A Blessed Feast of St. Clare to You!

In my 24 years here as pastor, my love and devotion to St. Clare our Patroness has grown immensely.  I know many of you also appreciate the virtues and faith that St. Clare teaches us to emulate.  From her many qualities, three main examples that stand out for me from her faithful discipleship are:

1.     Simplicity – Clare had this unusual ‘falling in love’ experience with poverty.  She felt that the simpler one’s life was the more ‘room’ there was for the Holy Spirit to flood our heart and mind.  In a culture that teaches us to always want ‘more,’ Clare teaches to only want ‘more’ of God.  Clare once said, "They say that we are too poor, but can a heart which possesses the infinite God be truly called poor?"

2.     Eucharistic Devotion – the image of St. Clare on our Crucifix above the Altar shows her holding up the Monstrance, summoning us to make time for quiet prayer with Jesus in the Eucharist.  Please find time on Tuesday evenings, 6-7 PM to come and sit in quiet before the Eucharist and simply “let God love you.”

3.     Faith through suffering – Clare suffered terribly with various illnesses but trusted in God through her pain.  She teaches us that we can use any suffering in our life to get closer to Jesus…feeling some small sense of the suffering he went through for love of us.

St. Clare’s feast day is August 11, but we celebrate it this weekend as a parish family under her prayerful watch over us. 

St. Clare of Assisi pray for us!

Fr. Jim Deiters