Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

National Back to School Month

Saints: Saint Clare of Assisi, Virgin (1193/3-1253)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 58:1-16 The Procedure for Receiving Brothers

Mass: Dt 34:1-12; Resp Ps 66; Mt 18:15-20

Come and see the works of God.

I DESPISED THE KINGDOM OF THE WORLD AND ALL WORLDLY FINERY FOR THE LOVE OF MY LORD, JESUS CHRIST, WHOM I HAVE SEEN, WHOM I HAVE LOVED, IN WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, IN WHOM HAS BEEN MY DELIGHT.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

Memories continue to flood in, spurred on today with the commemoration of Saint Clare of Assisi. I recall my first trip to Assisi. It was 2006 as part of the Monastic Formators' Program, and I, along with other religious from the Benedictine tradition (Benedictines and Cistercians primarily, 29 of us I think it was) spent two weeks in Assisi soaking up the glorious atmosphere of the Umbrian countryside and the stomping grounds of Saint Clare and Saint Francis of Assisi. I remember many things. One is rising at first light every morning to run the empty and peaceful streets of Assisi. We stayed just outside the wall that surrounds the city and I would enter the city from the bottom gate and first run up to the Basilica of Saint Francis ... up, up, up. Then meander through the narrow streets, climbing all the stairs I came across, and there are many, then down, here and there, not without going to the Basilica of Saint Clare, on the way up and the way down, for a few trips around the piazza in front. Another visit was September 22, 2010, with my two dear older sisters who came to Rome (one from Indiana, the other from California) to visit me while I was studying. I still have our itinerary, entitled "Italian Sister Act 2010"! We had a wonderful day after taking the early train from Rome to Assisi. We explored every nook and cranny, or at least as many as we could in a day, not without enjoying a good meal with gelato. And other things too. 😊 Saint Clare, please intercede for us. Help us to love Jesus totally. 

Love Him totally who gave Himself totally for your love.

(Saint Clare of Assisi)

Our labor here is brief, but reward is eternal. Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world which passes like a shadow. Do not let the false delights of a deceptive world deceive you.

(Saint Clare of Assisi)

Melancholy is the poison of devotion. When one is in tribulation, it is necessary to be more happy and more joyful because one is nearer to God.

(Saint Clare of Assisi)

Happy is she who is granted a place at the divine banquet, for she may cling with her inmost heart to Him whose beauty eternally awes the blessed hosts of heaven; to Him whose love inspires love, whose contemplation refreshes, whose generosity satisfies, whose gentleness delights, whose memory shines sweetly as the dawn; to Him whose fragrance revives the dead, and whose glorious vision will bless all the citizens of that heavenly Jerusalem. For He is the splendor of eternal glory, the brightness of eternal light, and the mirror without cloud.

(From a letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague by Saint Clare, virgin, in Office of Readings, August 11)

SAINT CLARE OF ASSISI,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Another awesome sunflower from d, this one without bee. 😎

© Gertrude Feick 2021