Minute Meditations

For Clare of Assisi, friendship with Christ entailed a friendship of self-giving love.

One of the earliest accounts of Francis, the “Legend of Perugia,” quotes Francis as telling the first friars, “You only know as much as you do.”

The centrality of the Crucified in the life of Francis suggests that Francis became a friend of Christ because he sought to follow Jesus who lived out of depth of love in obedience to the Father.

In Fratelli Tutti Pope Francis promotes a universal aspiration toward fraternity and social friendship.

For Franciscans today, material poverty is not the greatest concern but rather an acknowledgment that their “poverty of being” is essential.

An adaptation of Clare’s words, Gaze upon Christ, Consider Christ, Contemplate Christ, can be a Franciscan mantra for those wishing to draw closer to God in contemplative prayer.