Reflect
Colossians 3:3 suggests that when we die to ourselves and set our minds on things above, our lives become “hidden with Christ in God.” St. Clare of Assisi experienced this on a level that is difficult for us modern people to understand. Clare, belonging to a noble and wealthy family, was expected to marry so that she could maximize her family’s wealth and influence. Instead, she fled her home in the middle of the night to meet up with Francis and his brothers, where she began her life anew as a cloistered woman dedicated to liturgy and prayer. Truly hidden in Christ, she had never been more alive.
Pray
Intercede on our behalf, St. Clare:
When you fled into the night, choosing Christ over the world,
trading royalty for poverty, you left all you knew behind.
Plunging down into the city beyond the safety of its walls,
guided by the Spirit’s wind, you moved deeper
into the plot of your life.
In becoming nothing to the world, disappearing into shadows
your life began anew.
Your courage and conviction is what I need as I dare
slip deeper into my own hiddenness in Christ.
Act
Finding the courage and conviction to let the Holy Spirit’s wind guide us deeper into our hiddenness in Christ, which is to say a fuller awareness of our identity as God’s beloved, can paradoxically lead to liberation even though it feels like letting go.
