I am no scholar. I always feel embarrassed when I am called “an expert in Clare” by my brothers. Yet I also feel honoured. After all, I only have a diploma in Franciscan Studies and Spirituality from the Franciscan Study Centre in Kent, England. Ironically though that is what set me on my journey to Clare of Assisi – to understand, discover, and weave her feminine side into my Franciscan inspiration and life.
Clare’s tapestry of Franciscan Spirituality is manifested in her Letters to Agnes of Prague, and I have woven her Mirror Spirituality and Meditation on the San Damiano Crucifix into my Franciscan Spiritual Living Approach. I endeavour to be as Clare encouraged – “Be filled with a remarkable happiness and a spiritual joy!” (1 Letter to Agnes of Prague).
In her Mirror Spirituality, Clare points to the Cross as the Mirror. Gazing at it, considering it, contemplating it, and listening to it let her not only see herself and Christ, but also become the imitation of that relationship reflected in and through the Mirror. Clare evokes this in her Testament to her sisters “to be models and mirrors for others may behold themselves in us”, and this has become a constant reminder of my intimacy with Christ in the Mirror. I am to be a Mirror inspiring those who gaze, consider, and contemplate it become mirrors themselves.
Clare’s intuitive Meditation (4 Letter to Agnes of Prague) on the San Damiano Crucifix combines elements of Lectio Divina and Visio Divina. Just as Francis heard the San Damiano Crucifix speak to him, in her Meditation, Clare is led (leading me) on a journey into the labyrinth of the Crucifix. She begins by reflecting on God’s vulnerability and poverty (my own vulnerability), moves to God’s charity and embrace (God accepts me), then into the depth of God’s love and Self-Giving (God graces me), until finally she is given a contemplative assurance that God is always embracing her (and with me), and calling her “to rebuild”, just as He called Francis.
Friar Michael Goh OFM
0 Comments