Clare’s name means “light.” She is the bright, shining one who reflected God’s love into the world from a cloistered convent where she lived with her spiritual sisters. That light continues today to shine through the Poor Clares throughout the world as they pray for our world. Clare is also referred to as the “little plant” of Francis. One can visualize a branch plucked from a plant and stuck in the soil to take root to become a plant of its own. So was Clare’s spiritual being rooted in Francis. Both of them were the branches grown from the Lord who proclaimed, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5).
Christ is the mirror of God. “Mirror of Perfection” is a term used to describe Francis. And Clare was indeed a mirror of Francis. She caught what he taught by his way of life and then sent it into the world through her sisters, her prayer, her writing, and the Order she established. You and I can become mirrors of Jesus, Francis, and Clare in our own ways, in our own times.
—from Franciscan Media’s “St. Clare: Bright Light“
by Leonard Foley, OFM
