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O wondrous blessed clarity of Clare!
In life she shone to a few;
after death she shines on the whole world!
On earth she was a clear light;
Now in heaven she is a brilliant sun.
O how great the vehemence of the brilliance of this clarity!
On earth this light was indeed kept within cloistered walls,
yet shed abroad its shining rays;
It was confined within a convent cell,
yet spread itself through the wide world.
-- Pope Innocent IV
Born, 16 July 1194 at Assisi, Italy
Died, 11 August 1253 of natural causes
Nearly 800 years after she lived, Clare continues to be important to us-especially to everyone concerned about liberty, simplicity of life, and the fate of the poor.
Clare was born in Assisi in 1194, to a wealthy merchant family. Her biographers report that she was as beautiful and devout as she was rich. In 1212, when she was 17, Clare heard Francis preaching and was so moved by his call to Holy Poverty, that she asked him to receive her as a nun, to follow the same monastic Rule that he did. Francis was bemused, because in the Middle Ages, it would never have been acceptable for nuns to live as he and his friars did-begging and without property. To buy himself some time, and to keep her safe, he sent Clare to a nearby Benedictine monastery. Eventually, Francis created a convent for Clare and for the other women who had gathered around her. Francis provided a Rule of Life for what came to be called the Poor Ladies of San Damiano. Following her death, her Order's name was changed to the Poor Clares, which they are still called today.
Clare's life was not an easy or a peaceful one. From the moment that she cut her hair and took vows as a nun, to the time of her death in 1253, she was surrounded by controversy. Her family, hoping to make an advantageous marriage for her, were horrified by what she had done-even more so when her little sisters and her mother joined her. Bishops and popes opposed her-saying that it wasn't appropriate for cloistered women to live in poverty, and not to own property to support themselves with. It was only two days before her death that Pope Innocent IV approved the petition of the Convent of St. Damiano and other of her convents to live in poverty, subsisting only on what they could beg and the work of their own hands.
In an age of enormous wealth and opulence, the 13th Century, the High Middle Ages, Francis and Clare spoke of Holy Poverty, believing that wealth and possessions get between us and God. They took to heart Christ's words to the wealthy young man to sell everything he had, if he would achieve salvation.
This is revolutionary! If you don't own anything, you are much harder to control, because you're not worried about your property. No wonder the nobles and princes of the Church were disturbed! They were receiving an indictment of their way of life-in particular, since they allowed to common people to suffer and starve. Rich men and women were giving away their money to the poor and joining Francis and Clare. Noble women, who should have been making political liaisons, were tending the sick and impoverished. Why, to society, this was a scandal!
And I think that this is an important message for us personally: Francis and Clare say, "We HAVE so much, we spend so much time and effort taking care of our STUFF, or else making money to get more STUFF, that sometimes the getting and finding and fixing fills us up and we have no time for listening to Christ. And even with all our stuff, how generous are we to our poorer brothers and sisters?"
This is not the same Francis and Clare we usually think of, pleasant statues in the back garden surrounded by little bunnies and flowers-a Christian version of garden gnomes. These are inflammatory words! Words which burn and pierce! Personally, I myself feel indicted by them. Francis and Clare make me very uncomfortable. And I believe that they intend to. They are not just pleasant homey saints, they are prophets.
But that's not all I want to share with you about Clare today. In addition to being one of the early revolutionary and uppity women, Clare was also a great mystic and poet of the love of God. Everything which she did, she did out of love for God. And she wanted those around her to experience that passion. She invites us to free ourselves of the tyranny of possessions precisely because we often allow them to block our access to God.
St. Clare has a wonderful series of letters that she wrote to her spiritual daughters, providing instruction on how to pray, and describing her experience of God. I'd like to read you just a brief section from them. I invite you to close your eyes, and briefly, to follow her instructions.
"Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!May we, too, be filled with the knowledge of our poverty, and know, as did St. Clare, that only Christ can fill us. May we follow Christ, encouraged by Clare's model, to be poor in spirit and to reach out to our brothers and sisters who are poor. Amen.
Gaze upon that mirror each day, and continually study your face within it ... Look at the border of this mirror, that is, the poverty of Him Who was placed in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. O marvelous humility! O astonishing poverty! The King of angels, the Lord of heaven and earth, is laid in a manger!
Then, look at the surface of the mirror, consider the holy humility, the blessed poverty, the untold labors and burdens that He endured for the redemption of the whole human race. Then, at the depth of this same mirror, contemplate the ineffable charity that led Him to suffer on the wood of the Cross and to die there the most shameful kind of death.
Transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation. So that you too may feel what His friends feel as they taste the hidden sweetness that God Himself has reserved from the beginning for those who love Him."
-- Homily by The Rev. Laura Howell, 1999
Anglican form
of the
Chaplet of St. Clare of Assisi
Using The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Feast of Saint Clare, as follows:
Cross: My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. -- Song of Solomon 2:10-13
Invitatory Bead: O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Clare, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Cruciform Bead: My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me --Psalm 63:1
Week Beads: Psalm 63:1-7
1st: O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2nd: So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
3rd: Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
4th: So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
5th: My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
6th: when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7th: for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
Exit Cross: Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. --Luke 12:32-37
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Item No: St. Clare of Assisi 02
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