She imitated St Francis of Assisi in the virtue of poverty; remarkable for her penitent life. She founded the ‘Order of the Poor Clares’. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1603)
St Clare’s spirit of generosity, poverty and piety
God called Clare to spread and perpetuate among women the spirit and austere rule of St Francis, a fellow citizen. Her parents, highest ranked in Assisi, wished to keep her in the world; but at the age of eighteen, she fled from her father’s house, had her long hair cut off, and was clothed in the habit of penance by St Francis in the convent of Portiuncula.
God rewarded this great generosity and sent Clare a great number of companions. She formed the nucleus of the new order and was elected first Abbess (1212). After the example of their foundress, they all practised austerities till then unknown among women.
They went barefoot, slept on boards, kept perpetual abstinence, fasted most of the year, abstaining even from milk, eggs, and fish. They wore a rough hair shirt and rose in the night to chant the Divine office together.
The saint found means of practising still greater severities. (After almost eight centuries we see daughters of St Clare living and persevering in all these austerities.) Generosity knows neither obstacles nor impossibilities. How mortified we should be, and what great progress we would make in virtue, if we were animated by it as St Clare was!
St Clare’s esteem for poverty was astonishing. She laid down in her Constitutions that the life was to be common; no sister, not even the superioress, was to possess anything of her own; and the community has no endowments, but always to subsist by their labor and alms of the faithful. She firmly resisted Popes Gregory IX and Innocent IV who wished her houses to have fixed revenues like the other religious orders.
She chose for herself the worst things in the house. People said her poverty was exaggerated. She replied, Jesus Christ had understood and practised it in this manner. If observed in this way, it would preserve her convents from relaxation, a worldy spirit, divisions, and views of personal interest.
St Clare found consolation in religious duties, in frequent communion; and in mental and vocal prayers a great part of the night. By her prayers she miraculously preserved her convent from invasion by the Saracens* and the town of Assisi from great misery.
Humble and grateful she looked on herself as a debtor to her fellow citizens who gave her community their daily subsistence. She made it a rule to pray for them.
[*The walls of St Clare’s convent blocked their way. While the Saracens were climbing the walls, St Clare directed that the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament be displayed to the enemies while she and her sisters prayed at the monastery’s gate. She begged the Lord to defend them from the infidels. A sudden terror seized the infidels and all fled. (In Fr Bel R San Luis, SVD, ‘Word Alive’, “Manila Bulletin”, 13 August 2001)]
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp512-4
St Clare Saw Christ in the Poor
Clare’s contemplative journey, which culminated in her vision of the King of Glory, begins precisely with that spirit of poverty (cf Lk 1:48) which empties her of everything but the simplicity of a gaze fixed on God.
For Clare, poverty, which she loved so much and mentioned so often in her writings, is the wealth of the soul. Stripped of its goods, the soul is like an empty shell in which God can pour out an abundance of his gifts. ...
If Catherine of Siena is the saintly woman full of passion for the Blood of Christ, the great St Teresa is the woman who goes from ‘mansion’ to ‘mansion’ to the threshold of the great King in the Interior Castle, and Therese of the Child Jesus is the one who, in gospel simplicity, travels the little way -- Clare is the passionate lover of the poor, crucified Christ with whom she wants to identify absolutely ...
Like Francis, from her cloister she raised a continual thanksgiving to God in her prayer, praise, supplication, intercession, weeping, and sacrifice. She accepted everything and offered it to the Father in union with infinite thanks of the only begotten Son, the Child, the Crucified, the risen One, at the right hand of the Father.
Ref: cf “Pope John Paul II, Breakfast with the Pope”, 1984, 78
Aspects of Christian poverty
To follow Christ very closely we must live as he lived in the middle of the world. One way to live this poverty is to take good care of what we own so that it lasts a long time. This attitude of real mortification consists of repeated very small sacrifices. Living without surplus goods will be following Christ’s own life of detachment.
St Augustine teaches: “What is superfluous for the rich is the necessity of the poor. When we have superfluous possessions, we possess objects that harm us.” (“Commentary on Psalm 147”) “One clear sign of detachment is genuinely not to consider anything as one’s own.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 524 )
“We have to make demands on ourselves in our daily lives. In this way we will not go about inventing false problems and ingenious needs which are prompted by conceit, capriciousness and a lazy approach to life. We ought to be striding towards God at a fast pace, carrying no impediments which might hinder our progress.” (Ibid, “Friends of God”, 125)
While we struggle to be free of false attachments, we must grow in our gratitude to the Lord for what we have. We must thank God for the goods at our disposal at work which allow us to support our families and collaborate in apostolic activities; prepared to forego them, should God so desire, without any complaint.
The Blessed Virgin will help us live this piece of advice: “Do not fix your heart on anything that passes away. Imitate Christ, who became poor for us, and had nowhere to lay his head. Ask him to give you, in the midst of the world, a real detachment, a detachment that has nothing to soften it.” ((Ibid, “The Forge”, 523)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 5:138-40
In the year 810, the Emperor Nicephorus and the Empress Irene sent to Charlemagne two of the Blessed Virgin’s robes; he deposited them in his church at Aix-la-Chapelle, from which Charles the Bald took one, which he presented to the Cathedral of Chartres.
Ref: Locrins Anaceph., p. 3. “Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar (http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)(www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of the Way / ‘Madonna della Strada’. Original icon in its church home. As a type of icon of Hodegetria. Originally a Jesuit devotion. [See December 18.] (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Way, St Charles, MO, USA.(www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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