to the church.”

Soon after, she visited a Catholic church. “I cried through the whole Mass,” she says. “Something was there that I had been searching for. And now I realize it was Jesus. ... It was his presence.”

At 17, she converted, without her parents' knowledge. “My mother, when she found out, hit the roof and three planes overhead,” she says with a laugh. “She said, ‘Why didn't you give me a chance to talk you out of it?’

“My parents eventually accepted it. They were just a little upset about how I went about it.”

Seven years later, the couple would receive a second jolt when their daughter told them she had decided to join the Poor Clares, a cloistered community of nuns in Cleveland.

Ask Sister Christina why she chose the Poor Clares, and she answers quickly: “Their spirituality.”

It is, she says, a love of Jesus that manifests itself in a deep concern for the world. “You love the world so much because he does,” she says, and that is why the nuns split away from society. “You see all the grates and the separation. It's not because we don't like the world. It's because we really love it and want to remain so and pray for it.”

Once she was living in the three-story, red-brick monastery, she saw the concern almost immediately in the sisters' compassionate reaction to a disaster outside their gates.

The cloistered sisters knew of the catastrophe because of the community's three extern sisters, who clip items of concern from the newspaper and leave them on a table in the library. The women also answer the phone, shop, drive the cloistered sisters to the doctor, maintain the public chapel and do whatever is needed to keep the monastery operating. They live steps from the cloistered sisters but have a key to the enclosed area and participate in the nuns' community life as much as they can.

Unlike the 20 sisters in the cloister, the extern sisters may watch television and listen to the radio. Usually, however, the public alerts them to news, such as a caller who told the community about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The public also calls in -- day and night -- with prayer requests, which the extern sisters post on a bulletin board outside the kitchen for all the sisters to see.

Prayer is the Poor Clares' main ministry. Every moment of every day, a sister is petitioning God. The women practice perpetual adoration, spending hourlong shifts in front of the Blessed Sacrament, the exposed host that is believed to be the body of Christ, in the chapel. Seven times a day, beginning at midnight, they also chant the Liturgy of the Hours, an ancient ritual of special prayers sanctifying the parts of each day.

The women even pray while they work, in silence, as a cook, seamstress, treasurer or, in Sister Christina's case, the “procurator” who arranges for food and supplies for the nuns' community.

“People think we are a direct channel to God,” says Mother Mary Jude, the monastery's mother abbess who has joined Sister Christina in the parlor. “But they are, too.”

Sister Christina agrees but adds, “Lay people have to work, they have other obligations. We have the time to pray and we take it to heart. It's serious. It's what we do.”

In 2004, Sister Christina pronounced her vows: poverty, chastity, enclosure and obedience. No money. No men. No movement. No problem.

Following orders, that was the challenge.

“When I first arrived, the novice mistress (supervisor) would ask me, ‘Would you like to do this?’ I'd say, ‘No thanks, I don't think I want to do that,’” Sister Christina says, eyes widening. “I soon learned I was expected to do it.”

Mother Jude smiles at the story. “It took me a long time to understand her,” says the mother abbess, who entered the monastery in 1966 at the age of 22.

It wasn't just Sister Christina; many young women who enter the monastery have difficulty with obedience, says Mother Jude, and it causes friction between the older and younger women.

The older Poor Clares -- the average age is in the 50s -- are used to the strict schedule that revolves around prayer and work, the close quarters, the silence.

Gen-Xers, however, come from a fast-paced life. They often have less of a family structure than the older nuns did and so might not have been taught skills -- such as ironing or proper table manners -- that the older nuns were.

“It's not that we're being obstinate,” Sister Christina says. “We just don't know it.”

The community includes four women in their 30s and 40s who are in the formation stages of becoming a nun. A 19-year-old from Colorado is expected to enter the monastery in January.

While some orders around the country report an increase in the number of young women entering monasteries, Cleveland does not.

“In the '50s, they were coming in droves,” says Sister Marietta Starrie, director of the Office for Religious in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese. “They aren't doing that now.

“In general, we have seen no real surge in our diocese.”

Sister Christina falls occasionally, both on her Blade Runners -- a possession she is allowed for recreation purposes -- and in her spiritual life.

“Faith is that constant call to become more like Christ. To be constantly giving yourself like Christ, to empty yourself, that's hard to do.”

“Plenty of times,” she says, she has wanted to walk out of the monastery and board a bus to New York.

“Once I calmed down and thought clearly, I realized it wasn't as bad as I thought,” she says.

“When I'm at peace, I don't want to leave. I want to be here. That is a sign to me, a sign that God is in that decision and that this is the place where I'm supposed to be.”

(Janet Fillmore writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)

"The Painted Veil" and the Vocation of Love

2007-05-23T21:51:00.000-04:00

There are a handful of movies out there about nuns, and many movies about marriage….but seldom does a film explore both of those vocations at the same time! The wonderful film adaptation of Maugham’s novel The Painted Veil beautifully and maturely delves into the difficulties and joys of marriage and, to a lesser extent, the religious life.

In brief, The Painted Veil is the story of how a community of hospital sisters in rural 1920s China brings joy into the lives of a bitter English doctor and his selfish wife. If you never thought you’d get to see Diana Rigg in a religious habit after she made the mediocre film adaptation of In This House of Brede, think again! She plays the Mother Abbess!

I won’t delve into the plot all that much, as I really advise you to rent the movie. However, I would like to comment that one of the best things about the film is its realistic depiction of both vocations. As you will see when you watch the movie, there really isn’t any romance in the couple’s marriage, but there is love. This love ultimately forces them to patiently deal with each other’s annoying idiosyncrasies, as unromantic and dull as it may be. Nonetheless, it is this “true love”- free of any hackneyed meaning of the phrase- that causes their marriage and indeed all lasting marriages to endure.

Similarly, there is a part in the movie where the Mother Abbess explains the nature of her spiritual marriage to Jesus. Indeed, when she was a young girl and first felt called to the religious life, she felt passionately romantic towards God. Such romantic feelings provided her with initial endurance to pursue her vocation as a sister. However, as the Mother Abbess got older, she entered a time of spiritual dryness in which she felt as if God didn’t seem to respond to her prayers. The Mother Abbess made a comment along the lines of, “we’ve become like a pair of old spouses, who spend their lives sitting next to each other on a couch, never uttering a word to each other…but we’ve become so comfortable sitting on that couch, that neither of us wants to get up.”

From what I’ve been told by many nuns, this is not far from the truth. Indeed, I remember some of the Poor Clares telling us at retreat last year that there are certainly times that they feel like quitting their way of life and walking out of the cloister. However, no matter how frustrated they get, they know that they can never abandon their way of life because they love Jesus too much to do otherwise.

If I’ve made a mistake in some of my blogposts over the past couple of years, perhaps it has been over-romanticizing the religious life- making it seem as though being a nun or a sister is a perpetual romance with Jesus. As both married people and nuns can attest to, marriage to an earthly bridegroom or the Bridegroom isn’t a perpetual romance, but it is a perpetual love story.

The Painted Veil is one of the most beautiful, thought-provoking films I’ve ever seen! Watching it caused me to thank Jesus for calling people in all states of life….single, married, and the religious life…to follow the vocation of love!

Comments on "20/20's" Cloistered Nuns News Segment

2007-05-12T20:40:00.000-04:00

I wouldn’t be fulfilling my “Canticle of Chiara” duties unless I commented on Friday evening’s 20/20 segment on cloistered nuns! For those who didn’t see the show, a written story can be found here along with a shorter video synopsis of the segment.

The bottom line is that I was slightly disappointed. I think that I was so incredibly excited that my Poor Clares were going to be on TV that my initial expectations were a bit too high. Needless to say, there were parts of the segment that were really well done, especially for a secular news program. However, I think that 20/20 angled the story as to not focus enough on the joy associated with cloistered life….instead, it seemed to take a sensationalist “Oh my goodness, look at how severe this way of life is!” approach! When the late Mother Mary Francis of Roswell, NM tried to respond to Diane Sawyer’s question as to how cloistered nuns are helping those in the world, Sawyer seemed to respond with skepticism. To make matters worse, 20/20 didn’t seem to be interested in exploring the power of prayer by the cloistered nuns….it rather focused on the negative aspects of cloistered life. Indeed, negativity was abundant throughout the segment; in one conversation, Sawyer accused the nuns of running to the cloister because they had somehow failed in the outside world. Obviously Sawyer neglected to research the life of the Poor Clares’ Foundress! Kudos to the nun who responded to Sawyer by saying, “in most cases, it is success that leads us to the cloister.”

I did like the various interviews with the four or five wonderful girls who went on the vocation retreat with the nuns. Their candid answers to Sawyer’s queries evoked the many emotions that come with discerning the religious life. If any of those retretants happen to be reading this blog right now, I’d like to welcome you to the “Canticle of Chiara” community!

Even though the segment had its flaws, ABC at least made a good effort at trying to explore the factors behind the growing number of cloistered vocations; thank you very much for airing the segment and for choosing to interview the wonderful Poor Clare Colettines!

I would now like to share with my readers some of the most insightful comments that were left in response to the article associated with this news segment. Also, further comments here regarding the show/article are welcomed and encouraged!

"If you believe in the power of prayer, then contemplatives heal the world by praying for it just as those who minister materially. And through their writings and artwork and by providing a place of retreat for lay people, they do teach and heal. I have also noticed that people object much more to women living the monastic life than they do to men who do the same thing. Living in the world is easy; giving your life wholly to God is not, and not everyone has a vocation for it.
Posted by:StMaugham May-11"

"It is women like these that keep this world a little safer. their prayers are needed and make huge differences in lives. God Bless them!
Posted by:salaswell May-11"

"Think how much better this world would be if we all took time to pray for one another. Even if you don't believe in God or the power of prayer, at the very least, it forces us to think of someone else and takes outside of our own selfish wants and desires for a bit. For anyone who believes this vocation is a selfish one, I challenge you to sit very still and in silence, think of someone you know who is in need, consider what might help them, consider how you might enable that help, do nothing for 15 minutes but concentrate on what this OTHER person needs. I dare say you will be changed by the experience. Rather than speaking off the cuff, give their life a teeny, tiny try... in other words, walk in their world for only 15 minutes. Then see if you don't have a different sort of feeling about what they do with their lives.
Posted by:Delouwa May-11"

"...I can tell you that many do indeed do much to help the poor and otherwise. I am very proud of those women, I've met some of them and they are very grounded, in fact my Aunt is one of them from that location, I've been there. They are very cool and have wonderful spirits. We should be so lucky as to have so much faith and purity in our lives. These are not fanatics self mutilating, and doing other cult things, these are women who have devoted their lives to serving.
Posted by:KMart1977 12:11 AM"

"OM! I thoroughly enjoyed this story because of its deep spiritual content. Spirituality is all too often taken up as a fad or fashion when one feels a fancy for it and then dropped as quickly. If we take God to be real then we must act on it, giving our all in order to serve/attain Him or Her. Those who are critical of cloistered nuns, wanting them to be like Mother Teresa, should understand that there are many, many different kinds of callings, all equally holy. Of course the prayers and sacrifices of these nuns help the world! That teaching has been in the East since time immemorial. This two hour special was the best 20/20 ever did.
Posted by:Upasani_Dass 2:17 AM"

"But I loved how the sisters stood up to Diane Sawyer though, the sisters rocked! She tried to say they only became nuns after bad experiences and then she tried to throw in a bible story to gain rapport, too little too late. She kept trying to portray them as unhappy to serve God and they gave her nothing, it was awesome. And then she was going on and on about how chastity is unheard of because it's 2007, sad, God is timeless and so is virtue. There are millions of people being virtuous and I wish the media would stop pretending like chaste people don't exist.
Posted by:reddiamondfilms 3:04 AM"

"Diane Sawyer may have presumably forgotten some Sunday school lessons. Hopefully, the following scriptural excerpts will jog her memory: Matthew 4:1-2 "Then Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights..." Luke 9:18 "One day when Jesus was praying in seclusion and his disciples were with him..." Matthew 6:6 "Whenever you pray, go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private."
Posted by:IndyProdigalSon 8:17 AM"

"I admire their dedication to prayer and to worshipping and serving God full heartedly - it may not be a lifestyle we all understand - but one has to admire their all out commitment to God & prayer - at cost of self comfort - self pleasure - which in this day and age of selfishlessness/greed/material overabundance and disgregard for God - prayer - faith and others - is inspiring to dedicate oneself - even if in just a small and modest way - more seriously to prayer - a relationship with God - and serving others (through prayer, service, kindness) whether they know or appreciate it or not.
Posted by:LBpry4lly 10:39 AM"

These women are doing an extremely noble thing. Christians are all supposed to answer to the call of God with a particular vocation that we have been given. The Church is the body of believers and just like a human body, each member has a particular function to keep the whole body running efficiently. Each person has a certain calling and these women were called to a life of prayer and sacrifice. In the Bible Jesus speaks about prayer and fasting playing a HUGE part in regards to the sanctity of the world and the fulfillment of God's kingdom. He said if one has enough faith, prays and fasts then one has the power to move mountains. Just think of the amount of mercy God has granted to this world because of people such as these nuns. God bless them ! Only in heaven will we then get to see how much their prayers and sacrifices have benefited the world !
Posted by:mortonil 8:25 PM

"As a family member of a Poor Clare nun, I can tell you first hand she wasn't running away from anything, and the life she lives is a very selfless life. The goodness we get from their prayers and sacrifice is amazing. These ladies come from all types of families, they have likes and dislikes, they are human after all. The big difference is they make the choice to respond to the call to live solely for God and prayer. The Foundress of the Roswell Foundation was a beautiful woman of life and love, she lived, died and is buried there and we are blessed to have known her. Seeing things through the words and thoughts of a Poor Clare makes you appreciate what you take for granted, nothing goes unnoticed because they are so focused and at peace with the beauty of everything that comes through God. FYI, they also appreciate prayers said for them. Thanks ABC for doing this story. hardevibri
Posted by:PCNun 1:36 PM"

"I was one of the retreatants interviewed during this segment, and was very struck by Diane Sawyer's question about turning to the monastery because of something the world has broken. I loved the response - it's not just failure that leads people to God, but also success ! I can tell you from experience that the Church is prudent, and that part of the mission of a vocations director or novice mistress is to discern the heart of the discerning postulant. I believe there are very *few* religious who have gone all the way to solemn profession as a flight from the world - that kind of vocation is pretty easy to see through, and does not endure. This world breaks a lot of things, and this world puts a lot of things whole. In some ways, we might say the same about God. Many of us spend our lives raging against God for answers about the "broken" things inside us, without taking the time to listen in stillness to His answers. One thing the retreat weekend taught me, from listening to other nuns' spiritual journeys, as well as spending a lot of time in silence with the Lord, is that God's call is greater than any brokenness, and His love and wisdom supply what our feeble human strength lacks. e.e. cummings wrote, "it's always ourselves that we find in the sea." I would say, it's always ourselves that we find in the monastery. The best and the worst of ourselves. There is no running away from God. Even if a woman enters the monastery full of rage, or doubt or depression or dreaminess, if God wants her there, all of that other stuff becomes a lot easier to bear, and far less important. Thank you, 20/20, for showing this face of Catholicism, a face of love and dedication beyond most human comprehension, to a wounded world, that can really only reflect brokenness because it itself is broken.
Posted by:romaryka 2:50 AM"

POOR CLARE COLETTINES ON NATIONAL NEWS!!!!!

2007-05-11T21:17:00.000-04:00

St. Clare, Patroness of Television, you SURE HAVE been praying for us!

It's 9:15 on Friday night, and if you have to be sitting in front of a TV, turn onto ABC NOW, because my POOR CLARE COLETTINES (Yes, the COLETTINES!!!!) are going to be on 20/20!!!!!! Special thanks to Emily of the Holy Whapping for sending me this link to the story that will soon be aired on the show.

After the show airs, I'll try and find a link to the video!

PAX ET BONUM!

A "Must Read" by Mother Mary Francis!

2007-05-08T20:45:00.000-04:00

Before I branch out and do some profiles on non-Poor Clare monasteries, I wanted to do the Poor Clare Colettines some justice and provide you with the text from their vocation booklets. Even if you don’t have any intention on becoming a Poor Clare or entering the religious life, I highly recommend that you read it. The following overview of their cloistered vocation and how their lives are an act of love for us in the world explains in part why I love the Poor Clares so much and why I dedicate so many posts on this blog to them! You’ll also enjoy the following excerpt because it was written by the late Mother Mary Francis, one of the most exceptional Poor Clare Colettine authors!

The Cloistered Poor Clare Nuns
by Mother Francis, PCC, Abbess

Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Roswell, NM

Perhaps no life has been more subjected to misinterpretation than the cloistered contemplative life. A cloister is variously thought to be: a haven for those unfit to live in the world; a refuge for the frustrated; a sinecure for those unwilling to take on the burdens of the active apostolate.

A Poor Clare monastery is decidedly none of these. The nuns are called Poor Clares because they are poor, living by the work of their hands and their minds and on the alms of the faithful, and because they are followers and daughters of one of the most charming women who ever lived. Her name was Clare. Clare of Assisi.

The whole testament of history proves that no enduring work of a great man is begun or fulfilled without the cooperation o a great woman. And no woman ever appreciated the ideals of a great man more profoundly and comprehensively than St. Clare understood the ideals of St. Francis of Assisi.

In a medieval society that was suffocating in the close quarters of materialism and gagging on surfeit, Francis came preaching the beauty of evangelical poverty. Clare listened.

Into the chaos of unending wars and petty rivalries, the "little poor man of Assisi," as he came to be called, brought this gentle benediction: "May the Lord give you peace."Clare understood.

Where ambitions seethed and men were ruthless in their quest for power, Francis begged as a favor to be considered the least of men. Clare caught his inspiration.

Like the Divine Child held in the arms of old Simeon and prophesied to be a sign of contradiction Francis of Assisi came with a form of life that cut through the morass of war and hatred and worldliness. He walked at right angles to all that characterized his age. He was a sign of contradiction.

Clare was seventeen when she heard Francis preach of the love of God and evangelical poverty with such burning sincerity that the richest young man in Assisi promptly gave away his fortune to the poor and ran after him, that a scholar and canon came to learn a better wisdom from Francis, and that glittering knights threw down their swords to take up the weapons of God as Francis taught them.

It was the beginning of the Franciscan Movement of the thirteenth century and the inauguration of the Franciscan Order, which is the largest in the Church today and which God himself promised Francis would endure to the end of time.

But what of Clare? She was beautiful. She was rich. She could not preach with Francis in the streets. She could not beg her bread from door to door as his followers did. She could not be a sign of contradiction to the world in the same manner that he was. So Clare went to him and told him of God;s summons in her soul, asking him what to do. Francis told her. And that was the beginning of his Second Franciscan Order, the cloistered Poor Ladies who were later to be known familiarly as the Poor Clares.

Why did Assisi's loveliest debutante of 1212 want to lock herself up in a cloister? Why did laughing, singing, sought-after Clare want to live in silence and prayer? Why did a girl whose home was a castle desire to be poor, to live by the work of her hands and the alms of the faithful?

What the world calls "everything," Clare assuredly had. It was not enough. Her heart was too great to be filled with less than the whole. She simply plunged herself into the Heart of God. There she could fulfill her destiny. There she would be another sign of contradiction to those who look for happiness everywhere except in God.

Clare was scarcely a social misfit. She was definitely not neurotic, nor was her pretty sister, Agnes, who became her first follower. It required an extraordinary fortitude for two thirteenth-century girls to stand firm against their raging relatives, their indignant friends, their baffled suitors. It takes the same courage today, not to "talk down," but to live down the objections of those who demand that talented young girls do something more "useful," than loving God and being His immediately, directly and utterly.

Certainly Clare was not a frustrated young woman. She could have had everything the world calls good, but it was not good enough for her. She preferred what God calls everlasting good and realized her own full capacities as so great a woman could never otherwise have done.

Lazy? A cloister sinecure? Clare had grown up surrounded by servants, but she wrote in her Rule that her nuns were to consider work as "a grace." And they were expected to use the grace persistently.

The closer a soul draws to God, the more entirely she is dedicated to Him, the more she radiates God. The poet has declared that Our Lady "had this one work to do / let all God's grace shine through."

So has the contemplative Poor Clare. Her mission is to be God's, to let Him shine through her on all the darkness of misery which shrouds the world. And as in St. Clare's age, so in our own, people understand this without any need to reason about it - the common people, the suffering, the sinners.

They flock to Clare's poor little monastery in the thirteenth century to ask her prayers for their sick, their prodigals, and their friends. In our century, the monastery doorbell is rung by the lonely, the discouraged, the despairing. The monastery mailbox holds wistful appeals for compassion and understanding pathetic confessions of mistakes.These people take it for granted that the Poor Clares, cloistered from the world, are closer to its heartaches and miseries than any others simply because they live hidden in the embrace of God.To understand the contemplative vocation properly is to know that its apostolate is universal and timeless.

The Poor Clare has stepped apart from the world and has thus got a better perspective on it. She has left the world not because she hates it, but because she wants to love more purely and more realistically.Not only the wars of nations and the scourge of evil leaders of men are her concern, but the small bickerings that threaten the peace of the family down the street.She does not beg the light and grace of the Holy Spirit only for the workings of the United Nations, but for that one little boy in Schenectady whose mother is worried that he may flunk in arithmetic.

St. Francis of Assisi was a great contemplative but God asked him to sacrifice his live of silence and retirement to preach the Gospel, to let his contemplation overflow into his active apostolate. St. Clare of Assisi had a burning missionary heart, but God asked her to channel all its energies into the love and reparation of the cloister.

Her mission field was the whole world, though she would never see the world. Together their lives were a unit, and each the perfect complement of the other. It needs a great heart to fashion a contemplative, a capacity for love so wide and deep that only God can fill it, a missionary zeal so ardent that no fewer than all the souls in the world can satisfy it.

Christian motherhood and consecrated virginity form a marvelous entity. Each is a fulfillment, and each a symbol. The Sacrament of Matrimony symbolizes the union of Christ with Holy Church. Consecrated virginity symbolizes the union of Christ with the souls of the blessed. Each is a positive thing, and virginity is no more a mere negation of motherhood than human maternity is a mere negation of virginity.

A Poor Clare understands that her solemn vow of chastity is not just a pledge to abstain from the pleasures of carnal love, nor a promise to refrain from normal affective fulfillment, but a positive flaming, soaring commitment of her womanhood to a Divine Lover.

Because her consecrated virginity lifts her to a plane above carnal love, her affective responses are only the more tender for being the more purified. Womanhood is fulfilled quite as perfectly in a life of virginal chastity as in human marriage. And that is why the Church's ancient and elaborate ceremonial for the consecration of virgins has for its climax the placing of a wedding ring on the finger of the newly professed nun. "Receive this ring that marks you as a bride of God." She is wedded to Christ.

And the union is fecund with souls.The cloistered Poor Clare is destined for the spiritual maternity of countless souls. The more perfect her life of love and reparation, the more fruitful is her motherhood of souls. Consecrated virginity generates tenderness and compassion beyond what carnal love can attain, simply because it is not limited. Virginal love partakes of the boundlessness of Christ's love for souls. A Poor Clare's Divine Lover has a heart of infinite Love. It is to be expected that her own capacity for love will go on increasing as she grows in union with Him.

There is nothing stifling to the human personality in consecrated virginity. The Poor Clare's vow of chastity is not only an oblation, but also a sublimation. Her love is released on a plane above the relations of conjugal love in spiritual maternity. Her ambition is to mother all the souls in the world.

Postulants are received between the ages of eighteen and thirty, with exceptions sometimes made where there is good reason. Experience has long proved that any normal woman of average strength and good health, free from disease or serious physical defect, can observe the Rule of St. Clare without detriment to her health. Indeed, the regularity of the life in including simple foods and outdoor work is conducive to good health.

A high school education is required. A college education or experience in some specialized work can be an asset. No financial dowry is required, as this was never the mind of St. Francis or St. Clare; but a young woman is expected to bring the clothing and small accessories she will need as a postulant, if she is able to do so.

No one is ever refused admittance for lack of means, but postulants are to bring a willing heart, a teachable mind, and a pliable character. These are the desirable dispositions. Progressively to fathom the contemplative vocation requires the full effort of mind, heart and will. The ability to be taught is of itself a talent - meant to be multiplied.

What stirs in the heart of a young woman called to the cloister? Or, how does she know she is called? The answers are as numerous and varied as those who are called. Maybe she read about the Poor Clares. Perhaps she visited at the parlor grille of a monastery, or saw a Profession ceremony.

It may have been that she knelt in the public chapel and heard the chants of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Divine Office, flowing on and on in a river of prayer. Or, it may be that she knows next to nothing about the Poor Clares. And yet that small insistence in the soul remains. I? Impossible! Or -- is it?

A vocation is a free gift of God. It is offered, not forced. God invites, but He does not compel; and eternity will reveal how many vocations have been lost or disregarded. The rich young man in the Gospel was assuredly called, but he did not respond. He had a vocation, but he chose not to follow it. The Gospel says that ". . .he went away sad." (Mt. 19:22). Doubtless he remained sad for the rest of his life.

How does one protect her vocation? Obviously, only with the strength of Christ who is offered daily on the altar at Holy Mass, only with the Bread of the strong which is Holy Communion. God does not choose a young woman because she is good, but because He is so good. The one who thinks herself qualified to be a great success in the cloister is probably the one who will fail, whereas the one who is confused and humbled at the idea that God should look towards such poor material as herself for the fashioning of a contemplative nun is likely to persevere.

"The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (Jn. 3:8). God is the master of His works and His plans. Often we cannot know what He is doing or why He is doing it. But He knows. It is enough to be convinced of that, and to listen for His voice. Listening is a great and delicate art, and scarcely to be learned in the midst of clangor.

The Holy Spirit speaks in a whisper. It is all too easy to drown out His voice, but in the quiet watches of the soul, His invitation is heard.

"Giving the bud, I give the flower." St. Clare love to call herself the "little plant" of St. Francis. Each postulant is a new little plant of Francis and Clare. She is part of the perennial springtime of the Franciscan order, and in her religious life the Franciscan ideal will have one more flowering."And not only about us did our most blessed Father prophesy those things, but also about the others who were to come afterwards in the holy vocation in which the Lord has called us," declared St. Clare. From heaven, her watchful love beams down upon her youngest daughters, her new postulants.

When St. Clare left her castle home in the blackness of night that Palm Sunday of 1212, she was setting out to become the first of St. Francis' "Poor Ladies," nuns dedicated to a life of prayer and penance, nuns most intimately united with the Divine Lover in the silence of the cloister. She dressed for the occasion. For such a bridegroom, she wore her finest gown, the rarest of her many jewels. And then, because they were only symbols of reality, she cast them all away. Francis cut her lovely hair, preserved to this day in the precious reliquary in Assisi. The tangled silken ropes of that long hair give their mute testimony to holocaust: her crowning glory laid down at the feet of her Prince.

Postulancy in the Order of St. Clare today is a year of preparation for that kind of total giving which will be climaxed in solemn Profession some six years later.

The noviceship of one or two years which follows upon postulancy is a time of refining and deeper evaluation, of profounder preparation and expectation. Now the life of prayer and penance is embraced in fuller detail. And because a life of prayer and penance is a life which generates joy and peace which the world cannot bestow or understand or take away, the day that a postulant assumes a more specifically religious garb similar to that of the professed nuns and becomes a novice, is a day of special rejoicing in the monastery. The Order of St. Clare has one more young penitent eager to give herself to God and to spend herself for souls.

Why was Christ crucified? For the love of mankind. For the same reason, the Poor Clare dedicates herself to a life of prayer and penance. By a strange irony, pleasures quickly turn to ashes, and leave only sorrow and frustration in the heart, but sacrifice spreads a perfume of joy in the soul and over the world.

During the time of noviceship, the young Poor Clare is preparing for the great day of her vows. She learns the enduring paradoxes of religious life: how one must lose one's life to find it, be humbled in order to be exalted, become as a little child to reach spiritual adulthood. The springtime season looks always to the summering of the fuller commitment which is the making of temporary vows.

"Christ has set a seal upon my face that I should admit no other lover but Him," sings the young professed Poor Clare. First Profession of vows is made for a period of three years; but in the heart of Christ's bride, it is already made forever. No one makes provisional offering of herself to God. No one promises to be His - for awhile. Holy Church wisely legislates that temporary vows precede the total commitment of the religious by solemn vows, but she does not legislate for the heart. The young professed is free to whisper to Christ in the inner court of her being, "Forever!" On the day of her solemn vows, she will make this a public declaration to be accepted and sealed by the Church.In exchanging the white veil of the novice for the black veil of the professed nun, the young Poor Clare assumes her full responsibilities as a member of her Order: prayer, penance, the spiritual motherhood of souls.

The vows bring a marvelous enrichment. One is truly bound to Christ now with a fourfold and very dear covenant. To the ordinary three vows of religion, the cloistered Poor Clare adds a fourth, that of enclosure. She promises to live in obedience, in poverty, in virginal chastity, and in enclosure.

Some monasteries have extern sisters to whom is entrusted the outside business of the community and who are permitted to leave the monastery when it is necessary. These do not make the vow of enclosure although they are the special guardians o the cloister by the dedicated and self-sacrificing service they render, and they share fully in the family life of the community. In other monasteries, the external business of the door and telephone is attended by cloistered nuns appointed for this task, as is provided by the Church.

Separated from the world, the Poor Clare is in a better position to love it selflessly and to compassionate its miseries. She has a spiritual perspective on suffering and on souls. And, as the bride of Christ, she has direct access to His listening ear. Being entirely His, she knows He is entirely hers.She prays with the complete confidence of one loved, cherished, chosen. She has enriched her own womanhood by the act of oblation, and is secure in the possession of a Lover more beautiful than all the sons of men.

And Christ is a Lover who will never fail her, never desert her, never grow tired of her. Unlike a woman entering into human wedlock, the novice making the marriage vows of religion can perfectly forecast the future as far as her Bridegroom is concerned. He will be forever faithful, loving, devoted to her. With His grace, she will be so to Him. And out of this union of God and creature will issue blessings for all the world.

For many persons, the day ends when they retire at midnight. For Poor Clares, the day begins when they rise at midnight.The first of the canonical hours of the Divine Office is chanted at midnight while the world around is sleeping or perhaps sinning. Sin loves the cover of night. Prayer goes out into the backstreets of the night to seek out sinners and reclaim them. The night Office is a torch held in the hands of the Poor Clare as her love goes looking down the lanes of the world for the lost, the straying, the despairing, the suffering, the dying.What is this Divine Office, of which the midnight prayer is the first hour? Even among the laity, the breviary is today regaining its place of honor, the place it held in medieval times when kings and queens retired to their private chapels to read it, or generals of armies paced up and down as they recited it before battle.But it is to her priests and contemplative nuns that Holy Church entrusts the Liturgy of the Hours of the Divine Office to be recited officially in her name. Thus Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi, said: "The Church deputes nuns alone among the women consecratated to God for the public prayer which is offered to God in her name. . .and these she binds under grave obligation by law according to their Constitutions to perform this prayer by reciting daily the canonical hours."

Dom Columba Marmion has written powerfully of the grandeur of this Divine Office, explaining how all things are of value only in such measure as they procure God's glory. And while some works, such as literary work, teaching, sweeping, cooking, nursing, working in the garden, have no direct relationship with God's glory, although they give Him glory indirectly when transformed by the love and the intention of the one who performs them, there are other works which procure God's glory directly. "Such," says Dom Columba, "are Holy Mass and the Divine Office. From God's point of view, these works surpass all other works." It is to them that Poor Clares are primarily dedicated.

The work which re-creates a nun for more prayer is also the complement of prayer which ennobles and gives significance to her work. Whether she bakes bread or writes books, sweeps the cloister or paints in oils, patches habits or plays the organ, the Poor Clare strives to remain united to God. All or any of these works have meaning only insofar as they are the functions of her obedience, the sacrifice of her hands or mind, the overflow of her prayer. "The prayer of an obedient person," said St. Colette of Corbie, "is worth more than one hundred thousand prayers of a disobedient one."It is thus that a basketful of weeds pulled up from the cloister garden may shine as gold and curl as incense in the sight of the Lord.The Poor Clare works because she is poor, and the poor must always work hard. She works because she is obedient, and all her works are given to her in obedience. She works because she is vowed to chastity, and work is the safeguard of chastity.She works because she is enclosed to pray for the world and to do penance for the world. Ad she knows that work was the first of the penances imposed by God on fallen man. "By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat." (Gen. 3:19).The Poor Clare is glad to do so; and what her own works will not supply, she knows that the alms of the faithful who understand her life will supply. "Let them confidently send for alms," wrote St. Clare in her Rule. "Not should they feel hesitant, since the Lord made himself poor in this world for us."It is a hidden life, this life of the cloister. It is a replica of the life of the God-Man who for thirty years worked in a carpenter shop and prayed on the mountaintop. And that is why the contemplative life is at once the most limpidly simple of all lives, and the most mysterious. The idea of work being "a grace" was a novel one in St. Clare's thirteenth century. It is more novel in our century. A thousand labor-saving devices, bewildering arrays of switches, push buttons, and foot pedals seem to be constituted to abolish work. Shorter hours, higher wages, compensations.

The Poor Clares would like longer hours for accomplishing all the works of a monastic labor schedule. Wages? St. Francis was mockingly asked to sell a drop of his sweat. The Saint smilingly refused the prospective buyer, saying that his sweat was already sold to God for a very great price.Compensations? An eternal reward for the small work done in obedience could not be considered meager. And work is itself a reward. Work is good. Work is a grace. To season both prayer and work, there is the daily hour of recreation.

Mother Mary Francis, PCC

St. Clare's Reflections on Mary

2007-05-06T18:14:00.000-04:00

Every girl knows that one of the best ways to a man's heart is through his mother! St. Clare knew that very well when she "married" our Lord, and so she had a very strong devotion to Our Lady! In May, the month that is special to Our Lady, I'd like to share with you this reflection by St. Clare on Mary. This reflection was written by the Poor Clare Nuns of Galway Ireland:

"Cling to His Most Sweet Mother". For St. Clare, Our Lady is always mentioned in relation to Jesus. He is always the focus of her attention, but, being a woman deeply in love, she understands the depths of the love that exists between them. Herself being the 'mother' of at least 50 sisters in her monastery, she knows what is involved in this role. A mother always has time for all her children and has all their interests at heart. She is the unifying one in the family, the place of security when we are afraid, the one we can always turn to, no matter how much we think others may not love us, or indeed, that we may not love ourselves! Jesus gave her to us as our mother in a special way on the Cross and so, St. Clare knows that not only can we approach her in complete confidence and know that we will not be turned away, but we can even (and should) "cling" to her. This image of "clinging" conjures up the way a child who has been lost, might cling to its mother when they are reunited. This is his place of security.

In her 3rd letter, St. Clare says, "Cling to His most sweet Mother who carried a Son Whom the heavens could not contain; and yet she carried Him in the enclosure of her holy womb and held Him on her virginal lap." She marvels that He who is the Lord of the universe not only deigned to humble Himself to become man, but He submitted Himself to voluntarily living in Our Lady's womb - in total dependence upon her. In telling us to "cling" to His mother, she is suggesting that we allow ourselves to be nurtured by her, as Jesus was. To pray with this method, is to develop a relationship with Our Lady and to really turn to her as a mother. If we "cling" to her, as Clare suggests, she won't let us down.

Update

2007-04-25T21:52:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends of "Canticle of Chiara"

Since you haven't heard from me in a while, many of you might be wondering whether I made like St. Clare and became cloistered! In fact, the real reason for my lack of posting has been that I'm in the process of moving to a new city and haven't had internet access for the past couple of weeks (which also explains why the title bar and side bar pictures were down).

I'm still getting settled in, but should be able to make a post soon! In the meantime, please check out the latest additions to my sidebar; I've added some new blogs to the "Chiara's Friend's" section, added more of my favorite books and movies, and updated the Religious Orders section.

Thank you so much for your love and prayers, and I look forward to posting again soon!

Pax et Bonum,

Chiara :-)