CALENDARIUM ROMANUM FORMA ORDINARIA

Man was made to serve his Creator. And what could be more just than that you should serve him by whom you were created, without whom you cannot exist? And what could be more blessed or more sublime than to serve him? To serve him is to reign. “I will not serve,” (Jer 2,20) man says to his Creator. “Then I will serve you,” his Creator says to man. “You sit down, I will minister, I will wash your feet… Yes, O Christ, “good and faithful servant,” (Mt 25,21). You have served indeed, you have served with all loyalty and trustworthiness, you have served with all patience and endurance. Not lukewarmly, for you have exulted as a giant to run the course of obedience, (Ps 19[18],6); not fictitiously, for after so many and so great exertions you have gone further and spent your soul too; not complainingly, for you did not open your mouth when, innocent, you were scourged (Is 53,7). It is written and it is justly so: “The servant who knew his master’s will and did not act worthily will be beaten with many stripes.” (Lk 12,47). But what has this Slave done, I ask, that is not worthy? What is there he ought to have done and has not done? “He has done all things well,” those who observed what he did exclaim, “he has made the deaf hear and the dumb speak,” (Mk 7,37). He has done everything that was worthy of himself; how is it then that he has suffered thus everything unworthy! He bared his back to scourging and was flogged with stripes that were neither few nor gentle, as is shown by the streams of blood that flowed from so many parts of his body: Put to the question with insult and torture, he was like a slave or a thief laid under interrogation to extort a confession of his crime. O detestable pride of man who scorns to serve, pride that could not be reduced to humility by any other example than the servitude, and such servitude, of its Lord!… Indeed you have toiled hard, my Lord, in serving me. It were only just and fair that, at least for the future, you should rest and that your slave, if only because it is his turn, should serve you… You have conquered, Lord, you have conquered the rebel; behold, I surrender to your bonds, I put my neck under your yoke. Only deign to let me serve you, suffer me to toil for you. Accept me as a slave for ever, useless as I am, unless now also your grace always going before and following after be with me and toil with me, (Wis 9,10).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

For forty years, to use the analogy made by Saint Paul (1Cor 9,24), Clare had now run the race in the stadium of very great poverty. She was drawing close to the goal of her heavenly vocation and to the reward promised to the victor… Divine Providence hastened to fulfil what it had in mind for Clare: Christ desired to bring his little, poor one into his royal palace at the close of her pilgrimage. She, on her part, longed with all the impulse of her desire… to behold, reigning on high in his glory, the Christ whose poverty she had imitated on earth… All her daughters had gathered around their mother’s bed… Then, speaking to herself, Claire said to her soul: “Go in all safety; you have a good guide for the road. Go, for he who created you has also sanctified you. He has always kept you and loved you with tender love as a mother loves her child. Blessed are you, O Lord, who have created me!” One of the Sisters asked her to whom she was talking. Clare answered: “To my blessed soul.” Her guide for the journey was not far off. Indeed, turning towards one of her daughters, she said: “Do you see what I can see? – The King of glory!”… Blessed be her departure from this vale of sorrow, a departure that was for her the entry into the life of blessedness! As a reward for her fasts here below she now knows the joy that reigns at the table of the saints. In exchange for her rags and ashes she has entered into possession of the blessedness of the heavenly Kingdom where she is clothed in the robe of eternal glory.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

O very dear Father, what heart is hard enough, stubborn enough not to be moved if it looks at the love that divine Goodness has for it? Love, love, think that you have been loved before being loved. For God, looking within himself, was passionate about the beauty of his creature, and he made it, driven by the ardor of his ineffable charity, solely so that it might have eternal life and enjoy the infinite happiness that He enjoyed in Himself. O ineffable love! how well you have proven this love! Humanity, in losing grace through mortal sin, through disobedience committed against you, Lord, was not deprived of it. Consider, Father, by what means the clemency of the Holy Spirit has restored grace in man; see how the supreme greatness of God has clothed the slavery of our humanity with such abasement, with such profound humility, that all our pride must be confounded. Let the foolish sons of Adam blush to see God humbled down to man, as if man were master of God, and not God master of man; for man is nothing in himself; everything he has, God gave him by grace and not by obligation. (…) Yes, my Father, for the love of God, increase the fire of your desire by wanting to give your life for Jesus crucified, your blood for the sake of his blood. Oh ! how happy would your soul be, and mine too, who loves your salvation so much, if I saw you give your life for the name of the sweet and good Jesus. I pray to the sovereign and eternal Goodness to make us worthy of the happiness of sacrificing our lives to Him. So run generously to accomplish great things for God. (…) Respond to the voice and clemency of the Holy Spirit, who calls you so gently.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team