Quote/s of the Day – 12 August – “Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – Memorial of St Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Ps 44:8
For though you, more than others, could have enjoyed the magnificence and honor and dignity of the world, and could have been married to the illustrious Caesar with splendor befitting you and His Excellency, you have rejected all these things and have chosen with your whole heart and soul a life of holy poverty and destitution. Thus you took a spouse of more noble lineage, who will keep your virginity ever unspotted and unsullied, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you have loved Him, you shall be chaste;
when you have touched Him, you shall become pure;
when you have accepted Him, you shall be a virgin.
Whose power is stronger,
Whose generosity is more abundant,
Whose appearance more beautiful,
Whose love more tender,
Whose courtesy more gracious.
In whose embrace you are already caught up;
who has adorned your breast with precious stones
and has placed priceless pearls in your ears
and has surrounded you with sparkling gems
as though blossoms of springtime
and placed on your head a golden crown
as a sign to all of your holiness.
O blessed poverty, who bestows eternal riches on those who love and
embrace her!
O holy poverty, to those who possess and desire you
God promises the kingdom of heaven and offers, indeed, eternal glory and
blessed life!
O God-centered poverty, whom the Lord Jesus Christ who ruled and now
rules heaven and earth, who spoke and things were made, condescended to
embrace before all else!
Be filled with a remarkable happiness and a spiritual joy! Contempt of the world has pleased you more than its honors, poverty more than earthly riches, and you have sought to store up greater treasures in heaven rather than on earth, where rust does not consume nor moth destroy, nor thieves break in and steal. Your reward then, is very great in heaven! And you have truly merited to be called a sister, spouse, and mother of the
Son of the Father of the Most High and of the glorious Virgin.
What a great laudable exchange: to leave the things of time for those of eternity, to choose the things of heaven for the goods of earth, to receive the hundred-fold in place of one, and to possess a blessed and eternal life.
She was the first flower in Francis’ garden, and she shone like a radiant star.
St. Bonaventure on Clare
AnaStpaul 