AUGUST 12, 2024 – ST. CLARE, ABBESS.

• St. Clare of Assisi (1253). Founder or Foundress, Virgin. (Traditional) Foundress of the Poor Clares
• St. Euplius (317). Martyr. (Historical)
• St. Jane Frances de Chantal (1641). Founder or Foundress, Religious, Widow. (Current)

ON Palm Sunday, March 17th, 1212, the Bishop of Assisi left the altar to present a palm to a noble maiden, eighteen years of age, whom bashfulness had detained in her place. This maiden was St. Clare. Already she had learnt from St. Francis to hate the world, and was secretly resolved to live for God alone. The same night she escaped, with one companion, to the Church of the Portiuncula, where she was met by St. Francis and his brethren. At the altar of our Lady, St. Francis cut off her hair, clothed her in his habit of penance, a piece of sackcloth, with his cord as a girdle. Thus was she espoused to Christ. In a miserable house outside Assisi she founded her Order, and was joined by her sister, fourteen years of age, and afterwards by her mother and other noble ladies. They went barefoot, observed perpetual abstinence, constant silence, and perfect poverty. While the Saracen army of Frederick II was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, a body of infidels advanced to assault St. Clare’s convent, which stood outside Assisi. The Saint caused the Blessed Sacrament to be placed in a monstrance, above the gate of the monastery facing the enemy, and kneeling before it, prayed, “Deliver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess to Thee.” A voice from the Host replied, “My protection will never fail you.” A sudden panic seized the infidel host, which took to flight, and the Saint’s convent was spared. During her illness of twenty-eight years, the Holy Eucharist was her only support, and spinning linen for the altar the one work of her hands. She died A.D. 1253, as the Passion was being read, and our Lady and the angels conducted her to glory.

REFLECTION: In a luxurious and effeminate age, the daughters of St. Clare still bear the noble title of poor, and preach by their daily lives the poverty of Jesus Christ.

WORD OF THE DAY

SOLITUDE. In Christian asceticism, the conscious and deliberate withdrawal from creatures in order to be more closely united with God. The beata solitudo (blessed solitude) of monasticism, praised by St. Benedict, is the best known and most widely influential in Christian history. Solitude may be physical or spiritual or both. It is physical (or exterior) insofar as a person withdraws from the company of people and worldly affairs, either permanently, as a hermit or monk; or partially, as every member of a religious institute; or temporarily, as in a retreat. Physical solitude is not escapism or isolationism, but a means to an end, the end being spiritual solitude. In spiritual solitude the soul is alone with God, attentive to him in preference to creatures, even though it has to deal with creatures. (Etym. Latin solitudo, from solus, alone.)

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

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