“The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, or the communion rail of each parish, is the exact thermometer to know the degree of charity or the love wave and devotion of the village people.  When the thermometer is beneath zero, the weather is cold; when it is twelve degrees we say it is spring, and when  it is twenty four, thirty, etc., it is very hot”

(Ascetic Letter… to the president of one of the choirs of the Academy os Saint Michael. Barcelona 1862, p. 29).

WHAT TEMPERATURE?

 With an expressive image, our friend Claret explains to us how to know the temperature or spiritual heat of a parish.  There is a thermometer that marks the degree of heat in proportion to the persons who come for communion.  Are they scarce?  Then it is winter and cold. Are they enough? Then it is flowery springtime.  Are they the majority of the faithful in the church?  It is summer time and hot, there exists fervor in each person, in the families, in the Biblical groups or prayer groups, in the seminaries and in the communities.

And besides, in this village or town the apostolic uncertainty is sparked off, which is the wish to get others affected, to carry those who do not know God to Him and show the light of the Gospel to those who do not read about it, nor listen to it, nor live it not even putting it into practice with perseverance and decision until we get to the sanctity to which all baptized are called to.

Let nobody asks us for miracles or mystic life if we continue to navigate  with slack attitude, or live in mediocrity, or even worse, live totally without emotion, being icicle en place of lighted ovens in love, or charcoal of charity.  Claret tells us clearly that a chapel or temple where people do not go to communion or adore the Eucharist, it is a perpetual winter.  There will be never a flowery springtime, much less a scorch summer.  Poor Christians without faith or Christians with only one candle that doesn’t light up nor shines nor heats up!

     God and the Church, and the same Claret, continue to give and ask for the fire of the Pentecost in places and in the consecrated persons by baptism, holy persons who are on fire and transformed into lively torches in the middle of the night of this world.  Examine deeply what is the degree of the heat in your heart.  Is your soul burning in fraternal and apostolic charity?