2011-2012 The Poor Clares celebrate the 800th Centenary of their foundation by St Clare
Please go to the page entitled The Year of Saint Clare for the next instalments.
Life at the Benedictines was something Clare was totally unused to. She was not one of the community. She did not want to be a Benedictine. She wanted to live the simple, poor life like Francis and his Brothers. So for the moment she had to be content to be a servant for the nuns. This would have involved working in the kitchen, washing up, cleaning, doing menial tasks all day long. On the first day she was there, Monday of Holy Week, she was told to go to the church. There, to her horror, were her uncles. They were very angry, but at first they spoke to her in a reasonable way. Unable to persuade her to give up her mad idea "they employed violent force, poisonous advice, and flattering promises, persuading her to give up such a worthless deed that was unbecoming to her class and without precedent in her family." But Clare kept her cool, and knowing that this church was a place of sanctuary, "taking hold of the altar cloth, she bared her tonsured head maintaining that she would in no way be torn away from the service of Christ. With the increasing violence of her relatives, her spirit grew and her love - provoked by injuries - provided strength." Seeing that their mission was useless, the uncles went away. Clare remained there for a few days more, until . . .
Life at the Benedictines was something Clare was totally unused to. She was not one of the community. She did not want to be a Benedictine. She wanted to live the simple, poor life like Francis and his Brothers. So for the moment she had to be content to be a servant for the nuns. This would have involved working in the kitchen, washing up, cleaning, doing menial tasks all day long. On the first day she was there, Monday of Holy Week, she was told to go to the church. There, to her horror, were her uncles. They were very angry, but at first they spoke to her in a reasonable way. Unable to persuade her to give up her mad idea "they employed violent force, poisonous advice, and flattering promises, persuading her to give up such a worthless deed that was unbecoming to her class and without precedent in her family." But Clare kept her cool, and knowing that this church was a place of sanctuary, "taking hold of the altar cloth, she bared her tonsured head maintaining that she would in no way be torn away from the service of Christ. With the increasing violence of her relatives, her spirit grew and her love - provoked by injuries - provided strength." Seeing that their mission was useless, the uncles went away. Clare remained there for a few days more, until . . .
Like Jesus, Clare endured the hatred and violence of the family she loved. But her love for her Lord was stronger, and she was totally committed to him, and at this time was waiting to see what opportunities would come her way to enable her to live the Gospel life he was calling her to. Meanwhile the humble service she carried out for the nuns was a good beginning in the school of following the Poor Christ. I think she is a symbol for us both never to look down on menial, humble service, and she shows us how to wait for circumstances to be right to show us what God's will is for us.
What would be the opportunity for the next part of Clare's life? Come back to this page soon to find out.
On Palm Sunday night, 1211, the l8 year old Clare went out of her home in Assisi without the knowledge of her parents, to give her life to follow the footprints of Christ. She was inspired by St Francis, who had fallen in love with Christ and had shared this with Clare.
It is an amazing story: Clare had asked Francis how she could follow her heart by living the Christian life like he did. But she was a woman, and could not go around in the Middle Ages begging like Francis did. Francis did not have a long term plan for her future. Nevertheless he told her that she should leave her house in the night and go down the hill outside the city walls to the little chapel of St Mary and the Angels, and there Francis and his brothers would meet her. This she did, escaping from her home through a door that was seldom used and which was barred with heavy stones. She marvelled that she had the strength to open it, but she did, and as planned, was met by the brothers carrying torches. Francis gave her a rough tunic, with a rope for a belt. Then he cut her hair in a round - she had long fair hair - and gave her a veil. Then she put her hands in the hands of Francis, and vowed her whole life to God. After that Francis and Brother Philip took her to the Benedictine nuns nearby.
I think it is important for us today to encourage one another on our journey to God, just as Francis encouraged Clare by sharing his enthusiasm for Christ. It is good if we can find a 'soul friend' with whom to share so that there can be mutual support, the one for the other. Meanwhile we can deepen our own love for God by giving him some of our time each day in prayer. It is the only thing we've got to give him - our time! In this year of St Clare let us ask her to pray for us.
Watch this space for a continuation of Clare's story. What was her life like with the Benedictines?
Feast of St Francis of Assisi - Monday, 4th October
This is the most important date in the Franciscan calendar. It is a time when we recall the main events of his life and try to get in touch with the way in which he followed Christ.
The way in which he started on this journey is key: he had heard the Voice from the crucifix in San Damiano call him by name and commission him to go and "Rebuild my Church". This started him on a relationship with Jesus that just got deeper and deeper over the twenty years that were left to him. He sought solitude and silence and really experienced Jesus' presence in prayer. This was just a preliminary to his real conversion which happened when he met a leper. Up to this moment he had been repulsed by the smell and sight of lepers, and would ride 2 miles out of his way to avoid them, but this day he actually dismounted from his horse, gave the leper an alms and kissed him. Towards the end of his life he wrote: "While I was in sin, it seemed very bitter to me to see lepers. And the Lord himself led me among them and I had mercy upon them. And when I left them that which seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness of soul and body, and afterward I lingered a little and left the world." (Testament 1-2) What he meant by that was that he gave himself entirely over to the service of God and sought nothing for himself.
God had so captivated his heart that from his point of view he wanted to spend all his time in prayer and solitude, but he did now know if this what was God wanted him to do. So he sent messages to two people: Brother Sylvester and the Lady Clare. They both sent back the same message: he was to go out an preach to the people. That was the way the Church would be rebuilt.
So to help him with this he involved the men who had already followed him on his journey to Christ. They went about in poverty, because Christ was poor, and in joy, because to be with Christ was to be filled with joy. Their message was "May God give you peace!" Many people came back to the faith through their preaching, and he gave lay people a rule of life that would bring them ever closer to God. This still exists today as the Secular Franciscan Order. He already had called the men who joined him the Friars Minor, and they are still living the Rule he gave them. For women who wanted to give their lives to God he first accepted the Lady Clare of Assisi, and set her and her sister, Catherine in the church of San Damiano, where at one time there were 50 sisters living their life of poverty and prayer.
Francis travelled all over the countryside around Assisi. He went to Spain, through France, and to north Africa, where he met a Muslim Sultan, and had his advice been followed, the war between Mulims and Christians would have ceased then and there. He also went to the Holy Land. During these travels he got an eye disease, and probably malaria, and his health began to decline. But this did not stop him being hard on himself, so much so that he apologised to his body toward the end of his life for having treated it so badly!
We have already told you the story of the Stigmata, the final imprint of Christ upon him. He died two years later, in 1226, lying poor on the ground, saying to his Brothers: "I have done what is mine to do. May Christ teach you what is yours."
So his story can inspire us to really desire to follow the way Jesus leads us, and not only to come ever closer to him in prayer, but also to go out to the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves, as he went out to the lepers. Like him, may we always search for God's will for us in life, and like him, seek the advice of others to help us.
The Stigmata of St Francis - Friday 17th September.
Two years before Francis died, he went to Mount La Verna to spend the 40 days preparation for the feast of St Michael which falls on 29th September in prayer and solitude. He took with him his dear Brother Leo, who would look after his needs and ensure he was not disturbed. All his life he had sought to follow the Crucified Christ, and now as he prayed alone on this mountain he sought an even closer intimacy with his God. He wanted to know more he could do to be conformable to God's will. So he took the Gospels, and after praying for guidance, opened the Book three times. Each time it fell open at a passage from the passion of Christ. Francis understood that his dream of following Christ even to the cross was how God's will would be fulfilled in him. He wanted to experience the depths of Chris's love, and the pain of his physical sufferings which were the tangible signs of his love.
Then, as he looked upward he saw something moving towards him from a distance. It drew nearer and nearer and shone with a great light. It was a Seraph with six wings. Two of his wings were raised upwards, two were over his head, as if for flight, and two covered the body of a man who was crucified in the centre of the Seraph. The vision filled Francis with great joy, as the man looked at him so graciously, but he could not understand what it meant. Then, as he looked down, he saw marks appearing on his hands, like the heads of the nails he had seen on the man on the cross. His feet too were stamped with the marks of nails, and he has a wound on his right side, which was bleeding. Now understanding came. In the words of St Paul: I bear the marks of Christ in my body, and with Christ I am nailed to the cross.
The desire to be one with Christ, formed when the San Damiano crucifix spoke to him all those years ago, was now granted in its most vivid way. He was so touched by the immensity of Christ's love for his people as he experienced the way in which he suffered, that his first reaction was to write an amazing serious of statements expressing what God meant to him.
(See Spiritual Reading page for these statements.)
