Blessed Clelia Merloni fixed
her gaze on God
 |
| Blessed Celelia Merloni, Foundress of the Apostlesof the Sacred Heart of Jesus. |
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the Prefect of the Congregation for
the Causes of Saints, beatified Clelia Merloni at St John Lateran on Saturday
saying that she kept her gaze fixed on God even amid suffering and tribulation.
By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
Clelia Merloni, who lived between 1861 and 1930, is
now beatified. Her beatification ceremony took place at
the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome on Saturday morning.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints,
celebrated the Mass. In his homily, he praised Bl Clelia, saying her gaze “was
always turned to God”, especially “in time of trial”.
Charity in return for hostility
Cardinal Becciu said that Mother Clelia embraced Paul’s hymn
to love and Jesus’ command to love our enemies even when dismissed from
governing the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which she had founded.
That period of her life was “hard and exhausting, a personal ordeal, made of
loneliness and solitude, and poor health”, the Cardinal said. Yet, that was the
moment when Mother Clelia encountered her Spouse, Jesus Crucified. Mother
Clelia “responded to hostility and contempt with charity”, he said.
Credible signs of God’s love
“Her life was given in total oblation”, the Cardinal
continued. She lived the charism of the community of women religious that she
had founded, and witnessed to it “in her flesh”. That charism, said Cardinal
Becciu, “is contemporary and fascinating: to offer oneself totally and joyfully
to the Heart of Jesus” so as to be a “living and credible sign of God’s love”.
God alone
Mother Clelia centred herself on Christ in the Eucharist and
would spend hours in the chapel, Cardinal Becciu related. “God alone” was her
motto. And so she would encourage her sisters to “impress in your hearts that
God alone is your only good and your only refuge”. She herself, Cardinal Becciu
said, was “transformed into a ‘flame of love’ ”. Precisely because she belonged
entirely to God, Bl Clelia’s “heart was open to all, especially to the sick and
the suffering”, he said.
Bl Clelia’s message
Bl Clelia has a message for us, the Cardinal proposed. That
message is embodied in her life of “moral suffering” through which she became a
“strong and courageous woman who knew how to witness the love of Jesus in every
circumstance”. For life to flow around us, he said, it is essential that we
unite ourselves to Jesus’ pierced Heart. Death, hatred and division will thus
yield to life, love and communion. Mother Clelia first practiced the charism
she would share with others, “where prayer and suffering emerged as essential
elements”, Cardinal Becciu said.
Keep Mother Clelia’s charism alive!
The Cardinal then turned his final remarks to the Apostles
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who were present for the beatification of their
Foundress. “We ask you”, he said, “to keep her charism alive, and above all her
spirituality of self-offering, whose focus is the love that bears all things
and forgives all things”. He told the women religious that their mission is
still contemporary, as is the motto of their Institute, “the love of Christ
impels us”. That motto, the Cardinal said, is a commitment to make St Paul’s
words their own, thus constantly radiating love.
Blessed Clelia Merloni, pray for us!
The Cardinal then concluded:
“Let us ask the Lord that the path of holiness, which
Mother Clelia Merloni has shown us with a life sustained by love for the Cross,
may every day become the luminous and sure path on our journey of love for God
and our brothers and sisters.
"Let us repeat together: Blessed Clelia Merloni,
pray for us!”
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét