Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar

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