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“They have owed me since September and you since April of this year.  I am sorry to put the complaint to Her Majesty, because I am sure it will upset her and, undoubtedly, would cause some employees to lose their jobs on seeing the injustice done to me […].  I am providing a service more important and more exposed, because as you already know, on the 22nd of last month, how they did not cut my throat was a miracle, and this for being at the side of Her Majesty.” (Letter to Manuel José Miura, July 23 1866, in EC II, p. 1030).

 RISKING LIFE

Claret shows in this passage a great realism and exquisite social sensitivity, along with the awareness (more…)

“Do not aspire to the dignities and ecclesiastical benefices, yes God does not call you to them, like Aron; and if the divine Providence does place you in them, consider with great frequency the heavy weight that falls on your shoulders, so much respect for yourself and the others who are your subjects.”

(Notices to a priest who has just done the Ignatian exercises. Vic 1844; p. 5).

OCCUPY THE LAST PLACE

“But not so with you” (Lk 22, 26).  Jesus said this to his disciples after watching closely how the people of his time rivalled each other for power, privileges and social hierarchy. He affectionately urges them not to consent to such temptation. (more…)

“Jesus Christ ( … ) to the gloomy inventions of the genius of error has opposed the sun of the Catholic faith, the Blessed Sacrament, which, par excellence, is called the mystery of faith, in which is really and truly Jesus Christ, the true light that enlightens all people of good will to raise them higher than the vain ideas of the world and to make progress in the knowledge and love of the Supreme Good.”

(Ascetic letter to the president of one of the choirs of the Academy of San Miguel. Barcelona 1862, p. 26).

TRUE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Every morning we praise, bless and give thanks to God for the sun that illumines us till sunset. (more…)

“We must love Mary Most Holy because God wants it.  To love is to want good for the beloved, it is to do good for him, and it is to make him share in your possessions. Well, the same God gives us example and encourages us to love Mary. The Eternal Father chose her for his own very beloved daughter. The Son took her as Mother and the Holy Spirit as wife. All the Holy Trinity has crowned her as Queen and Empress of heaven and earth, and has constituted her as mediatrix of all graces”

(Letter of a devotee of the Heart of Mary, in EC II, p. 1498).

LOVE FOR MARY

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“It is good and worthy to suffer the unfavourable things of this life, whatever they may be, in a way that no agitation of spirit manifests itself outwardly, nor those who suffer them be too overwhelmed, nor complain about the others who make one suffer, nor pretend to take revenge against the evildoer. But it is better to suffer the evils not only with exterior meekness,but also without complaint or murmur against the oppressor, without being outraged or inwardly upset. It is, finally, best to a high degree to suffer the evils not only without disturbance of spirit, but also with joy and a desire to suffer more, in order to be able to offer that suffering as a gift to the Lord and to be able to follow him more closely with the cross.” (El amante de Jesucristo. Barcelona 1848, p. 108). (more…)

“Let us give thanks to God: already the Lord and his Blessed Mother have very kindly accepted the first fruits of the martyrs. I very much wanted to be the first martyr of the Congregation, but I have not been worthy, another one has won the hand. I praise the martyr and saintly Crusats and I congratulate Mr. Reixach for his blessing of being  wounded; and I also  I give thousand congratulations  to all those in the Congregation.”

(Carta al P. José Xifré, 7 de octubre de  1868, en EC II, pp. 1297-1298).

THE GLORY OF MARTYRDOM

The Lord said: “whoever loses his life (more…)

“On reaching the Gulf of Damas, (travelling to Cuba) I began conducting a mission on deck. Everyone on board attended it, passengers and crew, from captain to cabin boy, and everyone went to confession and received Communion at a general Communion service. We were on friendly terms with the crew, and on every voyage they would make to Cuba they used to come and visit us.” (Aut. 509).

GOOD AND BAD TIMES

The circumstances that cause a friendship are very different. The consistency of this friendship will differ also according to the depth of the relationship that has brought it about. St. Anthony Mary Claret tells us, in this text, how a friendship was born during (more…)

“…my honourable Prelate D. Luciano Casadevall called me aside and gave me the letter of your Excellency and the appointment from the Minister for the Archdiocese of Cuba. Your Excellency you cannot form an idea of pain that broke my heart as this appointment does; for two reasons, the first because I don’t like such dignities nor do I have competence for them, and the second because my apostolic plans are brought tumbling down…”(Letter to the Apostolic Nuncio, August 12 1849; EC I, q. 304S).

EVANGELICAL SIMPLICITY

This paragraph is from the letter sent by Claret to the Nuncio, on 11 August 1849, after receiving his unexpected appointment (more…)

“When they came to get my regular clothing they also took the Bible I had brought. I asked for it and was told, Very well. But the fact is that I never saw it again until the day I had to leave because of sickness; only then was it returned to me.”

(Aut. 151)

A SINGULAR TEST

Why did they take away the Bible from Claret in the Jesuit Novitiate in Rome? He entered the novitiate as a priest and took with him his personal Bible, pocket-sized and with small letters which he read every day. But the young novices had no personal Bible. The appreciation Claret had for his Bible been notable, and the superior (more…)

“Quite content, I undertook the journey to Barcelona…. Shortly before my arrival at Barcelona, a hurricane came up, so dreadful that I was terrified. I had studied so much that year that I was a little weak in the chest, and as we ran for cover from the great sheets of rain, the strain of running and the clouds of dust that rose from the parched earth began to suffocate me severely. I thought, Perhaps God doesn’t want you to join the Carthusians”. This thought alarmed me greatly. What is certain is that I didn’t have the will to go on, and so I returned to Vic.”

(Aut. 89).

SEARCHING FOR GOD’S WAY

Thus Claret finished his first stage on the path towards his vocation (more…)