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Saint Francis & Saint Clare
Opening Prayer: “For we have been called to heal wounds, to bind up the broken, and to call home any who have lost their way.” St. Francis.
May the words of St. Francis and our moment of reflection on his life instill in us the virtues and light of his life as well as the calling of St. Clare his companion in service.
First Reading
Although St. Francis is widely known today as the “saint of nature and animals,” this popular image captures only a small part of who he was and what he set in motion. Much of this modern reputation comes from later artistic depictions—especially the gentle Francis preaching to birds or taming the wolf of Gubbio—which are memorable, visual, and easy to teach to children.
Over time, these stories overshadowed the deeper reality of Francis’ life: his radical commitment to poverty, reconciliation, humility, and solidarity with society’s outcasts. Francis was not simply a lover of creation; he was a reformer who challenged the economic ambitions of medieval Italy, a peacemaker in a violent age, and a spiritual innovator whose vision transformed the Church from within. The tenderness he showed to animals was rooted in a much broader and more demanding insight—that all life is interconnected, and that true joy is found in compassion, simplicity, and seeing the world as God sees it.
Pope Leo declares the 800 jubilee year of 2026 for St. Frances
https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=zneFvmK3pAA&t=12s
Second Reading
Clare of Assisi was not simply a follower of Francis of Assisi; she was a co-founder of the Franciscan spiritual vision, giving it a form that could endure within the contemplative life. When Clare left her noble family in 1212 to join Francis, her decision was radical—especially for a woman of her time. Francis did not establish a parallel movement for women on his own; rather, Clare shaped what would become the Order of Poor Ladies (later the Poor Clares). Her insistence on absolute poverty preserved the original intensity of Francis’ vision.
Clare’s role was also deeply stabilizing. While Francis traveled, preached, and lived a visibly apostolic life, Clare created a spiritual anchor at San Damiano, where prayer, contemplation, and community life gave depth to the Franciscan movement. Many scholars note that without Clare, Franciscan spirituality might have remained more transient and less rooted. Her monastery became a kind of “spiritual hearth,” sustaining the movement through prayer and example. In this sense, Clare was not secondary—she embodied the interior dimension of Francis’ outward mission.
Although Pope Leo XIV has centered the 800th anniversary on Francis’ death, Clare’s presence is implicitly honored because she was the faithful interpreter and guardian of his charism. Any call to return to Francis’ ideals—poverty, peace, humility—inevitably draws the Church back to Clare as well. In many ways, she ensured that Francis’ way of life was not just an inspiring moment in history, but a living tradition that could be sustained, deepened, and transmitted across generations. Where Francis moved outward into the world, preaching peace and embracing radical poverty, Clare drew that same spirit inward, shaping it into a life of contemplation, stability, and enduring witness. Together, they reveal two dimensions of a single Gospel vision: action and contemplation, movement and rootedness, proclamation and prayer. Any renewed call—such as that voiced by Pope Leo XIV in this Jubilee year—to “return to Francis” is therefore incomplete without also rediscovering Clare.
Third Reading: The Franciscan Friars
The worldwide family inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi remains one of the largest and most active religious movements in the Church. Today, the Franciscan friars—formally the First Order—number roughly 35,000 men spread across more than 100 countries, divided into the three main branches (Observants, Capuchins, and Conventuals). While their numbers have declined in parts of Europe and North America, there is notable vitality in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where vocations are growing. The friars no longer live primarily as wandering preachers in the medieval sense, yet they remain deeply embedded among the people: serving in parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, and missions, often with a deliberate emphasis on the poor, migrants, and marginalized. Their ministries have also expanded into modern concerns that Francis himself would likely recognize—care for creation, peacebuilding, and interreligious dialogue. Even within institutional settings, many communities consciously try to preserve Francis’s radical simplicity through communal living, shared resources, and a visible presence among ordinary people rather than positions of prestige.
Fourth Reading: The Sisters of Saint Clare
The sisters of Saint Clare of Assisi—the Poor Clares, or Second Order—continue a very different but equally powerful witness. Numbering approximately 20,000–60,000 worldwide depending on how branches are counted, they remain a cloistered, contemplative community rooted in prayer and radical poverty. Unlike the friars, their vocation has changed very little over eight centuries: they live enclosed within monasteries, sustaining the Church through a hidden life of prayer, silence, and Eucharistic devotion. Yet even here there are subtle modern developments. Many monasteries today maintain a quiet connection with the outside world through correspondence, spiritual accompaniment, and increasingly through digital means, offering prayer intentions and spiritual support to a global community. At the same time, like the friars, they face challenges—aging populations in the West, fewer new vocations in some regions, and the need to merge or restructure monasteries. Still, in many parts of the world, especially in the Global South, new communities are forming, suggesting that Clare’s vision of a life wholly given to God in poverty and sisterhood continues to speak to the human heart in every age.
Closing Prayer: Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi, 1225
Most high, all-powerful, all good, Lord!
All praise is yours, all glory, all honor
And all blessing.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy
To pronounce your name.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,
And first my lord Brother Sun,
Who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;
In the heavens you have made them, bright
And precious and fair.
All praise be yours, My Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all the weather's moods,
By which you cherish all that you have made.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
So useful, lowly, precious and pure.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
Through whom you brighten up the night.
How beautiful is he, how gay! Full of power and strength.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces
Various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through those who grant pardon
For love of you; through those who endure
Sickness and trial.
Happy those who endure in peace,
By you, Most High, they will be crowned.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those She finds doing your will!
The second death can do no harm to them.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility.
Translation by Benen Fahy, O.F.M.
from St. Francis of Assisi: Writings and Early Biographies
edited by Marion A. Habig, copyright 1973, Franciscan Herald Press
Closing Song - Sarah McLachlan - Prayer of St. Francis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agPnMxp5Occ&list=RDagPnMxp5Occ&start_radio=1
Course created by Helen Albanese To receive the complete course with links to movies and other videos and a transcript of the course email Helen at albanesh@gmail.com
