25 May 2013

Dear Readers,

In the message I am sharing with you, Saint Clare of Assisi explains that contemplation is the highest expression of love and prayer. I hope you will increasingly experience God’s loving gaze upon you and that you, too, will begin to look at Him with loving eyes.

I pray for you and accompany you with my prayers.

Stefania Caterina

Message of Saint Clare of Assisi[1] of 25 May 2013

 

“Dearest Brothers and Sisters, peace and all good to all of you! The Almighty God has asked me to speak to you about contemplation. You know that my earthly existence was entirely devoted to contemplation; therefore, I will speak of it with joy.

What is contemplation? It is not an ascetic exercise, spiritual acrobatics or an abstract concept but rather the spiritual breath and rest of the soul. When God created man, He intended for him to be His collaborator and to participate in His work of governing creation. It has been explained to you many times that humans were not meant to struggle hard to earn a living but to live in the joy of serving God. Work should have been a participation in divine creativity. The human ability to understand and apply the laws of God would have made this possible.

Due to original sin, committed by the progenitors, the humanity of the Earth was enslaved and could no longer find rest. Work on Earth, whether too much or too little, is tiring and causes constant anxiety. Income depends on work, but income is never sufficient for people: if they are poor, they desire to become rich; if they are rich, they want to become even richer, and thus they never find peace. Whether poor or rich, they are constantly worried.

Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry …“ (Mt 6, 25). Indeed, He wanted to lead people back to a true relationship with the Father; He wanted to help us understand that God can provide everything we need; by serving God, we find what we need and even more than that. We are created for God and to seek His Kingdom, which is not of this Earth. We are called to live according to the divine laws, which are not worldly and carnal. God knows what we need because He has created us and will always provide us with what is necessary for life if we decide to live for Him.

When we are willing to live for God, when we desire to belong solely to Him and offer ourselves fully to Him, then true contemplation arises, which is the fruit of trusting abandonment to God. The offering of our life to God is the key to opening our spirit, where God has placed His treasures. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, those who love God awaken to true life. Those who are prepared to give everything will receive everything from the loving Father. Someone who loves desires to contemplate the face of the loved one; he admires everything the loved one does and can recognise every tender and loving action. In the same way, a story of love begins between the human being and God, a story that will not end even with death; rather, in the dimension of eternity, the lover and the Beloved become one.

Contemplation is the attitude of awe and silence before the greatness of God: the human being submits to the Creator out of love, not servility or fear. From this attitude, wisdom and knowledge of the laws of life arise. Man becomes docile under the hand of God and begins to act in the light, with his deeds being good and edifying for the whole people of God. Thus, man works for the Lord without feeling tired because he is filled with the divine presence, which provides rest for the soul.

Authentic faith always leads to contemplation because the faithful person is not afraid of anything and can recognise the presence of God in every situation, even the most challenging, as His silent hand touches and heals every pain. Thanks to faith, one never loses sight of God, who is the centre of life. This is contemplation.

Hope, too, leads to contemplation, as the person who lives with hope contemplates daily the gifts of God through which He fulfils His promises. Only a blind man would fail to notice the big and small gifts that fill his life each day. When you wake up tomorrow, look around and start counting the gifts you receive throughout the day, beginning with the sun and the air, without which you could not live. In the evening, you will recognise how much you have received. Then, you will give thanks to your God and admire Him. That, too, is contemplation.

Love, the true one, blossoms in contemplation. As I have mentioned to you before, the person who loves desires to gaze upon the beloved. Contemplation is the child of love and never an end in itself; contemplation leads to action, as by contemplating God’s Love, the person is filled with that love and is moved to reach out to others. The person loves others with God’s Love and discovers the same love in brothers and sisters. This, too, is contemplation.

All this helps you understand that all of you are called to contemplation and that it is an integral part of your life; truly, the Christian’s life should be contemplative. Unfortunately, many reduce contemplation to an experience reserved for monks and nuns in convents or cloisters, whereas each of you was born to contemplate God. Some decide to devote themselves to contemplation as a service, choosing to live withdrawn from the world. That is a great service that is often misunderstood, as people do not know what contemplation is. Yet, every person should know it. The human spirit is designed to know God; however, it cannot know what it cannot see. That is why contemplation is necessary: it is the gaze of the spirit turned towards God, enabling the person to know God as He is.

God, who is Spirit, dwells in the human spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in your spirit is like a fountain situated in the middle of a garden. If you love God and offer yourselves to Him, your spirit will flourish like a garden, for it is continually sprinkled by the fountain of the Spirit. The presence of God repels evil from your spirit, which becomes an enclosed and protected garden, as God jealously guards what belongs to Him. In your enclosed garden, you can contemplate God and find rest in Him.

It is in your spirit that you find rest, more than in any other place in the world. Therefore, true rest is found in contemplation, as man could experience before the fall into original sin. Jesus came to introduce humanity to this place of true rest in God; He opened a new and living path to the Father. Thus, everything will be gathered up in Jesus Christ, who will lead all of humanity and all living beings into the new creation, where they will rest in God forever, free from tears, exhaustion, or corruption.

Only God knows when all this will come to pass. Nevertheless, even now you can experience a foretaste of resting in God by seeking Him within the intimacy of your spirit, where He has dug a well of living waters. He will come to dwell in you if you call upon Him and desire Him with all your strength. He is the well from which you draw water that no one else can provide, ensuring that you will never thirst again (John 4, 14). I encourage you to draw this pure water from the well of God within you. Do not be like many people on this Earth who drink from muddy puddles and become thirsty again. Remember the well of living waters that is God within you; seek that well in your spirit, and you will find it there.

In my earthly life, I was never weary of seeking the face of God. I continually drew from His well of living waters, and the more I drew, the more I was filled. From my whole being, love overflowed and spread around me, reaching many distant souls, even though I was living in the silence of San Damiano. Never grow tired of contemplating the face of God, full of love for you. Allow yourselves to be embraced by His gaze, and you will find true rest; then, you will contemplate God even in your everyday life, where your existence unfolds.

I follow you with my prayer and I love you in God. Receive my blessing:

God bless you

and protect you.

May His face shine upon you

and give you His mercy.

May He turn His gaze to you

and give you peace.

May the Lord be with you always

and make you be always with Him!”

[1] Clare was born in Assisi in 1194 to a noble family. As a young woman, she decided to only belong to Christ. She went to seek advice from Saint Francis who approved her resolution to withdraw from the world; he himself dressed her with the habit and prepared for her a small house next to the church of San Damiano. Soon other young women of Assisi joined her; thus, the Second Franciscan Order was born called the “Poor Ladies of San Damiano” later called “Poor Clares”. In San Damiano, Clare always lived in poverty and contemplation. She died in 1253 and two years later she was declared a saint by Pope Alexander IV. Her body rests in the Basilica dedicated to her in Assisi.