There is a line from our first reading that I have been reflecting on this morning. It says: “This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other” (Dt 4:39). God is all powerful, He is all knowing, He is all loving. He knows our hearts, He knows our needs, He knows our desires. And because of that He chooses to be in relationship with us. That’s why He sent His Son into the world, so that we could be in communion with Him for all Eternity. He calls us into that intimacy and that relationship with Him.

Our saint for today, St. Clare of Assisi, knew that love of God. She knew who He was. She knew how He was calling her into a life of devotion, a life of prayer, a life of dedication and service to Him and His Church. Clare stopped at nothing to make that happen.

The Lord spoke to Clare and changed her heart during a Lenten mission where she heard St. Francis preaching. As a result of that mission, Clare and Francis would become lifelong friends and spiritual companions. But that almost didn’t happen. Clare’s father never wanted his daughter to enter religious life.

One evening when Clare was 18, she escaped her father’s home in order to join the group of Francis’ followers. She “was met on the road by friars carrying torches, and in the poor little chapel called the Portiuncula received a rough woolen habit, [and] exchanged her jeweled belt for a common rope with knots in it.” St. Francis himself was the one who cut her hair in that ceremony. Afterward, Clare was sent to live in a Benedictine convent. When her father and uncles discovered where she was, they immediately stormed the convent in rage, attempting to take Clare back to their home. But Clare refused to go and clung to the altar of the church. She threw her veil to the side, revealing her cropped hair, and remained adamant that she was dedicating her life to living the Gospel and serving the Lord.[1]

Sixteen days later, her sister Agnes joined her in the convent. Others came, as well. “They lived a simple life of great poverty, austerity, and complete seclusion from the world, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second Order.” Then at the age of 21, “Francis obliged Clare under obedience to accept the office of abbess, [which] she exercised until her death.”[2]

We don’t necessarily have to be as extreme as Clare was in choosing to follow the Lord, but we all have to choose to follow Him. We all have to respond to His invitation into Communion. The Lord has put that desire on our hearts because He loves us so immensely. How is He inviting each of us, in our own unique ways today, to respond? How is He asking us to know that He is God, that there is no other like Him? How is He asking us to follow Him? Let’s pray with that today.

Image: Fresco of Saint Clare and sisters of her order, church of San Damiano, Assisi. Used under public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

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[1] https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-clare-of-assisi/

[2] https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-clare-of-assisi/