Life stands out beyond ... - Claretian Missionaries

June 28, 1813…

This date brings to mind an endearing name: María Antonia París, who, 209 years ago, made her way to life at a time of serious conflicts in her native land. We know that life, God’s GIFT, stands out beyond contradiction and death. A life that will bear fruits of newness and openness to the Spirit for the good of mankind. Blessed are you, Lord, for such goodness!

As time went by of time, her life dedicated to the service of God and her neighbour and her ecclesial vocation converged in her life as a fundamental choice. María Antonia París was a woman consecrated to a mission never imagined: to renew the Church, to restore its beauty.

Renewing the Church, according to what God had inspired her to do, included not only a deep sense of conversion, but also restoring peace to the Church: “O my God! You said to me that you could and wanted to give peace to your church…” (Journal 106).

Through her writings she manifests this vocation for peace not only for the Church in a broad sense, but also in the immediate environment: the communities of her New Order were called to peace which consists in the virtue of the religious (cf. Letter 107) since charity and union form the peace of the Monasteries (cf. Letter 108). Peace is the precious fruit of a heart freely given out of love for God’s will and in such a way that no circumstance would suffice to disturb the peace and rest of the soul.

Today, as yesterday, we need peace. In the heart of every person, in our wounded and suffering world. Through the intercession of María Antonia París, we ask God for this peace:

God, Father of goodness,
who put in the heart of the
Venerable Maria Antonia Paris,
a great love for the Church and
the urgency of proclaiming the Gospel
to all peoples.
May the example of her life help us
to be true apostles
and grant us for her intercession
the grace (peace) we trust
attain from Your mercy.
Amen