“Blessed be you, my God, for having created me.”
—St. Clare
It has been said that St. Clare of Assisi spoke these words just before her death. It is a simple prayer of thanksgiving, yet it speaks to the power of God’s vision for us. Each of us has been created for a different purpose. Clare’s path was different from each of ours, yet in many ways it is the same. We’re all blessed to have been created. What will we do with that blessing? We know what St. Clare did with hers; now it is up to us to discern where our blessing is leading us.
Gaze | Consider | Contemplate | Imitate
While Clare’s path entails a truthful relationship with God, it also involves our truthful relationships with our neighbors; it takes place in the context of community. In this respect, gazing upon the mirror of the Crucified is not an exclusive human-divine relationship, that is, a vertical relationship with a transcendent God. Rather, the divine is enfleshed in the other—immanent—so that to follow Christ is to follow the one who follows Christ, and to see ourselves in the mirror of the Crucified is to see ourselves in the faces of our suffering sisters or brothers.
Clare’s path is essentially Pauline (1 Corinthians 11: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”) and she directs Agnes to the fullness of being through relationship with a God who is enfleshed in fragile humanity, that is, the humanity of community.16 For Clare, prayer without community cannot lead to the fullness of our self-identity, since it is in community that the mirror of our identity is reflected in the other, the neighbor whom we are called to love.
Love transforms because love unites, and it is in loving our neighbor through compassion that we become more ourselves, and in becoming more ourselves, we become Christ. –from Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love
Prayer
St. Clare, may your prayer of thanksgiving
to God ignite a spark within each of us to
embrace and live out the blessing that
we are simply by our creation.
Amen.
13 thoughts on “Lent with St. Clare: Second Thursday”
Very meaningful you tube
“Blessed be you, my God, for having created me.”
—St. Clare
the above simple prayer is so profound that we fail to see. thank you and God bless
Thank You to the Priest for the February 28, 2023 video
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Wow such powerful words. Thank you G-d for creating me. That’s the reward when we let go and let G-d.
G-d Bless.
Constant dedication to your vision has opened new ways for me to know my God. St Clare Pray for me.
Thank you for these reflections! Lent, never a favorite of mine, has been a joy this year as I walk with Clare. Clare, the woman of great insights with her feet on the ground and her heart with her Sisters–great model for me.
I have coffee each morning with Mother Mary on my prayer kneeler.
These videos that are only a minute or two, absolutely resonate with me! The voices are clear and calming…and I hear what they’re saying! I don’t feel overloaded. Thank You!
SUGGESTION
You should have boxes or icons where people can ‘like’ comments posted. I don’t see them. Benefits would be to see traffic and allow people to ‘agree’ without having to do their own ‘reply’.
Just a suggestion. I enjoy your website and the daily Lenten observances of Saint Clare.
Thank you.
God Bless
Today this reflection encourages me to consider all the blessings our Lord has bestowed upon my life, the many miracles, the chance meetings ,that were in fact part of His Divine Grace, and the talents & time He imparts in my life????????????????????
This Lent the overdose of mundane family sressors have sucked time and energy away from my prayer space.
These few minutes away from ‘stuff ‘ has been a real godsend.
A devotee of Francis , I knew little of Clare…thanks for the introduction!
Thanks to for being an anchor for my drifting attention.
Marg Dowsett.
I loved what Father said.. be present to the presence. Very simple yet profound.
“Be present to the Presence” <3 Love!!