Today, August 11, we celebrate the Memorial of St. Clare of Assisi and I would like to share with you two short quotes from her that encapsulate her life of love but also direct us towards our true love.
“Love God, serve God, everything is in that.”
“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.”

Both quotes point us to God and remind us, made in the image and likeness of God, we are bound by a deep and abiding love with God in and through His son Jesus Christ. We may want to pray and meditate on these two quotes in the coming days. It is a way of pointing ourselves toward and choosing to walk with Jesus that “shapes what we become.” What else would we want to do?
Last week I shared a brief reflection on the Rosary and why we pray this important prayer. One of the great reasons, as with the quotes from St. Clare above, we desire to become conformed to God and walking with Jesus through the mysteries of the Rosary we discover the love of God, the service of God and the shape of God in our lives.
St. Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter “Veritatis Splendor: The Splendor of Truth” shares these beautiful words, “The Church, and each of her members, is thus called to share in the ‘munus regale’ of the Crucified Christ (cf. Jn 12:32), to share in the grace and in the responsibility of the Son of man who came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20:28) (#87)
Jesus, then, is the living, personal summation of perfect freedom in total obedience to the will of God. His crucified flesh fully reveals the unbreakable bond between freedom and truth, just as his Resurrection from the dead is the supreme exaltation of the fruitfulness and saving power of a freedom lived out in truth.” (#87) While St. John Paul II is not talking directly about praying the Rosary, what he talks about is being with Jesus throughout the Gospel. From the first mystery of the Rosary to the last mystery we begin to form this “unbreakable bond” St. Clare describes so beautifully. And we begin the journey. Meditating the mysteries of the Rosary allows us to walk with Jesus through his mother Mary.
When we choose to walk with Jesus we begin the walk of faith and perfection, but not the perfection of the world rather we walk the way of faith and trust knowing we are created in God’s blessing. Fr. Jacques Philippe gives us this beautiful reminder. And once again he, while is not speaking about the Rosary, is talking about what happens when we begin to pray this beautiful prayer. Fr. Donald Calloway, whose booklet we shared at St. Lucy Parish this past week, reminds of the spiritual battle the Rosary helps us to fight and to seek Jesus in resisting the temptations of life. “We believe, for example, that to win the spiritual battle we must vanquish all our faults, never succumb to temptation, have no more weaknesses or shortcomings. But on such a terrain we are sure to be vanquished! Because who among us can pretend never to fall? And it is certainly not this that God demands of us, for “He Knows of what we are made He remembers that we are dust.” (Ps 103) (p11-12 from Searching for and Maintaining Peace)
The Rosary helps us to fight our sins and resist falling again when we take time to pray and mediate on this wonderful gift and once more, pondering on the two small quotes from St. Clare we see how we are called to love, serve and walk with Jesus through Mary. Because when we choose to walk with Jesus we find the mysteries of the cross celebrated with joy and not fear and doubt. “Taking up our crosses is only part of the equation. After recognizing and accepting the crosses in our lives, we are faced with a choice: to carry it while heading toward or away from Christ. When we choose to run toward God, even in our darkest moments, we discover that suffering brings us deeper into the mystery of His life, where suffering is not the final word. Resurrection is. Glory is. Eternal love and joy is.” (p 95 from Head & Heart by Katie Warner)
Below are two short videos explaining the Rosary and a longer one from Fr. Calloway sharing the joy of the Gospel and the truth of the Rosary.
God bless
Fr. Mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACfwnlktvi4 (Fr. Calloway)