“Love God and Jesus, who was crucified for us, from the depth of your heart, and never let the thought of Him leave your mind.” —St. Clare
For Clare, Christ was her everything. In Christ she found inspiration for everything she did. Her life was an act of thanksgiving for Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on behalf of humanity. Certainly, today’s feast would have been one of great joy for Clare, as it is for all of us, for Christ has risen.
Gaze | Consider | Contemplate | Imitate
Clare’s thought is deceptively simple because it is centered on the mystery of God’s love in the paradox of the cross. Her relationship to the crucified Christ is theo-logical because her understanding of God filters through the “logic of the cross.” It is not a rational understanding of God, a deduction of insight based on certain premises. Rather, one might say that, for Clare, relationship to God is living in paradox because in the mystery of the cross Clare finds the key to life. The key to the door of life, is a mystery of opposites: death/life, poverty/riches, contempt of the world/spiritual joy, earth/heaven, time/eternity, goods of the earth/things of heaven. In her first letter to Agnes, for example, she writes:
Since contempt of the world has pleased You more than its honors,
poverty more than earthly riches, and You have sought to store up
greater treasures in heaven rather than on earth…. Your reward is
very rich in heaven! (Mt 5:12).
What a great and praiseworthy exchange:
to leave the things of time for those of eternity,
to choose the things of heaven for the goods of the earth,
to receive the hundred-fold in place of one,
and to possess a blessed eternal life!
Prayer
St. Clare,
Today we join you in celebrating the joy of Christ’s resurrection.
May your life continue to serve as a constant reminder for us to turn to Christ for all things.
Amen.
9 thoughts on “Lent with St. Clare: Easter Sunday”
Thank you for Lent through St. Clare. It has brought me greater understanding of God’sWill for me and a blessing for my Lenten journey. I looked forward to each day’s message. God bless you all.
journey.It
It has been a renewing journey for me, I love to read and learn from St Clare’s wisdom.
Holy Mother Clare, pray for us.
Thank you.
St. Clare’s life has been such a joy for me each day and understanding her love in living the life of poverty for her love of Jesus. She made it clearer to me just how much we need to be humble and satisfied with what we have and accepting suffering as a way to imitate Christ’s own sufferings for us. When I was young I always thought if we did good things we would be rewarded for them only to learn that God rewards us for the hardships and how well we accept them. Suffering is a part of life that must be because of how much he suffered for us. God is good and wonderfuf to us in sacrificing His only Son so that we might join Him in Heaven forever. God has given me very many gifts in life and I am grateful for His care of me. He is a good God who cares and loves us all. I will praise His Holy name forever.
By staying in communion with the Church, we are experiencing heaven already right here on planet Earth. We are the people of God. We are experiencing Jesus at least on a weekly basis in a personal way with likeminded folk.
But yet, we still have to go outside of the church and mingle with the rest of humanity for whatever it is worth. We still have to make our way in the world, however one does it. And that’s life. Only when God calls us home will be truly free. In the meantime, we have to continue to do our best to be good people and drudge along to the best of our ability and knowledge. We have to let God do his part too as to continuing to affect our lives. God wants the best for us in each of our different circumstances.
I have enjoyed the Lenten journey with Clare. I have been imbibed with a New spirit of love into word of God through the Life. Through out this journey u have experienced the living God in my life despite all the accompanied temptations and trials.
Most loving God of all Angels and saints use me ,mould me and fill me with a renew spirit. May your word be a key to my life. St Clare of Assisi Pray for me.
What a wonderful Lenten gift to read daily about St Clare and how much she loved Jesus her sisters and her super friend St Agnes. When we visited Assisi 3 years ago it was mainly about St Francis and a little about St Clare but these daily readings have been a real eye opener about this beautiful Saint. St Clare pray for us.
A shared faith leads to deeper hope and a compassionate love. Thank you for sharing glimpses of Clare’s extraordinary spiritual journey during these challenging times.
“Love God and Jesus, who was crucified for us, from the depth of your heart, and never let the thought of Him leave your mind.” —St. Clare
This sums up our journey with St. Clare perfectly!
Happy Easter one and all.!
Alleluia, Alleluia He is Risen Indeed…..He is Truly Risen….Alleluia!
Thank you Franciscan media for providing this journey with St. Clare of Assisi to us as pilgrims during our Lenten experience.
Thank you for the chance to spend Lent in company of Clare and Agnes. It was a special gift.
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