St. Anthony Mary Claret moved to Barcelona at age 18 to improve his knowledge of manufacturing techniques. He studied design, Castilian, and later French grammar. He became skilled at operating looms and helped other workers set up their looms. However, over time his obsession with manufacturing began to cool his early fervor. By the end of his third year in Barcelona, he had difficulty focusing on mass and his devotions, as his mind was constantly filled with new manufacturing ideas. He realized there was more machinery in his head than saints on the altar. Even when intensely focused on our goals and tasks, there will always be turmoil, setbacks and failures that can distract from spiritual priorities.

1. Homeroom
Class
NOV. 8, 2021

2. Objectives
IDENTIFY WAYS ON HOW TO
FOCUS ON YOUR GOALS.

4. Looking
back…
1st Homeroom Lesson about St.
Anthony Mary Claret:
- Early childhood and excellence
2nd Homeroom Lesson about St.
Anthony Mary Claret:
- Early devotions and
consistency

5. St. Anthony Mary Claret in Barcelona
(Teen-age and early adulthood years)
Chapter VIII
In 1825, around my Eighteenth Birthday, I moved to Barcelona
56. Because I wanted to improve my knowledge of manufacturing
techniques, I asked my father to send me to Barcelona. He agreed
and took me there. But, like St. Paul, I had to earn what I needed
for food, clothing, books, teachers, etc., with my own two hands.

6. 57. Besides design I studied
Castilian and, later, French
grammar, but always with
an eye to their usefulness in
business and manufacturing.

7. 62. With regard to manufacturing, I had become
adept not only in design but also in presetting
looms. Some workers asked me to do them the
favor of setting up their looms because they
were not skilled at it. I helped them and they
respected and liked me for it.

8. 65. My life at this time was an embodiment of what the
Gospel says about the thorns choking the good grain. My
ceaseless preoccupation with machines, looms, and
creations had so obsessed me that I could think of nothing
else. My God, how patient you were with me! Oh Virgin
Mary, there were even times when I forgot you! Mercy, my
Mother!

9. Chapter IX
Why I gave up manufacturing
66. During those first three years in Barcelona, the fervor that I had at
home began to cool. True, I received the sacraments frequently during the
year. I attended Mass on all feasts and holy days of obligation and daily
prayed the rosary to Mary Most Holy and kept up my other devotions, but
with none of my former fervor. My only goal and all my anxieties were
about manufacturing. I can't overstate it – my obsession approached
delirium. Who can say? Perhaps the very intensity of my inclination was
the means God used to take away my love for manufacturing.

10. 67. Toward the end of my third year in Barcelona, obsessed as I was, whenever I
was at Mass on holy days, I experienced the greatest difficulty in overcoming the
thoughts that came to me. It is true that I loved to think and dwell on my projects,
but during the Mass and my other devotions I did not want to and I tried to put
them out of my mind. I told myself that I'd think about them later but that for the
present I only wanted to think on what I was doing and pray. My efforts seemed
useless, like trying to bring a swiftly rotating wheel to a sudden stop. I was
tormented during Mass with new ideas, discoveries, etc.
There seemed to be more machines in my head than saints on
the altar.

11. What have you
realized from the
situation St. Anthony
Mary Claret has been
experienced?

12. - Even if we are so
focused on doing our
tasks and achieving
our goals, there will
always be turmoil,
setbacks, and failures.

13. Please answer the following questions in the
meeting chat. Answer them in one posting.
1. How did the pandemic affect you in achieving
your goals for this school year?
2. What are your ways on how to focus on your
goals for this school year despite all the challenges
that you are facing as an adolescent?