A St. Clare Friend

"Her love for Christ, her share in the vision of St. Francis and her extraordinary gifts a soul-guide, friend, and leader made her a shining light and a clear mirror of Christ for thousands in her lifetime and still a light and inspiration to Christians from many denominations today." Malcolm Guite

In the depths of covid, on a zoom screen six years ago, I met my St. Clare friend. We had no friends in common, only a love for the written word and a love of nature. She lived on the top of a mountain over the rivers and through the woods from me..."a fer piece" as they say in the South, and we didn't meet in person for a couple of years. When we did meet, I was shocked at how small she was; in my mind she was a person larger than life because of her expansive love for all creatures and all creation. I have since learned how much like St. Clare she really is.

As Malcolm Guite says about St. Clare, my St. Clare friend is also a soul guide and leads with a shining light, serving as a clear mirror of Christ to all who cross her path. She is a light and an inspiration to all of us who journey with her.

I have watched her minister to people virtually and in person, care for abandoned animals of all kinds (from newborn possums to wayward ponies.) She talks to birds and stars, listens to the whisper of the wind as though it were an audible book, and gives of all she has to the least of these whenever and however she can.

Below is Malcolm Guite's sonnet in honor of St. Clare "reflecting on how the meaning of her name, ‘light and clarity’, was also the meaning of her life." So it is with my St. Clare friend. As Marcy Hall's icon below says, "We become what we love, and who we love shapes who we become." I can only hope that I will become even a fraction of my St. Clare friend whom I love dearly.

May we all have St. Clare friends who pray for our pilgrim souls in our dark nights.

Clare

Santa Chiara, lovely claritas

Whose soul in stillness holds love's pure reflection,

Shining through you as Holy Caritas,

Lucid and lucent, bringing to perfection

The girl whom Love has called to call us all

Back into truth, simplicity and grace.

Your love for Francis, radiant through the veil,

Reveals in both of you your saviour’s face.

Christ holds the mirror of your given life

Up to the world he gives himself to save,

A sacrament to keep your city safe,

A window into his eternal love.

Unveiled in heaven, dancing in the light,

Pray for this pilgrim soul in his dark night.

Christine Valters Paintner