St. Mary of the Angels, August 1st, 2024
Opening of the Assisi Pardon
Dear Sisters,
May the Lord give you peace!
This year, the Feast of our Mother St. Clare occurs during the Eighth Centenary of the Stigmata of St Francis — the culmination of his path of following the poor and crucified Christ. I have pondered at length about how this event in the life of Francis resonates in Clare's human and spiritual experience. The link is their individual relationship with the Lord Jesus. For Francis, the mysterious encounter at La Verna can be seen as a blazing coal that prepared him to become conformed to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in his encounter with “Sister Death.” For Clare, instead, the encounter with “her” Lord was the raison d'être of her entire existence as a woman, expressed in the sign of her total belonging to Him.
I would like to offer you a few reflections which I hope will be useful in deepening your charism. I also draw from the teaching of the Seraphic Doctor, Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, the 750th anniversary of whose death falls this year.
Read the full text of the Letter:
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