#stclaude

Blessed Memorial of St Claude de la Colombiere S.J.  (1641-1682) - 15 February

All our life is sown with tiny thorns that produce in our hearts a thousand involuntary movements of hatred, envy, fear, impatience, a thousand little fleeting disappointments, a thousand slight worries, a thousand disturbances that momentarily alter our peace of soul. For example, a word escapes that should not have been spoken. Or someone utters another that offends us. A child inconveniences you. A bore stops you. You don’t like the weather. Your work is not going according to plan. A piece of furniture is broken. A dress is torn. I know that these are not occasions for practicing very heroic virtue. But they would definitely be enough to acquire it if we really wished to. —Claude la Colombiére

St. Claude la Colombiére was one of the most effective preachers of the 17th century. Against this heretical view that humans could not obey God without the intervention of overpowering grace, he celebrated our freedom to choose submission.   Calmly accepting even the tiniest vexations, as he argued above, could be chances to surrender to God.

At 17, Claude said, he overcame a temporary revulsion against religious life and joined the Jesuits at Avignon.    His earliest assignments included teaching boys grammar and tutoring the sons of J. B. Colbert, finance minister to King Louis XIV.   When he turned 33, Claude made his profession as a Jesuit.   Reflecting on the significance of Christ’s 33rd year, he decided he must die more completely to himself.   Thus he made a promise to follow exactly the Jesuit rule and to obey his superiors without question. “It seems right, dear Lord,” he wrote, “that I should live in you and for you alone, at the age when you died for all and for me in particular.”

The next year he was made head of the Jesuit college at Paray-le-Monial, where he met St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.   As her spiritual director, (and she received confirmation in her heart that he was the one the Lord had sent her) he assured her of the authenticity of her revelations about the Sacred Heart.   His writings provided a sound theological basis for the devotion and his preaching helped spread it.

Upon meeting her, Saint Claude immediately recognized her humble sanctity and acknowledged the truth of her claims.   She told him of her communications with the Lord, which he encouraged her to write down in detail.   Convinced through prayer and meditation that it was the will of God for others to hear of these communications, he later compiled these visions into a book and devoted himself to spreading the message of God’s love.

“The love of Our Lord’s Heart was in no way diminished by the treason of Judas, the flight of the apostles, and the persecution of his enemies. Jesus was only grieved at the harm they did themselves;  His sufferings helped to assuage His grief because He saw in tham a remedy for the sins committed by His enemies.   The Sacred Heart was full of most tender love; there was no bitterness in it; no cruelty and injustice that He received moved it to feelings other than those of compassion and affection.”

In 1676, because of his reputation for holiness and oratory, Claude was sent to London as preacher to Mary Beatrice d’Este, duchess of York.   He became well-known not only for his finely-tuned sermons but also for encouraging persecuted Catholics, restoring lapsed Catholics and converting Protestants.   Saint Claude continued his good work in England until 1678 when he, along with many priests and religious, were accused of involvement in a “Papist Plot” to assassinate and wrest power from King Charles II.   Saint Claude was thrown into prison, where he languished in horrible conditions, until the intervention of the Duchess of York and King Louis XIV.   He was released and returned to France but his imprisonment had taken a serious toll on his health.   He rapidly deteriorated and died on the first Sunday of Lent in 1682. He is considered a “dry martyr,” having long-suffered for the Lord.

When the news reached the Visitation monastery on the following morning, Saint Margaret Mary immediately urged her community:  “Pray for him and get everyone else to pray for him.”   However, at sometime around eleven that morning, she stopped praying, smiling and declared: “Stop worrying about him. Invoke him; have no fear, he is more powerful than ever to help you.”   The prioress of the order, Mother M. Greyfie, gently inquired as to why she had felt the urge to stop praying.   Generally, Margaret Mary would ask for prayers or mortifications when someone died.   Saint Margaret Mary replied with an expression of great joy: “Father La Colombière has no further need of them. He is now in a position to pray for us, so well placed is he in heaven by the goodness and mercy of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord.”

Devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus only grew. Saint Margaret Mary continued to seek the intercession of Saint Claude for the next eight years, until she died, praying,   “O Blessed Father Claude la Colombiere, I take you for my intercessor before the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.    Obtain for me from His goodness the grace not to resist the designs He has on my soul and to make me a more perfect imitator of the virtues of His Divine Heart.”

Quote/s of the Day – 15 February

“God is in the midst of us, or rather, we are in the midst of Him; wherever we are, He sees us and touches us: at prayer, at work, at table, at recreation.”

“God is more honoured by a single Mass than He could be by all the actions of angels and men together, however fervent and heroic they might be. Yet, how FEW hear Mass with the intention of giving God this sublime honour! How FEW think with joy on the glory a Mass gives to God. How FEW rejoice to possess the means of honouring Him as He deserves! . . . If we only knew the treasure we hold in our hands!”

~~~ St Claude de la Colombiere.

St Claude has been a dear friend of mine since I discovered his writings quite some years ago. . I count on his intercession. I turn to him when I feel my heart is tired and a little cold and distressed.   This Saint of Hearts is a most willing guide leading us to the warmest Heart of Christ full of Mercy and Love.

Thought for the Day – 15 February

St Claude was an amazingly gifted man and he recognised that his gifts should be put at the service of others.   He spent himself in the service of Christ and was chosen to direct someone with an important mission to the whole Church of Christ.   He is recognised for his important decisions, decisions that may be helpful to contemplate as we enter the Lenten season:  1) to sacrifice his earthly desires to serve the Lord;   2) to honour his call to the vows of the Jesuits;   3) to recognise the truth in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and propagate the devotion;   4) to go where the Lord would have him, suffering without complaint;   and 5) to continue unafraid and undeterred in preaching the Good News.   Saint Claude la Colombière never lost sight of the Lord, never gave up hope, never let his confidence be shaken in the total love and mercy of God.   How often can we say the same of ourselves?

At his Canonisation, St John Paul said “A true companion of Saint Ignatius, Claude learned to master his strong sensitivity.   He humbly maintained a sense of “his wretchedness” so as to rely only on his hope in God and his trust in grace.   He resolutely took the way of holiness.   He adhered with all his being to the Constitutions and Rules of the Society, rejecting all tepidness. Fidelity and obedience were expressed, before God, by the “desire … for trust, love, resignation and perfect sacrifice”

Aspiration to Jesus, my Friend by St Claude

Jesus! You are my true Friend, my only Friend. You take a part in all my misfortunes, You take them on Yourself; You know how to change them into blessings.

You listen to me with the greatest kindness when I relate my troubles to You, and You have always balm to pour on my wounds. I find You everywhere. You never go away! If I have to change my dwelling, I find You there wherever I go. You are never weary of listening to me. You are never tired of doing me good. I am certain of being beloved by You if I love You; my goods are nothing to You, and by bestowing Yours on me You never grow poor; however miserable I may be, no one more noble or holier can come between You and me and deprive me of Your friendship; and Death, which tears us away from all other friends, will unite me forever to You. All the humiliations attached to old age, or to the loss of honor, will never detach You from me; on the contrary, I shall never enjoy You more fully, and You will never be closer to me than when everything seems to conspire against me, to overwhelm me, and to cast me down.

You bear with all my faults with extreme patience, and even my want of fidelity and my ingratitude do not wound You to such a degree as to make You unwilling to receive me back when I return to You, or to come to me when I call on You. O Jesus! grant that I may die praising You, that I may die for the love of You.   Amen.

St Claude Pray for us!