This calendar of feasts and solemnities of the Church is accompanied by reflections from the writings of Blessed Clelia Merloni. The spiritual reflections are taken from the Spiritual Anthology - a compendium of her teachings and exhortations, based on her letters, which express her deep love for God and the spiritual life.
On each feast and liturgical solemnity, Mother Clelia invites us to reflect on essential virtues such as forgiveness, humility and trust in divine providence. From the great celebrations, such as Christmas, Easter and Corpus Christi, to the solemnities dedicated to the saints and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, her writings illuminate the spiritual significance of these occasions.
May her teachings inspire moments of prayer and meditation, strengthening faith and renewing the commitment to follow the path of the Gospel, always guided by the wisdom and example of a woman who deeply lived Christ's call.
Dia: 01
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January
Mary, Mother of God
Spiritual Anthology: p. 225
Quote: Mg. App, p. 37-38
Text: Courage, then, courage! The holy Child [Jesus] must approve all your holy resolutions and the new year must be a herald for you... of complete victory over all those little defects which until now have hindered your perfection.
Do you understand? In the meantime I will pray to the heavenly Child for you; and at his crib don’t you forget your Mother, who has such great need of graces and can only hope to obtain them through the sacrifices and prayers of her daughters.
With all the affection of my heart I send you my blessing, while, embracing you tenderly, I remain your most affectionate Mother in the most holy Heart of the Child Jesus.
Dia: 24
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January
Saint Francis de Sales
Spiritual Anthology: p. 118-119
Quote: Mg. II, p. 151
Text: I recommend that you be… a true missionary; remember that the Heart of Jesus is watching you and asking you for the alms of good example for the souls dear to Him.
How much good you could do… if you knew how to keep that sweet, humble, reserved disposition appropriate to a religious, and if you would speak of the Heart of Jesus and of your Congregation with that zeal and enthusiasm that only love can produce!
Come now, be good! Carry on your small apostolate and know how to sacrifice yourself to console whoever may need your advice and your consolation.
Dia: 25
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January
Conversion of St. Paul
Spiritual Anthology: p. 4
Quote: Mg. I. p. 149
Text: Remember, daughters, that doing penance is not only necessary but also urgent. The Holy Spirit tells us: “Don’t delay in being converted to the Lord and don’t put it off from one day to the next.”
The worst thing to say is: “I know well that I’m not what I should be; I wouldn’t want to die in my present state, but I’ll try to reform my life later on . . .”
We imagine that later our conversion will be easier, while on the contrary, our procrastination makes it even harder by weakening grace, strengthening habit, hardening our heart and angering God against us.
Dia: 2
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February
Presentation of the Lord
Spiritual Anthology: p. 32
Quote: Mg. I. p. 149
Text: Have courage and confidence in the most holy Heart of Jesus and everything will go according to the divine will.
Try to purify everything you do. Work at your heart so that no rancor of any kind is in it. Do good to the one who appears to be against you.
Drive from your mind… and heart every thought of rebellion that remains there.
Recall that everything in you is consecrated to God… woe to you if you profane the least part of yourself.
Dia: 22
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February
Chair of Saint Peter
Spiritual Anthology: p. 15
Quote: Mg. I, p. 123
Text: Look at [the Saints] with the eyes of the spirit; they are encouraging you and showing you the throne that awaits you, the crown which you must wear on your head, the reward God is saving for each of your good works, for every prayer said with recollection, for every sacrifice made for His love, for every sigh of your soul for Him.
Oh, how this vision can inflame hope, how it makes us want to depart for the heavenly homeland.
Dia: 19
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March
Saint Joseph
Spiritual Anthology: p. 205
Quote: Mg. I. p. 42
Text: Love the glorious and most powerful St. Joseph very much and be very devoted to this saint! Turn to him in all your needs with great trust and you will obtain marvelous favors from him.
Dia: 25
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March
Annunciation
Spiritual Anthology: p. 195-196
Quote: Mg. I, p. 169
Text: ...the archangel Gabriel... turns to a little village of Galilee called Nazareth, and here he enters a poor house that contains nothing that the world esteems. In that house however, wrapped in recollection, is the greatest treasure of God: here lives Mary who, withdrawn from worldly conversation, converses with God in her room.
Precisely to her the angel presents himself and, in an act of profound homage, greets her as a vassal salutes his queen, saying: “God bless you, O Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, you are blessed among women!”...
Let’s unite ourselves to the heavenly messenger to warmly congratulate our most holy Mother for the great spiritual treasures with which she was filled. Let us entreat her to be moved to pity by our wretchedness and to make us share in the grace with which she is filled.
Dia: 25
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April
Saint Mark
Spiritual Anthology: p. 165
Quote: Mg. I, p. 99
Text: Dearest daughters…I most warmly recommend that you have a bit of zeal for the glory of God, because it is impossible to love God and yet make no effort to promote His glory, just as it is impossible for a daughter to be indifferent about upholding her father’s honor, or not to feel sad because of the injustices that come His way, or not to rejoice when honors are bestowed on Him.
When divine love is truly in the heart, there arises a great desire to see God known, loved and served, a profound sorrow for offenses committed against this good God and an ardent zeal to lead back to Him the sinners who have abandoned Him.
Dia: 1
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May
Saint Joseph the Worker
Spiritual Anthology: p. 205
Quote: Mp. P. 42
Text: Love the glorious and most powerful St. Joseph very much and be very devoted to this saint! Turn to him in all your needs with great trust and you will obtain marvelous favors from him.
Dia: 3
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May
Saints Philip and James
Spiritual Anthology: p. 177-178
Quote: Mg. I, p. 87
Text: Blessed was the Apostle Philip, who was so ready and generous in responding to the loving call of Jesus and in following him in his apostolic career!
Let us pray that Jesus [give] us the same readiness and generosity of spirit to correspond to those holy inspirations with which He calls us to a more perfect and fervent life in His holy service. Let us beg Him not to become weary of our lengthy resistance, but to overcome the stubbornness of our will with the powerful magnetism of His holy divine love.
Dia: 14
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May
Saint Matthias
Spiritual Anthology: p. 131-132
Quote: Mg. II, p. 126
Text: Aren’t you happy that Jesus chose you in preference to so many others [in] the world? Woe to you if ignoring his voice you had remained amid dangers where you would have had no right to his graces! Jesus did not tell you to fight in the world but to flee it; woe to you if you had trod a path other than the one by which Je wants to lead you to heaven!
Well then, my dear, it’s not enough that you listened to His voice when He called you to follow Him in Religion; you should still isten to Him, and respond every time He speaks to you. You must always listen to Him and obey Him generously in prayer, in holy Communion, in contradictions and in crosses.
Dia: 31
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May
Visitation
Spiritual Anthology: p. 167
Quote: Mg. p. 123-124
Text: …the Heart of Jesus, disguised as this particular sick person, calls you to a mission of charity, since the sick make up the very body of Jesus. Remember what he said: “What you do for your neighbor, you do for me.”
Try to shower her with attentions and kindness, and in this way you will be able to accumulate many merits for eternity.
Dia: 11
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June
Saint Barnabas
Spiritual Anthology: p. 159
Quote: Mg. I, p. 159
Text: You must cooperate… with generous effort to combat that abominable ego because the more blows and beatings it receives the more alive it is.
It’s not enough to desire the virtues; we must do violence to ourselves to practice them, especially humility, without which charity wouldn’t be able to flourish in our heart nor could we one day be given the kingdom of paradise.
Courage! The battle is difficult, but the triumph will be more beautiful and consoling.
Dia: 24
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June
Saint John the Baptist
Spiritual Anthology: p. 173
Quote: Mg. I, p. 82
Text: My daughters, admire the loyalty and zeal of the holy precursor of Jesus,…St. John the Baptist, who knew how to seize every opportunity to make the Messiah known…
Doesn’t it seem to you, my daughters, that his example is a reproach to our indifference in so many situations in which we could glorify Jesus Christ and don’t do so?
Dia: 29
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June
Saints Peter and Paul
Spiritual Anthology: p. 165-166
Quote: Mg. II, p. 146
Text: Every day you have opportunities to win souls to the Heart of Jesus. Then for goodness sake, don’t let any opportunity to do so slip by! Think that every day, through your sacrifices and your forceful efforts, you can snatch a poor sinner from the clutches of the devil and thus earn for Jesus the glory of being eternally praised by a soul who might have cursed Him if you, by your sacrifices and prayers hadn’t carried him back to His fatherly embrace.
Keep in mind that this mission is reserved in a special way for souls consecrated to Him. Jesus thirsts, but His thirst is for souls.
Courage, then, and perseverance! Be open, sincere, joyful, prompt and perceptive. I recommend that you love and respect your excellent Superior who is sent to you by divine Providence.
May the Sacred heart of Jesus bless you and immerse you in a sea of divine graces and consolations to make up for the bitterness you have suffered.
Dia: 3
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July
Saint Thomas
Spiritual Anthology: p. 121
Quote: Mg. App.p.7-8
Text: The Sacred Heart sent you this cross to enable you to acquire other merits and because He wants you to be afflicted like all His other chosen souls.
Courage, then, and trust in the Lord who permits everything for our good, even the trials and crosses themselves, and assists us and gives us the strength we need to be able to gain an abundance of merit for paradise…
Yes, our only consolation amid so many misfortunes of life is the thought of an eternal reward above, a reward above, a reward that will be as great as the intensity of the suffering
Dia: 22
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July
Saint Mary Magdalen
Spiritual Anthology: p. 135
Quote: Mg. II, 61
Text: As much as you can, keep your mind lovingly and gently occupied with God; flee not only from every thought contrary to some virtue but also from every useless and vain thought as you would from the plague.
Try always to choose, in things where the choice is yours, that which is most contrary to your nature, the most humiliating, the most painful. Thus, don’t look for anything but suffering for the glory of Jesus.
Dia: 25
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July
Saint James
Spiritual Anthology: p. 123
Quote: Mp., p.1
Text: Recall often that since the goal of a religious, besides being the exact observance of God’s commandments, is that of living in union with Him, you must often practice acts of faith, hope, love, adoration, praise of God and humility.
Your actions must always be accompanied by an interior spirit, by a pure and upright intention and by complete conformity to the divine will.
Dia: 31
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July
Saint Ignatius Loyola
Spiritual Anthology: p. 81
Quote: Mg. I, p. 14
Text: You tell me you don’t feel God’s love in your heart. But don’t you know that he is our Father who has created us and redeemed us through His passion and death and who generously and will full hands bestows graces on us and loves us with an infinite love?
Don’t you know, daughter, that love for God is the most effective means of reaching perfection?
When one truly loves God, she has no other will than His, she loves nothing except what He loves, she hates nothing except what He hates, she hates nothing except what He hates, she does every-thing He commands and nothing that He forbids; in this way, she observes the whole law.
Dia: 6
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August
Transfiguration
Spiritual Anthology: p. 193
Quote: Mg. I, p. 84
Text: Let us also ask Jesus: “Master, where do you live?”; and He will answer us kindly as He did to His disciples: “Come and see.” Jesus drew them to Himself and He engaged them in very gentle conversation...
How rapidly those hours must have passed in such dear and holy company!...
But we need not envy their lot so long as we can, whenever it pleases us, enter the house of Jesus and engage in familiar conversation with him... If we would have greater faith and a sincere desire to draw close to Jesus and to follow him, the Church where he dwells would be the place of our most cherished delights, and at the foot of the Holy Tabernacle we would spend the most beautiful hours of our life!
Dia: 15
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August
Assumption
Spiritual Anthology: p. 198-199
Quote: Mg. I, p. 165
Text: In the temple… Mary reserved her thoughts and affection is for God alone, in such a way that the entire world was nothing for her, or rather it served as a ladder to climb to God.
Mary honored God and her superiors, she loved Him in her companions, she admired Him in the splendor of the heavens..., in the beauty of the flowers. If she spoke, it was of God and for God; if she worked or read, if she walked or strolled, if she gave her body food or rest, she did everything to please God.
And who could tell us what profound respect accompanied this habitual remembrance of God? What recollection of all her senses! How much modesty in her bearing and in all her actions!
Dia: 20
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August
Saint Bernard
Spiritual Anthology: p. 64-65
Quote: Mg. I, p. 136
Text: I urge you to keep your spirits very united to God, my daughters. Imitate St. Bernard who was renowned for his union with God…
Closing his heart to every worldly love and opening it totally to the love of Jesus and Mary, he raised himself above all passing things as if this twofold love were a twofold ladder, and having bid farewell to the world, he [retired] to the solitude of [Citeaux]…
You see then, my daughters, how poor and wretched we still are, having so little recollection and so little union with God and perhaps very little spirit of prayer.
Dia: 24
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August
Saint Bartholomew
Spiritual Anthology: p. 126-127
Quote: Mg. II, p.100
Text: Be generous with Jesus. Never refuse Him anything He asks you, even if it costs you your very life.
Be worthy of your vocation, worthy spouses of Jesus Crucified, who loves you so much and holds you dear.
I greet you, I bless you and I enclose all of you in the wound of the Sacred Side of Jesus, so that your spiritual enemies may have nothing to hold against you.
Warm yourselves in that furnace of… pure, holy and divine love that it may make you holy as your most affectionate Mother desires.
Dia: 28
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August
Saint Augustine
Spiritual Anthology: p. 252
Quote: Mg. I, p. 41-43
Text: …no more contrite, more humble, more grateful of penitent can be found than this great [Saint Augustine].
His entire life was a series of continuous striving, vigils, fasting, crosses; and deeming all these forms of expiation still insufficient because of the magnitude and the number of his faults, when he saw he was soon to die, he asked to have the penitential psalms affixed to the wall in his room and if he recited them was copious tears of repentance up to his last breath...
Let us compare our life with that of this great saint and judge ourselves but without becoming discouraged. Let us hurl ourselves with filial confidence into that Divine Heart that can do all things, and draw from him that strength that we need in order to sanctify our every action.
Dia: 29
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August
Passion of St. John the Baptist
Spiritual Anthology: p. 173
Quote: Mg. I, p. 82
Text: My daughters, admire the loyalty and zeal of the holy precursor of Jesus,…St. John the Baptist, who knew how to seize every opportunity to make the Messiah known…
Doesn’t it seem to you, my daughters, that his example is a reproach to our indifference in so many situations in which we could glorify Jesus Christ and don’t do so?
Dia: 8
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September
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Spiritual Anthology: p. 199
Quote: Mg. I, p. 164
Text: Let us all unite ourselves to the joys of the Child Mary; let us bless God by congratulating Mary and let us learn from her to place all our joy in the Lord and to wish for no other.
In God alone is true joy, which does not cause us any remorse, the joy that completely satisfies the heart and is a four taste of paradise. Oh daughters, let us leave the world it's false joys, which dissipate, seduce, corrupt and are nothing compared to the joy that comes from God.
Dia: 14
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September
Exaltation of the Cross
Spiritual Anthology: p. 230-231
Quote: Mp., p. 119
Text: Courage, my good daughter! Look at how your Spouse is crowned with thorns and covered with wounds! Reflect that the crown of the bride shouldn’t be more sweet than that of the bridegroom; if His flesh was so stripped that they could count His bones, it’s only right that one of yours can be seen too! Accept this cross a thousand times a day and kiss it with all the fullness of your heart out of love for the One who sends it to you. He sends it to you out of love, and as a precious gift.
Dia: 15
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September
Our Lady of Sorrows
Spiritual Anthology: p. 126
Quote: Mg. II, p. 360
Text: God alone knows how great is the desire I cherish to see you growing daily in virtue; not in words, but rather in solid virtue, lasting and consistent in its detachment from your own judgment and will and always submissive to that of your superiors.
Don’t worry if sacrifice seems hard to you sometimes; no, what God permits is never too much; and the soul who is generous and really attached to her Congregation and who loves perfection, must never say “enough.” Do you understand me?
Dia: 21
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September
Saint Matthew
Spiritual Anthology: p. 126
Quote: Mg. App, p. 35
Text: God alone knows how great is the desire I cherish to see you growing daily in virtue; not in words, but rather in solid virtue, lasting and consistent in its detachment from your own judgment and will and always submissive to that of your superiors.
Don’t worry if sacrifice seems hard to you sometimes; no, what God permits is never too much; and the soul who is generous and really attached to her Congregation and who loves perfection, must never say “enough.” Do you understand me?
Dia: 29
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September
Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael
Spiritual Anthology: p. 133-134
Quote: Mg. I, p. 171
Text: Mary was humble to the highest degree and thus [she became upset] upon hearing her praises on the lips of the Angel…
Let us also remember that humility is the greatest guarantee against the snares of the devil; [he] cannot conquer a humble soul by any means; but, if a single thread of pride can seep into the most enlightened and holy people, that suffices to drag them to the most serious ruin.
Dia: 2
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October
Guardian Angels
Spiritual Anthology: p. 30
Quote: Mg. I, p. 126
Text: We should imitate our good Guardian Angel: in church, his profound worship before the Tabernacle; in prayer, his recollection and [his] piety; in our temptations, his glorious battles against the devil…; in the practice of charity, his patience in bearing the mistakes and defects of his neighbor, his gentleness, his generosity, his assistance; in short, his conformity to God’s good pleasure in all things, the uprightness of his intentions, and his pure and innocent life.
Dia: 4
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October
Saint Francis of Assisi
Spiritual Anthology: p. 147
Quote: Mg. I, p. 28
Text: If you die to yourselves, [dearest daughters], to your self-love, you won’t have self-esteem, but you’ll despise yourselves deeply, considering yourselves the least daughters of the Congregation to which you belong.
Rather than desiring the esteem of your sisters and superiors you will have the greatest dread of it; contempt will make you rejoice, humiliations will be your happiness, touchiness and arrogance will be unknown to you.
Dia: 7
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October
Our Lady of the Rosary
Spiritual Anthology: p. 195
Quote: Mp., p.61-62
Text: Entrust yourself to your dear mother Mary; tell her that you want to love her Jesus and that you want to love Him very much; tell her to lend you her maternal heart [so that] you can genuinely love Him.
Dia: 15
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October
Saint Teresa of Jesus
Spiritual Anthology: p. 59-60
Quote: Mg. I, p. 127
Text: St. Teresa received from prayer great graces for her…own sanctification… Aridity, darkness, desolation, and all kinds of difficulties tried her in vain, nothing discouraged she. She knew that prayer has many levels, that the heavenly Spouse lives at the peal which one only reaches with much effort; for twenty-two years she persevered in the struggle.
Only then did she obtain the much desired goal: union with God by the consummation of her soul in holy love; through this union, all the virtues blossomed in her.
Love of poverty raised her above all goods of earth…, humility, above all confidence in God, above all contradictions and all obstacles; patience, above all the evils of life, wherein she saw nothing to love except suffering, to the point of repeating rapturously: “Either to suffer or to die!”
Dia: 16
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October
Saint Margaret Mary
Spiritual Anthology: p. 185-186
Quote: Mg. II, p. 174
Text: …when the tempest rages, take refuge in the recesses of the Heart [of Jesus and] be consoled by [that] hope which [his] promises constantly bring to full bloom in every holy soul. He has said: “Seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.” Are you looking for the way to be all his, for strength [for your] tasks, for peace of heart, for the joys of conscience?
Pray and you will find them. But let your primary prayer be integrity, charity, humility, in short, the practice of the virtues in which we must especially imitate the Heart of Jesus.
Dia: 18
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October
Saint Luke
Spiritual Anthology: p. 168
Quote: Mg. I, P. 135
Text: Dearest daughters, in order to imitate this glorious evangelist [St. Luke], we must work hard to make Jesus known at every possible occasion and we must do our best to study the truths and teachings of our faith and of Sacred Scripture. Let us meditate often on the mysteries which Jesus Christ came to reveal to us for our eternal salvation and which St. Luke narrates so precisely. Let us try to believe him with living faith so that, filled with so much love and gratitude for our divine Redeemer, we can fruitfully proclaim Him, and impress upon others the same sentiments that penetrate our being…
Often recall, my daughters, that every one of us must contribute to the sanctification of souls.
Dia: 28
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October
Saints Simon and Jude
Spiritual Anthology: p. 327-328
Quote: Mg. I, p. 120
Text: Let us learn to be Apostles, not in name only, but [according to] the spirit of the twelve Apostles…
Zeal is the duty not only of the Apostles but also of every Christinas: it is the practical consequence of the great commandment of charity. He who loves God should not allow Hime to be offended, to be denied the worship due Him, to have His holy name used in vain, to have His commandments violated; he must use all his influence to win hearts to God and move them to respect His laws.
Dia: 1
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November
All Saints
Spiritual Anthology: p. 124-125
Quote: Mg. I, p. 110
Text: When we recite the symbol of our faith: “I believe in the Communion of the Saints”, don’t you feel, my daughters, as rich as the beggar who found a treasure?
This treasure lies in the merits of Jesus Christ and of all the Saints; they are family goods that are not divisible, because charity knows neither mine nor yours, but is enjoyed in common; and daughters, let us say to God: “Lord, we offer you the torment of the martyrs, the labor of the apostles, the austerity of the anchorites, the merits of all the Saints, to conceal our poverty and sustain our prayer.”
Dia: 2
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November
All Souls
Spiritual Anthology: p. 213
Quote: Mp., p. 91
Text: The creature knows that when this earthly scene ends,… and everything disappears from the face of the earth, she can no longer show her love for the beloved in any way, thus she must try now to surround Him with tenderness and attention; at the same time, the Sacred Heart knows that even after torturing a beloved soul in this world, He will not leave it unrewarded after death, but will make it enjoy an immeasurable depth of glory and happiness, according to the amount of sorrow it has suffered here below.
Dia: 4
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November
Saint Charles Borromeo
Spiritual Anthology: p. 205-206
Quote: Mg. I, p. 142
Text: ...an immense charity united the heart of St. Charles to God. Filled with holy love, he had a horror of the least faults, for the sole reason that they displeased God who was his only love; [he also had a horror] of the smallest imperfections because he said they diminished the beauty of virtue; and, scrupulous in protecting himself from them, he kept watch over his senses to keep them from evil...
Let us imitate him, my daughters, and nothing will frighten us at the point of death; but, rather, we will eagerly await the moment when we will take flight into eternity, to flight ourselves with ardent love into the ocean of the divine Heart of Jesus and of the Heart of Mary, to love them forever and never gain to leave their delightful and holy company.
Dia: 20
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November
Blessed Clelia Merloni
Spiritual Anthology: p. 102-103
Quote: Mg. II, p. 99-100
Text: Great, sublime is the mission which awaits you…; Think about it seriously without interruption so that you may be fully convinced of its excellence.
Forget yourselves and your self-love, walk [securely] and generously along the road indicated for you, keeping yourselves strongly attached to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Leave all things without reserve; overcome any repugnance whatsoever; sacrifice your heart to the point of bloodshed; act sincerely without deceit or evasion.
Practice charity very much, that charity which should be the brightest jewel shining in our Congregation. This is the virtue I recommend the most to everyone, since the practice of this virtue can create a delightful Eden for souls while the lack of this virtue can bring about disunity of spirit, factions, divisions, the ruin of the Congregation and a great loss of vocations.
Dia: 21
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November
Presentation of Mary
Spiritual Anthology: p. 197
Quote: Mg. I, P. 167
Text: The life of Mary in the temple, considered in itself, was one of self-denial and humility: of self-denial, because she knew how to [sacrifice] her comfort, her own will,... for the worship of her God; I love humility, for she never showed any sign of vanity, of pride, of self satisfaction. She forgot herself to think only of how to please God and serve her neighbor…
Oh how removed she was from those small tricks of vanity, from those airs and expressions that are used to aggrandize self!…
Oh dearest daughters, let us beg her for a portion of her great self-denial and her great humility.
Dia: 30
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November
Saint Andrew
Spiritual Anthology: p. 129-130
Quote: Mg. I, p. 113-114
Text: Who more than a soul consecrated to God must be generous in carrying with great love the cross that God assigned her during her sorrowful pilgrimage in this valley of tears? In this, imitate St. Andrew, disciple of the cross…, who drew the most sublime wisdom of life from it.
Do you have the same fervor for the Cross of Jesus Christ, or rather… do you turn back… in a cowardly way as soon as you discern it in the distance? Ah, daughters, how far we are from this saying: “She who is not a martyr is not a religious!” Love generously and wholeheartedly all the crosses it will please Providence to send you and with which our life is filled.
Dia: 3
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December
Saint Francis Xaver
Spiritual Anthology: p. 175
Quote: Mg. I, p. 100
Text: Oh, how happy I would be, [daughters], if I could see you animated by a holy zeal…, by an ardent desire to spread out over the whole earth to make God loved and praised everywhere, saying with St. Francis Xavier: “As long as I know of one corner of the earth where God is not loved, I cannot enjoy one moment of rest!”
Despite its great desire to make God loved, zeal is able to contain itself and is never rude. The language of zeal is always moderate, its actions always deliberate, gentleness and prudence always preside over its actions and win over hearts. Are these, oh daughters, the characteristics of our zeal?
Dia: 8
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December
Immaculate Conception
Spiritual Anthology: p. 199
Quote: Mg. I, p. 164
Text: Let us all unite ourselves to the joys of the Child Mary; let us bless God by congratulating Mary and let us learn from her to place all our joy in the Lord and to wish for no other.
In God alone is true joy, which does not cause us any remorse, the joy that completely satisfies the heart and is a four taste of paradise. Oh daughters, let us leave the world it's false joys, which dissipate, seduce, corrupt and are nothing compared to the joy that comes from God.
Dia: 25
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December
Christmas
Spiritual Anthology: p. 57-58
Quote: Mg. II, p. 181- 182
Text: Let Baby Jesus be born in your heart and let Him give you that increase of grace, with whose help you can bring about your holiness. May the good God bless you and console you and all the sisters.
You must prepare yourself with prayer and …union with God for that increased suffering which your heavenly Spouse will rightly want of you.
I leave you in the Heart of Jesus and there I remain your most affectionate Mother.
Dia: 26
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December
Saint Stephen
Spiritual Anthology: p. 209
Quote: Mp. App. p. 151
Text: Don’t fear the cross, my daughter: God is Father and He always matches it to our strength; from it oozes the divine Blood which regenerates us and is the fountain of all the joys reserved for us above.
Dia: 27
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December
Saint John
Spiritual Anthology: p. 166
Quote: Mg. I, p. 85
Text: Let us admire, O daughters, the zeal of Andrew and John in communicating to Simon the grace they had received.
You see, daughters: wherever the fire of divine love is, it cannot remain hidden or idle, but at once it manifests itself as the living flame of a holy zeal. Let us, too, learn to work to bring about, above all else, the spiritual good of the people around us.
Sometimes, especially when we feel a bit of fervor during prayer, we let ourselves get carried away by impossible desires to convert unbelievers or to share the toils of the missionaries who go to win souls in distant lands; and meanwhile, we do not see what we could and should do for the good of the souls entrusted to our care.
Dia: 28
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December
Holy Innocents
Spiritual Anthology: p. 108-109
Quote: Mg. II, p. 118 -119
Text: Dearest daughter. Aren’t you ashamed to say you don’t like to be with children? But think, daughter, how beautiful the apostolate with children is!
Try instead to have special concern for those innocent souls [that] they might stay that way.
Imagine that every innocent child is the garden of Jesus’ delights. What good fortune it sound be for a spouse of Jesus to have the most solicitous concern for them! Don’t you think, daughter, about how much effort the devil uses to destroy their souls; what storms he is planning to ruin them?
Do you know what you should do, daughter? Cover them with the wings of a protective love; shield them with the Catechism, that food for their spirit, simplifying the explanations as a mother crumbles bread for her little children; set up in their midst the invincible bulwark of holy fear of God; and be assured, daughter, that the energy you expend for them will not be without great fruit and great reward.
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Baptism of Jesus
Spiritual Anthology: p. 244-245
Quote: Mg. I, p. 142
Text: Listen, my daughters, do you or don’t you understand that without sacrifices one doesn’t get into heaven?...
We have all sinned, so we must all do penance until death.
When we were baptized we all received the Spirit of God, through the suffering of Jesus Christ; and so, daughters, we are all obliged to constant penance.
All of us, to some degree, have a tendency to evil, which must be fought with penance, without which we would be lost; thus, our hope in the future and our remembrance of the past whose evil we must remedy, oblige us to penance which must last our whole life.
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Epiphany
Spiritual Anthology: p. 58-59
Quote: Mg. I, p. 90
Text: Besides the material temple where the Lord wants to receive the homage of our prayers, Jesus has another spiritual temple, where He wants to be honored, and this is our heart…
It must be the sanctuary of the Lord. There, His praises must resound… and fervent acts of love and constant prayer must rise to heaven like perfumed incense. Woe to us if we dare to profane it! Jesus directs [his] dreadful rebuke toward us too, daughters.
Might not our heart become a den of thieves, if we let worldly and natural affections, attachments to worldly vanities and things enter, while, as true temples of God, we should only let in holy thoughts and affections and let Jesus reign as absolute master, while throwing out all those who would want to come in and take control?
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Ash Wednesday
Spiritual Anthology: p. 268
Quote: Mp., p. 1
Text: My daughter, didn’t you hear Jesus’ invitation? He invites you to renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.
You, daughter, esteeming Jesus more than anything else and loving him as your Spouse with your whole soul, must offer Him in sacrifice all your pleasures, because only an upright intention can free you from every kind of self-love.
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Palm Sunday
Spiritual Anthology: p. 5-6
Quote: Mp., App, p. 149
Text: I leave you as a keepsake…the gentle saying of Jesus: “Whoever has put his hand to the plow should not turn back.”
Putting on the religious habit you, in fact, put your hand to the plow of mortification and renunciation of all your desires; you are ready, then, to plow a deep furrow into your soul, in a spirit of sacrifice and obedience, in which grace will plant the seed of virtue, which will bear fruit in charity and peace throughout your religious life.
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Holy Thursday
Spiritual Anthology: p. 96
Quote: Mg. II, p. 110
Text: But why, my most beloved daughters, don’t you truly and consistently practice seriously the virtue of fraternal charity? Don’t you remember that Jesus left us as a testament; “Love one another as I have loved you?”
…Don’t you know, daughters, that our divine Spouse Jesus wants our love to rise to the point of sacrifice? Yes, daughters, Jesus requires of us the sacrifice of comfort and pleasure, the sacrifice of our wealth and in certain cases even of life itself.
We, daughters, as spouses of a Crucified God, must be ready, as St. John told the faithful, to sacrifice all that we have, all that we are and [when necessary] our very life in the service of the brethren, since Jesus Christ, our Model, sacrificed His life for us.
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Good Friday
Spiritual Anthology: p. 308-309
Quote: Mg. I, p. 63
Text: …place yourselves at the feet of the Crucified, and see, daughters, if you can recognize an image of the divine Redeemer in your soul; if you have remained and are firmly resolved to remain hanging beside Him until death by the nails of your holy vows, your head crowned with the thorns of the interiors trails He wished to send you!
And don’t get up until you have made one of those resolutions which brings peace to the soul, which attracts graces for the Congregation and for the souls God entrusts to you, and which delights the heart of Jesus.
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Holy Saturday
Spiritual Anthology: p. 211
Quote: Mg. I, p. 160
Text: The Heart of your Spouse Jesus will be with you, no doubt, and someday He will repay a hundredfold what you have suffered for Him.
Be cheerful then and know that every new opportunity to suffer is money with which you can buy a little peace and comfort and special graces for your own soul, in the trials and struggles which will accompany you until death.
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Easter
Spiritual Anthology: p. 155
Quote: Mg. II, p. 96
Text: I wish you a happy and holy Easter, that Jesus may make you rise to better dispositions of spirit and heart. I wish you patience without which we let ourselves be clouded over by self-love, the source of every evil and upheaval.
To everyone without exception I recommend obedience. Yes, let it serve as the sun by day and the moon by night, and you will never stumble over the rocks of self-love.
Now I bless you all wholeheartedly…; while I remain in the ocean of peace of the Heart of Jesus,… your most affectionate Mother.
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Ascension of the Lord
Spiritual Anthology: p. 124
Quote: Mg. II, p. 79
Text: …We mustn’t go astray and turn our head aside in discouragement; we mustn’t give in and surrender under the blows of misfortune.
Our faith must be greater than anyone else’s. It must radiate and shine in us: for this reason it is not true that we will be separated; our separation will only be in appearance. We will only be divided physically; but our souls will not cease to be close even for an instant…
Oh daughter! We shall be ever united in prayer; it is the only bond which ties and unites spirits to one another.
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Pentecost
Spiritual Anthology: p. 43
Quote: Mg. I, p. 16
Text: If you invoke the Holy Spirit who is . . . divine wisdom, He will come into you and fill you with His light.
When His holy light has illumined your intellect and your spirit, you will feel stimulated and eager to travel the road to holiness and everything merely natural will seem to you to be mud and corruption.
Christian wisdom is beautiful in God’s eyes, because it teaches us innocence of life and inspires upright and honest intentions; it is beautiful in the eyes of people who cannot deny their esteem for it and who, because of it, love their religion; it is beautiful in itself because of its noble simplicity and the loftiness of its sentiments, the great virtues it inspires and the eternal joys to which it leads.
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Trinity Sunday
Spiritual Anthology: p. 45
Quote: Mg. I, p. 2
Text: When you feel so afflicted and abandoned, don’t become discouraged but remember that the God of consolations is near you, as is Jesus who has loved you so much as to die for your love, and who is watching you with a gentle and fatherly look of love; the Holy Spirit, the true Consoler of souls, is near you; that there is a more than motherly Providence who cares for you, who loves you so very much. I ardently desire that your heart will be consoled by these thoughts.
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Corpus Christi
Spiritual Anthology: p. 193-194
Quote: Mg. I, p. 6-7
Text: … I leave you at the feet of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament that you may pour out to Him your sorrow, your fears, your desires and... all the intensity of your filial love.
[Be] absolutely certain that He, the consoler of the afflicted, will comfort you and lead you to the practice of all those virtues with which He desires to see the delightful garden of your soul adorned. Always be generous with Jesus, and He will be most generous with you.
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Sacred Heart
Spiritual Anthology: p. 189-190
Quote: Mp., p. 9
Text: God wants to try you with this suffering. Don’t doubt that I will pray and have others pray…
Don’t worry so much, good [daughter], try to resign yourself generously to what the Sacred Heart wills, always for our greater good; and what at this time seems to us painful, agonizing, will one day bring us as a reward so many merits, accompanied by holy consolations.
Certainly I identify with how much you have to suffer…, and for this reason… I redouble my efforts to encourage you even more to have courage, hope, resignation. I hope that my poor words will bring you a bit of peace and comfort…
Implore the Sacred Heart, offer God all your anguish and you will find every consolation, every support for your suffering.
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Christ the King
Spiritual Anthology: p. 58-59
Quote: Mg. I, p. 90
Text: Besides the material temple where the Lord wants to receive the homage of our prayers, Jesus has another spiritual temple, where He wants to be honored, and this is our heart…
It must be the sanctuary of the Lord. There, His praises must resound… and fervent acts of love and constant prayer must rise to heaven like perfumed incense. Woe to us if we dare to profane it! Jesus directs [his] dreadful rebuke toward us too, daughters.
Might not our heart become a den of thieves, if we let worldly and natural affections, attachments to worldly vanities and things enter, while, as true temples of God, we should only let in holy thoughts and affections and let Jesus reign as absolute master, while throwing out all those who would want to come in and take control?
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Holy Family
Spiritual Anthology: p. 64
Quote: Mg. I, p. 19
Text: Beg [the Divine Heart] to give you the aid of His divine grace. Let your desire to conform your life to virtue be great and ardent. Beg Him with humility and trust; offer God your prayers always watered with the merits of the most precious Blood of Jesus, through the intercession of the most holy Virgin, of St. Joseph, of the holy Angels, of your holy Protectors.
