Dear beloved St. Clare, please pray for us! Amen.

‘Throughout the ceremony, Abba called me Clare as he told me to live for You, the Bridegroom of my soul, faithfully all my life here on earth and through eternity. It was ever fitting when I recall his homily on St. Clare’s feast of August 11, 2001 which spoke so deeply and personally to the ear of my heart as if You Yourself Lord, spoke to me: “the sheep hear his voice, each by his name he calls his own sheep and leads them out. ” (John 10:3). After Mass, Rev. Father handed me a copy of the homily as the present for my feast day. With a gentle but firm voice, (and he meant every word of it) he told me to imitate and learn from her:

“… however undeserving we might know ourselves to be, we are so loved by God that, far from rejecting us, he wills to join us to himself by the most intimate and ardent bonds of love. St. Clare had never proved unfaithful; she realized that it was God’s special love that had protected her. However, it was not her innocence that gave her the confidence needed to sustain her in the years of testing in poverty, but her strong faith in the tender love of God. ‘I will espouse you to myself forever. I will espouse you to myself in justice and with judgment, in loving kindness and tender love’, says the Lord.”

O dear beloved St. Clare, please intercede for us, especially for those who have the strong temperament, determination and the desire to be transformed in spirit and soul for the service and love of the Bridegroom. Please pray that I will be a good mother of all souls as consecrated virgins are called to be, and may I allow the Lord to use me as fit for the salvation of all.  Amen. O Holy Mother of God, please pray for us.”‘

Taken from Chapter XI of A Soul’s Journey with God