Clare vision

Kind of a lame pun on today's saint, the patron of television... Some of the ads promoting participation in Boston's about-to-be-inaugurated perpetual adoration feature a TV screen on one side, with the word "Reality?"; the other side has the Eucharist in a monstrance, with the word "Reality." That makes for an interesting connection with St. Clare, patron saint of TV, usually depicted holding a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament.

The responsorial psalm for today's Mass just happens to have a Franciscan "keyword" in it: "The portion of the Lord is his people." For Franciscans, the "little portion" was the tiny chapel of Our Lady, one of the churches Francis rebuilt with his own hands. According to St. Bonaventure (who wrote an authoritative life of St. Francis), "he loved this spot more than any other on the earth." It became the "home base" for his fledgling community, and it was here that Francis died. So a fitting response on the feast of the "first lady" of the Franciscan charism.