The Right Choice

[Weedy]

The Right Choice

"Knowing that the last day is coming is useful to us, and not
knowing when it is coming is just as useful. Thus, we may have no fear
of that day, but even love it. For that day increases the task of
unbelievers but ends the task of believers.
It is now in your power to choose which of these possibilities you
desire, before that day arrives. But once it has arrived, this
possibility will no longer exist. So make your choice now, while you
have time, because God mercifully delays what he conceals."
--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 36, 1

Prayer: O happy home! O land of safety! May I dwell there in security!
From there I shall not seek to depart, for no safer place shall I
find.
--St. Augustine--Sermon 217, 2

===============
October 24th - St. Antony Claret
(Also known as Antonio María Claret y Clará)

Memorial 24 October
formerly 23 October

d. 1870
Archbishop of Santiago De Cuba, Founder of The Missionary Sons of The
Immaculate Heart of Mary

Despite the imposing form in which his name is sometimes
presented-Antonio Maria Claret y Clara--this holy archbishop was of
relatively humble origin. Born in 1807 at Salient in the north of
Spain, he practised his father's trade of cloth-weaving, and in his
spare time learned Latin and printing. When he was twenty-two he
entered the seminary at Vich, where he was ordained priest in 1835.
After a few years he again began to entertain the idea of a Carthusian
vocation, but as that seemed to be beyond his physical strength, he
proceeded to Rome and eventually entered the Jesuit noviciate with the
idea of consecrating his life to the foreign missions. Here, however,
his health broke down, and he was advised by the Jesuit father general
to return to Spain and busy himself with the evangelization of his
countrymen. This course he adopted and for ten years he was engaged in
giving missions and retreats throughout Catalonia; he was associated
with Bl. Joachima de Mas in the establishment of the Carmelites of
Charity. His zeal inspired other priests to join in the same work; and
in 1849 he was mainly instrumental in founding the congregation of
Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The institute,
commonly known by his name as “The Claretians”, has spread and
flourished, not only in Spain, but in the Americas and beyond.

Almost immediately after this great work had been inaugurated,
Father Claret was appointed archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. The task
was one of exceptional difficulty; in which his efforts to bring about
much-needed reforms were resisted by a powerful organization of
disorderly and anti-Christian fanatics. Several attempts were made
upon his life, and in one instance a serious wound was inflicted by an
assassin infuriated by the loss of his mistress who had been won back
to an honest life. It was the intercession of the archbishop himself
which obtained the remission of the death sentence.

In 1857 St. Antony returned to Spain to become confessor to Queen
Isabella II. He resigned his Cuban archbishopric, but avoided
residence at the court for any longer than his official duties
required, devoting himself to missionary work and the diffusion of
good literature, especially in his native Catalan. To him Spain owes
the foundation of the Libreria Religiosa in Barcelona, which has
exerted immense influence in reviving a true Catholic spirit. In the
course of his life St. Antony is said to have preached 10,000 sermons
and to have published 200 books or pamphlets for the instruction and
edification of clergy and people. While rector of the Escorial he
established a science laboratory, a museum of natural history, schools
of music and languages, and other foundations. His continual union
with God was rewarded by many supernatural graces not only in the way
of ecstasies and the gift of prophecy, but also by the miraculous cure
of bodily diseases.

Political conditions in Spain and the queen’s attitude towards the
Holy See made St. Antony’s position very difficult, and in the
revolution of 1868 he was exiled together with the queen. He then went
to Rome, where he made his influence felt in promoting the definition
of papal infallibility. An attempt was made to bring him back to
Spain, but it failed a fatal illness came upon him in France, and he
went to his reward in the Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide, near
Narbonne, on October 24, 1870. He was canonized in 1950
.
See J. Echevarria, Reminiscences of Antony Claret (5938), and D.
Sargent, The Assignments of Antonio Claret (1950), both published in
U.S.A. There are many biographies in Spanish and Catalan; those by L.
Clotet (1882) and J. Blanch (1924) have been translated into French.
The decree of canonization in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xliv
(1952), pp. 345-358, includes a sketch of his life.


Saint Quote:
To prefer man to God: A strange and unhappy slavery is that of a man
who seeks to please other men. I vow never to do anything nor to leave
anything undone because of what people think. This will set up in me a
great interior peace.
—St. Claude de la Colombiere

Bible Quote:
"I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and
the stars you set firm--what are human beings that you spare a thought
for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him? Yet you have
made him a little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and
beauty, and made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things
under his feet..." Psalm 8:3-6

<><><><>
O Jesus, Sweetest Love,
Come Thou to Me (1940)
By Fr Francis Xavier Lasance (1860–1946)

O JESUS, sweetest Love, come Thou to me.
Come down in all Thy beauty unto me.
Thou Who didst die for longing of me
And never, never more depart from me.
Free me, O beauteous God, from all but Thee;
Sever the chain that holds me back from Thee;
Call me, O tender Love, I cry to Thee;
Thou art my all! O bind me close to Thee.
O suffering Love, Who hast so loved me;
O patient Love, Who wearies not of me.
Thou alone O Love! Thou weary not of me!
Ah! Weary not till I am lost in Thee,
Nay, weary not, till I am found in Thee.
Amen