[MaryVitamin] Five Wounds

Mary Vitamin for November 12th   Topic: St. Clare, Marianization and the Five Wounds   Image by tylluan via Flickr Quote: Reported in the canonization record of St. Clare, eyewitnesses of her death saw a heavenly vision of the Queen of Virgins, "Then that greatest among the virgins bent down and her face was quite close to the face of the Lady Clare, above her breast, so that she who saw it could not distinguish one from the other." Nesta de Robeck, St. Clare of Assisi, (Franciscan Herald Press: 1980), 133.   Meditation: St. Clare's role in the Franciscan order, explains Father Peter Fehlner, FI,  is to symbolize the Blessed Virgin Mary. Holy Mother St. Clare spent most of her time as a religious ill and bedridden. As a result she became a great saint of the interior life. Her prayerful, hidden, cloistered life imitates Our Lady.   St. Clare also demonstrated remarkable devotion to the Eucharist.  She is most often represented holding a monstrance in remembrance of the manner in which she interceded with God to save Assisi from the marauding Saracens.  St. Clare represents Our Lady’s remarkable intercessory power to save her children from evil.   St. Clare’s purity was so great that her mere presence caused people to repent of impurity. St. Clare exemplifies the angelic purity of Our Lady. Death of Saint Clare. Image via Wikipedia   By the time of her death, St. Clare had become transfigured into Our Lady by living out the ideals of the Franciscan way of life. Those who were present to see  the vision of Our Lady with  St. Clare couldn't tell the two apart.   Resolution: St. Clare's life and pious practices can shed light on how to behave in a Marian way. St. Clare practiced a special devotion to the Five Wounds of Christ.  On her death bed, St. Clare requested that the prayers for the Five Wounds of Christ be read to her.   Today, when I pass the crucifix, in imitation of St. Clare and hoping to become as Marian as she was, I will kiss the crucifix in veneration of the Five Wounds.   Marian Vow: "[The Franciscan Tertiaries of the Immaculate]  should also venerate, in a special way, our Seraphic Father, the holy Mother Clare and St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, patrons of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, together with St. Louis IX and St. Elizabeth of Hungry, patrons of the Third Order Franciscans.” Marian Seraphic Pathways, Directory #32   I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.   Thanks be to God for graces received.   Related sites: Castle of the Immaculate, MaryVitamin Twitter & AirMaria

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