St Anthony Mary Claret was born in 1807 in the Catalonia region of Spain. We celebrate his feast day today. After spending five years as a priest giving retreats and missions in Spain, he founded a religious order named the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1849, commonly known as the Claretians. That same year, he was named as Bishop of Santiago in Cuba. Arriving in Cuba as the Bishop, he found his Diocese to be in very bad spiritual condition, so he initiated reform measures, including the establishment of a teaching order of sisters in the Diocese. In 1857, he was named as chaplain to Queen Isabella II of Spain, so he returned to his home country. As Queen Isabella’s advisor, he helped revive the Catalonian language and spread the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Blessed Sacrament. After a revolution in Spain in 1868, he died in exile with Queen Isabella in 1870. His missionary spirit lives on in the ministry of the Claretians, which number more than 3,000 priests and brothers and who serve in more than 70 countries throughout the world.
In our readings at Mass for the last several weeks, we having been hearing from St Paul’s letters to the Ephesians and to the Galatians. In our reading from Ephesians today, St Paul speaks about God’s grace, about how God’s grace to each person individually. Paul speaks about how there was diversity in how Christ appointed his followers to different roles, as some were apostles or prophets, while others were evangelists, pastors, and teachers. They did not do ministry individually, but rather worked as a team in the work of service to God and his people. Paul speaks about how these individuals work together for the growth of the Body of Christ and build that body up in God’s love. We see in our ACTS retreat this weekend a great diversity in our service as individuals, but all of us working together in the common goal of this ministry. We met for several months working together to plan this retreat and bonding together as a team.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, grace is the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become his children. Through the working of grace in our lives, God invites us to a life of holiness and to eternal life with him. Through baptism, we participate in the grace of Christ and in a life of disciples.
God’s grace is at work in a powerful way here at our retreat this weekend. We are hearing about God’s grace at work in our lives in different ways as people share their stories with us in the presentations and in our conversations. God’s graces has helped us meet the challenges and struggles we have met in life. God’s grace will help us to heal when we need healing in our lives. May the Lord continue to open our hearts and our minds to the presence of God’s grace in our lives and in the way God has been present to us in our journey of faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment