SAINT CLARE

Dear Saint Clare,

orn to wealth in Assisi, Italy,
I understand that you had a special affection for God’s poor.

Insisting that you marry, your parents found a noble prospect, but you fled your home
rather than be wed, for you wanted to give your life only to God. You then found protection in the religious house
of the Order of Friars, recently established by the godly Francis in your city.

Joined by your sister, and then by other holy women intent on living an austere religious life, you established a group known as the “Poor Ladies.”

I know that You resisted attempts by several successive popes to impose on your sisters any requirement which would diminish
the Order’s radical commitment
to extreme corporate poverty.

Ten years after your death, in 1263,
the order renamed itself the “Poor Clares”
in your honor.

I pray to you now, today, Poor Clare,
for poverty of spirit, and for disengagement
from physical things, especially as they come in any way between me and my religious life, or me and Our Lord God Redeemer.

Give me eyes to see through materialistic scrims and distractions of the physical world to the substantive and enduring treasures of the heavens beyond this earth.

Help me always to remember that,
“All this will pass away,”
and only our merits and our good deeds
will remain to us when we appear before
the court of Our Maker.

Pray for me, Poor Clare, I beg you, for you are rich indeed in the treasures of heaven
and abundantly graced in the sight
of Our Divine Lord.

Amen

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