HOMILY ON THE FEAST OF BLESSED CHIARA
It is certain that Don Guanella considered Sister Chiara as an extraordinary grace from God for his nascent Work. In following her spiritually he had the sensation and wonder of being before a great mystery of the Lord, who traces a personal path of holiness for each person.
This is how Don Guanella defines this special journey: “God led her along the path of strong souls, a harsh and dangerous path for itself, but he guided her so that she would not set foot in a trap. And she did not fall; for she surrendered with absolute docility to her guiding hand."
In recent days, re-reading the personal recollections and notes on Sister Chiara's interior life, written by Don Guanella, entitled 'So will Sister Chiara never come back among us?', I too was enthusiastic about some of the remarks Don Guanella before such a heroic sanctity which in essence corresponded to his thoughts and his heart.
Don Guanella appreciates Sister Chiara's simplicity and external transparency while realizing the inner complexity of her soul.
When Don Guanella learned that Sister Chiara, before the judge of Dongo who had called her for some rumors about the Pianello Hospice, had resolved the matter favorably, he exclaimed: "How much honesty in the little soul !- adding - it was like those spring clouds that threaten frightening hurricanes and then drop sprays of water that restore the earth from its drought”.
Prayer in Clara: Another essential quality that Don Guanella sees shining in Sister Chiara, but also in all of his first Sisters, is assiduous, trusting prayer, certain of the intervention of Providence.
"What were these daughters doing?, - Don Guanella asks himself and replies - They prayed and Sister Chiara, who was like their life, arranged that from morning to evening in the House it was like a continuous prayer". “They were moved by prayer and so throughout the Hospice they spread a flood of prayer and a very sweet comfort to the spirit of the patients”.
Don Guanella visibly experienced the efficacy of this prayer. For example, he attributes to it the favorable possibility of buying the land of his first house here in Como…
Another inner secret that Sister Chiara's Founder reveals to us is her costly and difficult obedience to following God's will through his spiritual guidance. This is probably one of the essential points in his life that explains how a certainly not easy character could arrive at such elevated spiritual experiences. Don Guanella also seems convinced that Sister Chiara was able to correspond totally to the grace of the Lord, because she "learned, by obeying, what sacrifice means".
Obedience: Don Guanella writes about it: "Now that I think of it, I regret having given her such crude obedience, but it consoles me that dying she said: “The hardest obedience was going to Dongo, but after that, God began in me all those favors that I feel”.
Through obedience, also renouncing what she could feel more in line with her feelings and her desire for a more hidden and contemplative life, she was able to admirably integrate continuous prayer with works of charity, as both Don Coppini and Don Guanella, both convinced that Sister Chiara would become the pillar and foundation of their Work.
Don Guanella comments: "Sister Chiara listened and was silent, until one day when she insisted again she was defeated and concluded: “Well I won't talk any more about leaving /from Pianello/ and God's will be done' and she burst into tears. And it was great luck for me, says the Founder, because here you did great good among us. God helped her and the dying of her confessed that the sacrifice of that obedience of hers greatly benefited her in the presence of God and her own conscience. Thus the sacrifice of her heart was largely compensated ”.
We all know what this reward was: the Mystic of suffering and the perfection of charity.
It is beautiful to remember the same words of Don Guanella: “She had given everything to God and the Lord rewarded her richly. Sister Chiara's intellect began to be illuminated with a brighter light. One would have said that the flash of internal light was reflected externally in her face... She wanted God: she would have liked to embrace him sensitively and see him face to face and, unable to do so, she embraced the creatures"... who best represented God on this earth, the poor . And Don Guanella exclaims: "How admirable is the heart of God that works in the heart of his wonderful servants who are so admirable!". Later he stated: “Sister Chiara was a contemplative, she was a dove and almost an eagle, few of her ascended up to her...” The perfect charity of Sister Chiara. Just a few phrases from Don Guanella that reveal Sister Chiara's heart full of charity: "He showed her pleasure in expressing her needs immediately and she would bring them and she listened and answered a few words but so well-adjusted that the others were fully satisfied. It was like a taking and giving of the bread of life" (admirable definition of true and experienced charity!)
“Sister Chiara… everyone's life was in the House; the wheel of the building that moved many others…. It leapt like a nozzle from branch to branch; little strength but slim; a nun full of spirit and strength of agility… What a sweet show!” (Don Guanella was truly admired by it.)
The source of this charity, as we know, was her contemplative spirit and prayer. In the "praying and suffering" proposed as an ideal of spirituality by the Founder, she was able to find the nourishment and strength for her unconditional dedication to the poor, in the form that everyone recognized as an educational charity. She who had so much wanted to be an educator and teacher, was able to truly be so, not by teaching in a normal school, but by taking on the difficult task of mother and spiritual sister for her sisters and a passionate witness to the goodness of God's heart with the orphan girls.
Some phrases of Don Guanella highlight the concreteness of his educative ability, in the style of God. looking at certain defects, either of character or of incompatibility, burned with live anger, but he hid everything in his heart. And when she was (ne) in charge of talking about it, she talked (ne) with the such ardor of heart, strength and sweetness... that immediately the sisters surrendered everything to her discretion; although the youngest in age and service she dominated overall and entirely….” – And with regard to the girls – “she earned herself with a smile…. They wanted Sister Chiara... they ran to meet her... she was like Don Bosco: a smile, a little word, a service, here is our little angel. With the orphan girls, she was all of all ”. “At school, she was the mother, the teacher, the guardian angel…”
Her mystical suffering: Finally, a mention of her "suffering for her", lived in an extraordinary mystical way, which made Don Guanella himself difficulty in guiding her spiritually. In fact, he had to exclaim: “Poor thing is the soul that is so agitated. The less spiritual people would go astray...” and then he refers to the experience of the mystic saints with St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila to understand at least a little what God was working in that soul". In the end Don Guanella intuits, "No wood is more capable of lighting the fire of God's charity in the heart than the wood of the Cross". Then he adds as if to say that he feels powerless in the face of such a sublime mystery: "And here we take stock and console ourselves that Sister Chiara, virgin and martyr, or rather martyr and therefore virgin, leaves a precious legacy of virtues".
So let us too reflect a little on this precious heritage that was given to us by God in Sister Chiara. Perhaps none of us are called by God to walk this extraordinary path of holiness, in the way she did. But all of us Guanellians know that we could not fully live the Founder's charism without this fundamental mandate "to pray and suffer". Prayer and suffering are inseparable from charity. Everyone will have different forms both for praying and for suffering, but the spirit that sustains and makes our charism visible must be unique. Which would become simple social activity without prayer and suffering.
In the history of spirituality that starts from the Founder and passes through Monsignor Aurelio Bacciarini and many of our sisters and brothers, Sister Chiara finds an eminent place, to whom the words of Job could be particularly applied, who experienced so strongly the mystery of pain and of suffering: "Before I knew you by hearsay, now my eyes see you". Courageous eyes therefore also those of Sister Chiara who, in her youth was not only capable of admiring the lilies of the field or the birds of the air, but was also able to discover in her daily cross, in trials and in concrete dedication to the poor, the face of God and the Providence of the Father.
So I conclude with the invitation to give an answer today to that question of the Founder: So will Sister Chiara never come back among us? ‘Non ritornerà più dunque Suor Chiara tra noi?’
The best response seems to me to commit ourselves to vitally assimilating the meaning that her path to holiness can have for us today, so as not to leave her forgotten in the heaven of her mystical bliss. Certainly we must personalize this path of holiness in response to the particular graces that the Lord offers to each of us, adapting it to the current theological vision of the Church, but not watering it down by conforming to the mentality of the world. On the contrary, in a climate of efficiency it is even more necessary to rediscover the great efficacy of prayer; in a climate of pursuit of physical well-being at all costs, we are also called to value pain and our human limitations, above all to find meaning and serenity in our conformity to Christ and also to be capable of true love for the suffering, because love, in God's pedagogy, can only be lived fully on the Cross.
In this sense, Sister Chiara is still present among us: that is, in those who invoke her protection and follow her example.
I don't know if I'm wrong, but I think we have somewhat forgotten their profound charismatic message, perhaps because it is a little difficult to understand or to live…
The consequence of our difficulty in vitally expressing their spirit and charisma perhaps affects the loss of proactive strength in spreading their devotion among the people.
We would soon like to see them recognized as saints by the Church and perhaps we are waiting a little too passively for a miracle.
The first and most beautiful miracle is certainly that of making us holier, and this does not depend only on God, but also on our collaboration. Then even more people around us will join in sharing our spirituality
Particularly today we ask our Blessed Chiara at least for the grace of a greater spirit of prayer and sacrifice.
Feast of Blessed Clare, April 20, 2023
Sister Chiara received extraordinary grace from God. God traces a personal path of holiness for each person. It is up to human beings how they respond to the Call. She got an opportunity to be a mystic and remain a model for the institutes. The mystery lies in the personal choice of Chiara, which made her clear, for very few years she lived, gave his life and soul, before it reached the branches she had to give her life. She put her mind and soul into and worked for sanctity.
The vocation of Clare: They tell Vocation is a surprise and a mystery. It is not in the mind of God. How the human minds take time to recognize that vocation/divine call. In the life of prophets, Though God calls once, he continuously calls in mysterious ways.
Clare also had a vocation to the simple life that she wanted to offer her life for consecrated life (from the age of 13, 1871). But to recognize this, it takes a long time, they call it the hour of mercy. Clare also took time, Canossians say No, the door is closed, another door is opened.
We had many motivations when we choose to join the religious life. Make sure that you orient all your motivations to direct only one person that is God; Vocation is only one from God. We change our minds to recognize the vocation which is gradually being revealed. Changes: the Consecrated life in the recent past years, changes of rules in the Vatican, People changing congregation/choosing another way of life even after many years?
But For each person, the vocation to love takes concrete form in everyday life through a series of choices. Her vocation demonstrates that Christ's love has no boundaries. For a vocation to be beautiful, one has to think about others. “call within a call” means a vocation within her vocation to religious life.
Be strong, in caring/maturing your soul:
In our community of Servants, who has more body weight? Who is stronger? In Daughters of St. Mary of Providence?
Which is heavier? Muscle or fat?
Lean persons are also stronger, they run fast.
From the beginning, he was known for her physical frailty. After spending nearly six years with the Canossian sisters (1871-1879), She entered the community of the Canossian sisters in Gravedona. She spent actually eight years, out of sixteen of her early life (from 13 till 20), with the Canossian sisters. She was told she is unfit for religious life for two reasons; her withdrawn personality, and physical weakness.
One cannot accept easily the rejection, refusal of admission, No. I want to prove that I am fit.
Every life, even the most humble and weakest is always a gift. She was on constant research, she did not doubt. Guanella mentioned this “delicacy of her soul” The strength of the soul is like a lion”. How her heart accepted the plan of God. She showed a strong eagerness and attraction toward religious life. Clare’s desire for religious life was clear with the Canossians. It will be helpful for us to understand her attraction to religious vocation even though she had a weak personality.
Focusing on spiritual health: she had a strong spirit and vibrant soul. Nobody can harm or destroy.
How Clare lived the suffering makes her different from everyone: She lived the sickness and love, simplicity and transparency. She was weak in health, but never wanted the community to serve her. She was able to give more love. She was doing it with love. She told them not to enter her room, because of the contagious disease. She became concerned about the community and others, and many episodes in Como. She knew the singular names of beneficiaries including children.
Simplicity and submission. Submission was very common for women in that century. She was like water, a crystal. I see in her more transparency also. To tell “I don’t know, I am not able, I cannot, I don’t know why, how happens to me” expressions of the highest form of humility, Part of Fiat of Mary. Lord help me to understand the mystery.
In fact, don Guanella had to exclaim: “Poor thing is the soul that is so agitated. The less spiritual people would go astray...” and then he refers to the experience of the mystic saints with St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila to understand at least a little what God was working in that soul". Because she was transparent not keeping a single drop of pride.
