Reflection Week of August 11 2025
Monday: Feast of St. Clare of Assisi
On August 11, the Franciscan family celebrates the feast of St. Clare of Assisi (1193/94-1253), the first woman to join Francis and his brothers in their new Gospel way of life. Clare was born into one of the feudal land-owning families of Assisi, spending some years in the neighboring city of Perugia due to class warfare in Assisi. Several years after her family's return to Assisi, she determined to embark on a life of penance in her family home, but, inspired by conversations she had with Francis, she decided to abandon her family and social status, and in 1211 or 1212 became part of the new movement of a "life according to the Holy Gospel" at the Portiuncula. She and several other women who soon joined her quickly settled at the church of San Damiano. Francis told them: "Since by divine inspiration you have made yourselves daughters and servants of the most High King, the heavenly Father, and have taken the Holy Spirit as your spouse, choosing to live according to the perfection of the Holy Gospel, I resolve and promise for myself and for my brothers always to have the same loving care and special solicitude for you as I have for them." Clare and her Poor Sisters lived simply and prayerfully at San Damiano for over 40 years, supporting themselves by the work of their hands. Clare had to fight to maintain her distinctive vision of religious life - her Rule was finally approved by Pope Innocent IV shortly before her death in 1253. She was canonized just two years later, in 1255. As she wrote to St. Agnes of Prague: "If so great and good Lord, then, on coming into the Virgin's womb, chose to appear despised, needy, and poor in this world, so that people who were in utter poverty and want, suffering hunger for heavenly nourishment, might become rich in him by possessing the kingdom of heaven, then rejoice and be glad! . . What a great and praiseworthy exchange: to leave the things of time for those of eternity, to choose the things of heaven for the goods of earth, to receive the hundred-fold in place of one, and to possess a blessed and eternal life!" A blessed feast to all our Poor Clare sisters! Holy Mother Clare, pray for us!
Wednesday
Laudato Si
Prayer of Confession and intercession
Creator God, God of the oceans,
God of the land and all that is within it: You created this world
with the power of your word.
You formed humankind with your own hands, and breathed
your own breath into us.
You gave us these lands as a gift– a source of our identity and
sustenance.
you empowered us to be the stewards of what you have made.
Loving God,
we have failed you and abused the gift you have given us.
We have offended you and defiled what you have made.
Forgive us for betraying your trust.
Forgive us for our greed and arrogance.
Forgive us for what we have done to your earth.
Forgive us for what we have done to your oceans.
Forgive us for what we have done to your creatures,
on the land, in the sky and in the depths.
Hear, O God of Compassion:
The cries of the land have become a desert; land laid barren through corrupt
agricultural practices, pollution, mining and deforestation.
The cries of islands are drowning in the rising seas,
oceans that rise with the melting of the ice.
The cries of distress from Mother Earth- storm and drought.
God of Life,
heal your wounded earth. Empower us to choose the road that leads to life.
Guide us in the paths of righteousness for your name’s sake
So that we may experience once again your Shalom in the land and in the sea.
This we ask in the name of the one who came that we way have life in
abundance, your Son, our Saviour Jesus the Christ.
Amen.
Friday
Feast of the Solemnity of Mary
As August arrives, so does a great feast of hope to encourage us in our journey through the Jubilee Year. On 15 August we mark the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary which, as the preface in the liturgy for the day reminds us, serves as a "sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people."
In her Assumption, Mary shows us the ultimate destiny of all God’s people who share in Jesus’ victory over evil and death.
Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God.
POPE FRANCIS, SPES NON CONFUNDIT #24
A hymn of hope
Our gospel reading for the feast includes Mary’s great song of revolutionary love, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).
Mary sings of a world that has been, is being and will yet be, turned upside down by God’s liberating justice and compassion. In the longest passage spoken by a woman in the New Testament, her great song of social justice is a hymn of hope for those experiencing poverty and marginalisation.
Words that resonate today
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour… He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty."
Though Mary first spoke these words in her own troubled time of occupation and conflict, they continue to speak powerfully to us today. Many of our neighbours around the world go to sleep at night hungry. They wake up in refugee camps, a long way from home. Or they struggle to access education or health services they desperately need.
We continue to hold onto the hope of Mary’s song and share her commitment to God's vision for a better world. Together we reach out to those impacted by emergencies, support sustainable development and equip individuals and communities with the tools they need to flourish.
An unmistakable challenge
There is no mistaking that Mary’s Magnificat is a challenging, and perhaps unsettling text. It has been considered so subversive that, on a number of occasions, different authorities have even banned it from being publicly sung or recited.
The words challenge us to make space to hear the voices of those who are marginalised and excluded today. They call us to speak out against all that goes against God’s purposes in our society and come together to be agents of change for a better world
Inspiration for us
We are in still in need of the jubilant, bold and faithful words of the Magnificat.
As we listen to Mary’s song may we be inspired to participate in the reordering of the world they speak of. May we trust that the Mighty One who did great things for Mary will continue to do great things, through us, in our world today.
And may we remember that Mary, assumed into heaven, is still present with us today and interceding for our world. Cafod.org.UK
August 15, 2025
THIS IS ANOTHER POSSIBILITY….
SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY
DANIELLE
HARRISON
I’ll just say yes You lead the way I’m not afraid of what it means for me to say This life You gave is not my own I’m trusting you to hear my yes and lead me home.
Brian Courtney Wilson
When I think about the readings today, and I think about what we're celebrating - the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - my heart automatically goes to the song because Mary is the embodiment of what it means to continually say “yes.” And this feast day shows us what is possible for all of us when we can continually say “yes” to God.
Looking at the gospel today, I had to laugh because I attended a school called Visitation Academy from 1st to 12th grade. The school was, sponsored by the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary. And their founders were Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane de Chantal. Francis Francis would say that he chose Visitation as the grounding founding principle for this community because he wanted to exhibit and honor those things that seem to not always be considered. He called them ‘little virtues’: Gentleness, happiness, meekness, liberty of spirit - that he saw totally depicted in this scene between Mary and Elizabeth.
Right before Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, she had this remarkable moment with the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. It's her first ‘yes.’ And notice that Mary does not stop and just sit in that. She could have. But instead, she looks out to see where she can have an impact, where she can be of service to someone else. She doesn't wait for Elizabeth to come to see her. She goes and travels to be hospitable, to be caring, to be in community with Elizabeth. And so, we have that great scene where they meet, John leaps in the womb, and Mary and Elizabeth are filled with joy. And then Mary goes into this beautiful song of praise. And I have to think that that song held her throughout her journey, her life journey. Reminding her that: ‘yes, even though this beautiful gift has been given to me, it's not going to be easy. But I know who I am, and I know that God knows who I am.’
My sisters and brothers, we look in the world today and we see… What do we see? We could dwell in the uncertainty and confusion and pain and strife and the negative. Or we can take our ‘yeses’ to what God is calling us to do and go into the marketplace of the world - whether that's the marketplace of our homes, the marketplace in our communities, the marketplace in a global situation - and be that good news. We can go and do those visits. We can go and be hospitable and caring and loving.
In essence, we can be the woman who is the Ark of the Covenant, the New Covenant, that we carry Christ within us. And as we carry Christ, we bring Christ in what we say and what we do and how we live and how we be.
Let's keep saying “yes.” So that at the end of our journey, we too are assumed. We too are brought close to the One who has always held us close. Amen.