Feast of St. Clare: 11.08.22
St. Clare’s Church, Graiguecullen @ 10am
Introduction:
Friends we have gathered once more to honour St. Clare and in doing so recognise in a very public way the presence of the Poor Clare’s among us. The gospel every feast day is taken from the same text from St. John reminding us to abide in the Lord, and if we do so we will produce abundant fruit. Cut off from the Lord we are spent, we are nothing.
St. Clare of Assisi from the age of 18 was a close friend of St. Francis, devoted to the same ideals of evangelical poverty. I can understand, even sympathise, with the response of their respective families. Many of them couldn’t understand a call that meant abandoning so much and giving away everything. I think the word ‘unconditional’ features strongly.
Family don’t always understand vocation. Clare’s family were no different. There was something childlike about their respective calls to wonder and delight at the gifts of nature, to smell the roses, to see the trees, to observe signs of growth, to care for the animals.
We are too busy and that’s why we need the presence of the Poor Clare’s to remind us of what’s really important in life. We need to free ourselves from whatever is making us too busy and give God time, even the time of this Mass, free from distraction and so we pray …
Homily:
We are very familiar with the powerful prayer to St. Clare of Assisi, we often receive copies of it on a feast day like this.
“O glorious Saint Clare! God has given you the power of working miracles continually and the favour of answering the prayers of those who invoke your assistance in misfortune, anxiety, and distress we beseech you, to obtain for us from Jesus, through Mary, His blessed Mother what we beg of you so fervently and hopefully, if it be for the greater honour and glory of God and for the good of souls. St. Clare, pray for us.”
Perhaps we don’t always dwell enough on the words. Let’s today walk through it, line by line:
“O glorious Saint Clare! God has given you the power of working miracles continually …”
Clare was born into a noble family in July 11th 1194. Chiara di Favorone sounds more like an opera singer than a saint! But a saint she was! Her family were determined, (perhaps her dad more than her mam) to see Clare as nothing more than a pawn on some political or strategic alliance chess board, she would like other relations be married off at a young tender age.
But not our Clare. She heard St. Francis preach in Lent 1212 and through his preaching realised she was called to offer her life to God. On Palm Sunday that year she ran away from home and at the Portiuncula Chapel she took the habit and veil from Francis. She was aged 18. No propaedeutic period, no formation – all of that formation with its many elements were growing within her in her own family.
I was privileged to attend the World Meeting of Families in Rome in late June. In the Irish group there I included a family from Graiguecullen – Aodhagan and Martina, Katie, Chloe and Conor. The theme of this years World Meeting was on ‘the vocation of family love as a path to holiness’. We don’t always look on holiness in family life, we see it in the life of priesthood or the consecrated life. The Poor Clare’s here in Carlow are of themselves a family where miracles happen every single day.
“ … and the favour of answering the prayers of those who invoke your assistance in misfortune, anxiety, and distress …”
Clare would know of huge resistance to her radical call. Anyone who makes a radical call faces resistance. I sometimes hear the comment “wouldn’t it be great if the consecrated religious lived in the ‘real world’”. Cloistered religious life is not a flight from the world but actually a gift to the world. Enclosed religious life is a sign, a statement that there is another way. It is not a reserve for some sort of private spirituality or locution. I get occasional items in the post from individuals in the ‘real world’ who feel they have some sort of private revelation or personal spirituality that they must promote. I often have a second take when I read these letters, often things don’t sit well with me, when someone feels they alone know, hear or transmit God’s will, God’s love. That’s not the way God works.
The Poor Clare’s on the other hand are present for prayer in its absolute simplicity and its beauty. And many will come with their story of misfortune, their anxiety, their distress and much more. The ring on the door bell, the door latch opens, the petition is delivered and you can be certain the prayer is said. We go home lighter than we arrived.
No family is perfect. As I said a few years ago leading up to the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, every family has a loose handle on a saucepan or a squeaky door! Every family has its struggles and upsets. Pope Francis often says “no family drops down from heaven perfectly formed”. For our anxieties, for the things that don’t just sit right at home, for what unsettles us, let’s leave those petitions with the Poor Clare’s.
“ … we beseech you, to obtain for us from Jesus, through Mary, His blessed Mother …”
I love the prayer ‘Take My Hand, O Blessed Mother’. I know many have grown to love that prayer over the years. It is an acknowledgement that we don’t have all the answers. We must put our hand in Hers! I remember walking with my mother over the last few years of her life, maybe in Drogheda. She would always hold my hand, it was a reach out for reassurance. Whatever awkwardness I might have felt quickly dissipated in the knowledge that she felt safe, secure and steady.
There is nothing more beautiful that seeing a couple holding hands. They have a reassurance that they will always be there for one another. Even a family holding hands with one another. We’re there for each other! Mary is our mediatrix, she is the one who nudged Him at Cana to change the water into wine, she is the one who searched frantically for the young twelve year old who had gone missing and when she found Him she understood better His call, she was the one who remained at the foot of the Cross as he breathed His last.
Mary always invites us to do more. On the Feast of St. Clare, in addition to thanking the Poor Clare’s for their presence here, I particularly want to acknowledge today the contribution Fr. Des and his Capuchin predecessors have made to the people of Carlow over the forty-four years of their presence on Dublin Street. A presence that sadly ends on August 21st. Today I acknowledge Des, Damian, Philip and Pat and assure them of our prayers. I know that here in Graiguecullen they have been a strong presence, even Des presided at Confirmation as pandemic restrictions eased!
“ … what we beg of you so fervently and hopefully, if it be for the greater honour and glory of God and for the good of souls …”
Everything we do is done for the good of souls. We mightn’t always understand it or realize it. But it is about thinking about the next life and what you can do in this life that makes a huge difference. The St. Clare’s Hospitality Food Kitchen is a terrific example of the St. Clare’s spirit continuing. The numbers attending the food kitchen over the Graigue bridge continues to rise with a total of 10,665 meals served over the first seven months of 2022 and over 2,500 food parcels.
Yesterday I had a letter from Graiguecullen native Fr. Paul O’Boyle who is on a five month sabbatical and currently staying with the Jesuits in St. Canice’s Parish in Sydney. I noticed from their bulletin they too have a food kitchen called ‘St. Canice’s Kitchen’. It has been on the go for thirty years, providing support and a range of services to an average of 150 every day. Alongside the daily hot meal, they offer complimentary services including legal, GP, Mental Health, Life Coaching, Employment Pathways and much more.
I am hugely proud of St. Clare’s Hospitality Food Kitchen, born out of the poverty that St. Clare espoused. Born out of the simple life of the Poor Clare Community. Born out of a parish and its friends seeing a need and responding generously.
“O glorious Saint Clare! God has given you the power of working miracles continually and the favour of answering the prayers of those who invoke your assistance in misfortune, anxiety, and distress we beseech you, to obtain for us from Jesus, through Mary, His blessed Mother what we beg of you so fervently and hopefully, if it be for the greater honour and glory of God and for the good of souls. St. Clare, pray for us.”