The old manuals on asceticism taught everyone to seek his “dominant passion”, namely, the defect that hindered his spiritual progress. Once discovered, a well planned programme was set to fight against it. Thus someone who knew Claret closely affirmed that “his dominant passion” as preaching.
Claret was mainly a preacher. He founded his Congregation of the missionaries with an urgent need for popular missions and retreats. Only later on, they took up other ministries in relation to the service of the Word. We can´t imagine the number of sermons preached by Fr. Claret. In July, 1861, when he was travelling with the royal family, he wrote, “My greatest pain is to remain in this palace. It´s true that I preach always in the prisons, hospitals, care homes, schools, convents and towns; but I am not satisfied. I would like to run…..On the 15th we shall go to Santander where I expect to be fulfilled…….” (EC II, p. 32). On this journey an unexpected thing took place, namely, when the train stopped in one station, Claret preached from the window to the people on the platform. When they returned on August, 16, he preached 11 sermons in Burgos.
As the spoken word seemed little, Claret dedicated assiduously to write. Already in 1847, he founded an editorial, The Religious Publishing House, understood only as a means of apostolate. He published some 120 books; as he used to spend the day in preaching and hearing confessions, he wrote so many books “stealing time from sleeping”.
How good it would be that many believers of today have a “dominant passion” that is well oriented and “evangelically bright” to show them the opportunity to introduce effectively the message of faith!