Anyone who has had the good fortune to read Mother Clelia’s diary, the luminous fruit of the exile years, will have been surprised by the centrality of the dimension of humility, pursued with so much effort by the Blessed through filial entrustment to the Blessed Virgin and the constant call to conformity to Christ. Daily spiritual communions turn out, not surprisingly, to be extremely recurring on a par with Marian invocations: after all, one can stand at the foot of the Cross or cross the desert in the face of Herod’s threat – a ruthless Herod who often lurks in the ego – only if, like Mary, one has “dear Jesus” with him. A beautiful spontaneous prayer of the Blessed One reminds us of this: “O courageous Mother of mine Mary Most Holy, I too, you see, am in the desolate land of Egypt, that is, without a fixed abode, and many enemies surround me on all sides; among them an infernal Herod covetously seeks and pursues me. Deh. come to my rescue, O mighty Mother of mine, be my faithful companion in my pilgrimage, and let nothing separate me from the love of Jesus. O Mother of mine, let me imitate your generosity, docility, readiness to indulge all the inspirations of grace, without listening in the least to the prolonged barks of my nature.”
