Clare belonged to the family of Scifi, one of the principal families of Assisi. She came to St. Francis to reveal to him her great desires for a perfect lIfe.
"All right," St. Francis said to her, "Cut off your hair; put a veil on your head; clothe yourself in a sack cloth and go about the city from house to house, begging your bread. When you have done that you can come back to me."
And Clare did it; the people of Assisi were dumbfounded and hesitated to recognize her. Francis himself recognized in her the marks of true virtue, a love of poverty and humility, and he accepted her as one of his disciples.
Such a test will certainly never be required of me. Even though I may be called upon to beg from door to door, I will be taken for a Little Sister of the Poor and that is all; under that general title no one knows my family or my name. It is much less mortifying than it was for Clare of Assisi.
But there are many other occasions when I must be ready to sacrifice the opinion of others, occasions more humble, less demonstrative, but wounding my self-love to the quick just the same. I suffered a failure where I hoped to succeed, it was only a deception; I imagined that my opinion was of value, others neglected to ask me for it; a charge was given to me and then withdrawn; I have made a bad break, acted in clumsy manner, expressed an impulsive and thoughtless opinion in recreation which caused me to be badly judged. I have even overheard others expressing severe and perhaps false judgments concerning me. These and a thousand other occasions that the good God permits serve to ground me in humility.
Do I always profit by them to the best advantage? Am I conpletely disengaged from the fear of others' judgments?
"Saint Clare, great model of detachment from personal honor and esteem, grant that I may count myself as nothing."_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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