Saint Anthony Mary Claret

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1902 These paragraphs are taken from Ágreda, María de Jesús de, Mística ciudad de Dios (Antwerp 1696), pt 2, book 4, chap. 20, p. 198. Although the Ven. Agreda is not speaking about resigning from one’s post, Claret, on reading these passages, must have experienced some sort of special insight, since with them, he stopped all considerations of resigning his See. For an online English copy of this work see The Mystical City of God: Life of the Virgin Mother of God, manifested to Sister Mary of Jesus of Agreda, 1602-1666.< http://www.themostholyrosary.com/mystical-city.htm>.

1903 Cf. 1 Pt 2:21.

1904 Ps 26:1.

1905 Cf. Mss. Claret, X, 275-283.

1906 Cf. Tob 12:13.

1907 Cf. Jb 2:7, 10.

1908 Cf. 1 Mac 2:52.

1909 Cf. Mt 5:44; Lk 23:34.

1910 Cf. Acts 7:60.

1911 2 Sam 14:14: We are like water spilled on the ground.

1912 Cf. Lk 4:18.

1913 Cf. Mt 8:17.

1914 Ps 113:9: Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory.

1915 1 Tim 1:17: To the King of all ages, immortal and invisible.

1916 Cf. Mt 11:29.

1917 Wis. 8:1: Mightily and Sweetly.

1918 Cf. Mt 26:42.

1919 Cf. Autob. nn. 573-584.

1920 Ps 132:1: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. (cf. HD, I, p. 982).

1921 Obras del V. P. M. Fr. Luis de Granada (Madrid 1788) II, p. 22. Ex libris.

1922 This resolution was doubtless influenced by his near escape from death at Holguín, but also by his current bout with yellow fever. Moreover, his enemies were still laying snares and traps to take his life.

1923 In all your ways be mindful of Him, and he will make straight all your paths.

1924 In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin [Sir. 7:36].

1925 Letter written in Madrid on May 31, 1857 (EC, I, p. 1340).

1926 Letter to Cardinal Giácomo Antonelli, May 9, 1858 (cf. HD, II, p. 65).

1927 Letter to Fr. Juan Nepomuceno Lobo, Madrid, July 12, 1857 (EC, I, pp. 1375-1376).

1928 Cf. Lk 10:39.

1929 Cf. Lk 10:40.

1930 Ps 83:3 Vulgate, (Ps 84.2) My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.

1931 He repeats these prayers, with some variants, in MSS Claret II, 61.

1932 Gal 6:14: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

1933 Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus.

1934 Song 1:12: A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts.

1935 Ps 115:7 Vulgate, (RSV, Ps 116:16): O Lord, for I am thy servant: I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid.

1936 Letter written in Madrid on October 15, 1858 (EC, I, p. 1653).

1937 Cf. HD, II, pp. 381-450.

1938 Cf. Lights and Graces, 1858.

1939 This resolution was quite to the point. During the last quarter of 1857 and the Lent of 1858, Claret’s retreat ministry to clergy and to lay men and women was unexpectedly successful (cf. Boletín de la Sociedad de San Vicente de Paúl [1857], vol. 2, pp. 298-308). At the end of a retreat for men, he was applauded in the church itself. An attempt was even made to take him to his residence in a coach drawn by gentlemen of the court! “From that day on, members of the government began visiting him, striving to win his friendship by all means possible. His position in Madrid was consolidated in the most resounding manner” (HD, II, p. 59).

1940 In keeping with this resolution, the Saint included a meditation on heaven at the end of the section on the purgative way in his Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Explained (Madrid 1859) pp. 202-214.

1941 Cf. Lk 2:51.

1942 Cf. Jn 6:38.

1943 The comparison which begins “if a lady …” was written on a separate piece of paper, but the handwriting is the same. In December, the Blessed Virgin told him that he should devote himself to the ministries of writing books and spiritual direction (cf. Lights and Graces 1858). As an envoy of Mary, he did not want to be involved in an apostolic action unless it was according to our Lady’s will. In this vein he wrote to Don Manuel José Miura: “As you know, I have no will of my own; I am the slave of my Lady, Mary Most Holy, and a slave can have no other will than that of his Lady, whom he serves” (letter written in Madrid, September 6, 1857: EC I, p. 1408).

1944 Rom 12:3, Vulgate, which Douay-Rheims (Challoner ed.) translates literally: not to be more wise than it behooves to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety. RSV, following the Greek and slightly modernizing the KJV has: not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.

1945 Cf. Lights and Graces, 1859.

1946 Letter to Fr. Manuel José Miura, Madrid, October 4, 1859 (EC, II, p. 46).

1947 Cf. Lights and Graces, 1859.

1948 On July 9th, the Queen approved the Constitutions or Statues of the Claretian Missionaries. This approval had cost the Saint two years of diligent labor and much vexation. “The enemy,” he wrote to Fr. Joseph Xifré, “greatly fears these holy Constitutions, and therefore he has persecuted them. Let us be faithful in keeping them, and God will always make everything work out for the best” (July 13, 1859: EC, I, p.1789).

1949 Cf. Mt 26:44.

1950 In setting aside three hours for mental prayer, he may have been influenced by the example of Don Pedro de Castro (1534-1624), Archbishop of Granada and Seville, whose Life was in the Saint’s library and was condensed by him in Appendix II of his Notes for the Governance of the Diocese (Madrid 1865) 2^nd ed., pp. 153-191: Escritos Pastorales, pp. 569-602.

1951 Marin, Michel Ânge, Retraite spirituelle pour un jour de chaque mois (Lyon-Paris 1858) l, p. 211 . Ex libris.

1952 Cf. Mt 26:42.

1953 In silence and in hope shall your strength be.

1954 “May I know myself, may I know Thee.” Cf. St. Augustine, Soliloquios, lib. 2, cap. 1, n. 1, The Spanish text cites Obras, BAC (Madrid 1950) I, p. 544; for English see The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century, Trans. by Edmund Hill, Augustinian Heritage Institute, New City Press, 2000. Also available online at Christian Classics Ethereal Library: