11 August 2021 - Wednesday of the 19th week in Ordinary Time - Psalm 66

      Today, we celebrate St Clare of Assisi, a saint who was born in Italy at the end of the 12th century.  Like St Francis of Assisi, who was her mentor, guide and close friend, Clare came from a very wealthy family, giving all of that up in order to follow Christ with all her being.   Clare was the founder of a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition called the Order of the Poor Ladies. After her death, the Order was renamed the Order of St Clare. Today, that Order is commonly referred to as the Poor Clares.   Although Clare is remembered for her deep piety and her deep devotion to the Catholic faith, she is also remembered by Church historians as the first woman in the history of the Church to write a rule for her religious community.   This was at a time when most women's communities lived according to the rules that were written by men.  Clare’s motivation in writing this rule was because many of the men and women of the early Franciscan religious communities felt that they could not authentically live out their lives in the spirit of the Gospel under the common rules that had been passed down to them.  In Clare’s rule for her order, she incorporated two fragments that St Francis wrote himself.  One fragment said this: "I, little brother Francis ... beseech you all, my ladies, and counsel you, to live always in this most holy life and poverty." The emphasis was not on habits or cloisters or conformity, but rather on living the Gospel values and the simplicity of Christ’s original message that mattered most to Francis and Clare. 

     I love the message of our psalm today, which asks blessings for the Lord because he has filled our soul with fire.  We are to shout joyfully to the Lord, to sing praises to the glory of his name.  I guess I remember the movie from the 1970s Brother Sun and Sister Moon about the lives of Clare and Francis directed by famous Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli.  It showed Clare and Francis with such a joy and gratitude in their faith, reflected in the message of the psalm.  All of us should strive for a faith that is full of joy.