Living By Trust

The entire town was in an uproar.  For the past few years, everyone had been watching to see which of her suitors would marry the Lady Clare, the wealthiest, most beautiful, clearly the most eligible young woman in this modern, progressive thirteenth-century town of Assisi.  How they looked forward to that extravaganza of a wedding!

            But overnight, all their hopes had been dashed.  Under cover of darkness, Lady Clare had slipped away from the family castle and hurried to the tiny chapel in the valley where Francis and his little band of brothers waited.  There she pledged her life and her love to Jesus Christ, and not even threats and armed attempts by her family to bring her back could move Clare from her resolution.

            Even worse, instead of going to a monastery that was generously endowed and secure, Clare was determined to live very simply, dependent on God’s providence, trusting that the needs of her community would be supplied.  “Impossible!” cried the townspeople.  “They’ll starve!” wailed Clare’s family.  But Clare knew that God, her loving Father, would never let her down.  Not only were her needs met, the little community she founded grew and grew until it numbered fifty, even after several new communities were founded from their number.

            This radical expression of trust in God’s care was new at that time, but it has continued to this day.  Poor Clares still live without much security, confident that God will provide what his faithful ones need from day to day.  We all have stories of the arrival of money or food or some other need just when a substantial bill was due or supplies had run out.

            I can hear you ask: How does this happen?  How does God supply what we need at just the right time?  The answer, I believe, lies in our oneness in God’s family.  God is our Father, and we are his children, all of us brothers and sisters journeying together through life.  When we see someone in need, we often feel compelled to reach out in any way we can to help.  A material gift may be most helpful in the situation, but there are other ways to serve as well.  A smile or a kind word can lift a downcast spirit for a whole day.  A note of support, or an offer to help with a job that needs to be done are gifts beyond price to one in need of them.  The mystery of God’s love for us is so often expressed in our loving care for one another.

            We Poor Clares carry in our hearts the needs and suffering of so many in our city, our diocese, and far beyond, and we pray almost constantly for all of them.  That’s all we have to give, and we give it wholeheartedly.  And we know that, in the mystery of God’s Providence, our brothers and sisters will help us in our own needs.  How blessed we are to be brothers and sisters in God’s family!   

Sister Catherine Cook, OSC