Saint Clare was born into a noble family of Assisi around the year 1194. The family atmosphere in which Clare grew up was filled with a great sense of spirituality. Clare’s mother raised her daughters very attentively and was one of the few ladies of Assisi who was fortunate enough to travel to the Holy Land. From Clare’s childhood, people would admire in her a vivid attraction to solitude, prayer and love for the poor.

She resisted the opposition of her family. A few days later, her sister Agnes asked to join her. Clare accepted her request with joy, and thanked the Lord for her. Nothing could change the mind of Agnes, not even the opposition of her family: she wanted to remain with her sister. Soon, their mother Ortolana and their Sister Beatrice came to join them.

The community grew and flourished. Although young, Clare became a perfect guide for the spiritual life. Under her direction, the community practiced a marvellous poverty, an absolute detachment and a sublime obedience: God’s love was at the heart of all the virtues.

Clare, superior, saw herself as the last in the monastery. She awoke the sisters, rang the Matins’ bell, put on the lights and cleansed the monastery. She had great faith in the human person. She was a true formation school, based on a positive vision of the human person. She used to say that the faithful person is greater than heaven, since the heavens cannot contain their Creator, but the faithful person is the Lord’s dwelling place.

She wanted to live in her monastery, in a poor and simple way, with no lands or properties. She wanted to have one privilege: to live without privileges!

Her poverty was a matter of identity: to follow Christ, poor and crucified! She embraced poverty, because her Beloved embraced it.

Clare’s prayer was very visual. She used her senses: Look, consider, meditate and contemplate… To pray, you don’t need to close your eyes, you don’t need to hide from the world. But, you need to look: to look at the world with the eyes of God, and to look at Christ, our Mirror. Looking creates a likeness.

Our culture is full of images (TV, internet, fashion,…) that influence us and change our lives. Christ’s Mirror liberates us and transforms the totality of our being. You need to look at it every day and continually.

"I, Clare, a servant of Christ, a little plant of our most holy Father Francis, a sister and mother of you and the other poor sisters, although unworthy, beg our Lord Jesus Christ through his mercy and the intercession of his most holy Mother Mary and all the saints:

that the heavenly Father give you and confirm for you this most holy blessing in heaven and on earth.

On earth, may he multiply you in his grace and his virtues among his servants and handmaids. In heaven, may he exalt you and glorify you among his saints.

I bless you during my life and after my death, as I am able, out of all the blessings with which the Father of mercies has and does bless his sons and daughters in heaven and on earth and a spiritual father and mother have blessed and bless their spiritual sons and daughters.

Always be lovers of your souls and those of all your sisters. And may you always be eager to observe what you have promised the Lord. May the Lord always be with you and may you always be with him! Amen."