"Life-giving union with each other" in the vision of the Poor Clare Sisters

This year, 2003, holds two important celebrations for the entire Franciscan family and for the SFO especially: the 750^th anniversary of St. Clare's death and the 25^th of the approval of the new SFO Rule. It is therefore our privilege to publish here the full text of the talk given by Sister Antonella Perugini, President of the Federation of Capuchin Poor Clares of Italy, at the round table "Life-giving union with each other in the Franciscan Family," which took place during the General Chapter of the SFO in November, 2002.

I thank the Minister and the Assistant General of the SFO for the fraternal invitation to take part in this round table which manifests the living unity of diverse components of the Franciscan family. It allows me to express in words the feelings, attitudes, and aspirations which I experience living with all the Sisters in the Order of the Capuchin Poor Clares.

I am profoundly convinced that what unites us is quantitatively and qualitatively much more than what distinguishes us from one another; but it is nevertheless true that the distinctions do exist and, in their complementing, constitute a reciprocal richness that contributes to making complete and, thus, more authentic, the face of Franciscanism. This unity and the distinctions help us to relate faithfully to the charism, which we can define as universal, of Francis and Clare, and to the providential design of God as it has been shown in the course of centuries of history.

The identity of the Capuchin Poor Clares can be found in the claretian interpretation of minority, which takes the last dimension of the hidden, of the radical expropriation in separation; in the spirituality of "kenosis" as a way to glory, as condition and fruit of a prayerful existence in contemplation and praise. Our Order has tried to be inspired by those fresh beginnings, assuming the Rule of Saint Clare to live in great poverty, austerity of life, simplicity in living fraternally, which in the cloister acquires an eucharistic expression by becoming the bread broken for each other, and above all by a life of constant prayer day and night.

The specific identity within the Franciscan Family calls to my mind and my heart, to my spirit, the image, so dear to St. Clare, of the mirror. I believe that all of us are called to reflect our souls every day in that mirror which is Jesus Christ "splendour of the eternal glory, clarity of eternal light, and mirror without stain" and to discern our faces in it continually, as well as our Christian identity, working in the concrete stories and situations of life, letting ourselves be illumined and transformed through the "beatific poverty, saintly humility and ineffable charity" that "shines in that mirror." (Lag 4, 14ss). To us, Poor Clares, falls the task, entrusted us by Clare in her Testament (Test vv 19-23), to shine as a mirror to each other because all together we can become mirrors, for all those who live in the world and especially for the brothers and sisters who in the world and in the Church live in the spirit of Francis and Clare.

A task "so elevated," as defined by Clare, by which, she continues, "we are extremely compelled to bless and praise the Lord and to grow more every day in goodness" (Test 21-22) with "solicitous availability and attention of spirit and body." (cfr. Test 18)

This is a vocation that brightens life and fills it with enthusiasm and joy. It is a difficult life which, in its daily experiences, personal and in community, runs the risk of banality and failure when one abandons the "first love" (see Ap 2,4 -- letter to the Church of Ephesus), when the mirror becomes opaque by egoism, and all other forms of egocentricity, or by cultural and social conditioning, which always, historically, throughout the centuries, have obfuscated the transparency of the charism; to which we are particularly subject in our days, whenever the healthy discernment of the Spirit is lacking, making us unable to seize the challenges, to understand the signs, leading us to escape into extremes of conservatism, or other fashions of the moment, or into rash avoidance. Even today we do experience, in the contemplative life, the great danger that the old masters defined as "akedia", meaning spiritual indolence of such a kind that would lead one to prefer to drift along, until death.

The "life-giving union with each other" of the diverse components of the Franciscan Family consists in the common mission of our fraternity. You too are also mirrors for us, so that we can feel supported and confirmed in our vocation. I will share what Father Giacomo Bini wrote in his letter, a message to all Poor Clares "Clare of Assisi: a hymn of praise": "As sisters and brothers of Clare and Francis we have the same clear and specific message to deliver, even though we do it in different ways. Our Rules provide a clear map which highlights the fundamental elements of our religious journey". These elements are: living the Gospel and the consequences of this witness; the way of the cross leading to glory and, consequently, to hope: the dimension most lacking and most necessary in today's world! The theocentric complementarity grounded on the Word of God; the exodus experience: guests and pilgrims in this world, repeating daily with Clare: "Blessed be you, Lord, who has created me" (Proc. III, 20; Leg Cl 46) and like her to have a glimpse of "the King of Glory." You, dear brothers and sisters of the SFO, live these values sanctifying yourselves in the world and transforming from within the earthly reality with the inspiring strength of the Gospel which, through the Spirit, makes everything new, re-creating all things, and renewing the face of the earth. We keep in our hearts every reality, every situation, every person, every creature, offering them with us to the Father with thanksgiving and supplication, transforming ourselves in a "canticle of creatures" like Clare, together with Francis. Like them, we are all together called to proclaim in the world the "truth" of their beatitudes, their actuality.

With joy I share with you the vocational continuity of my existential experience: attention to secular presence / pledge to the cloistered contemplative life with one route to follow: "to observe the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ". Keeping always in front of me the dream -- if it can be called just a dream -- of being "collaborator with God himself, who supports this weak and vacillating member of his ineffable body" (see Lag III, 8) so that the world will have life, will have peace; the Church, unity; all humanity, salvation in Christ.

Therefore, to all men and women that live in the entire world today I would like to say: be always and everywhere, in the family and in your social and political environments, builders of unity and peace. To the Christians, furthermore, I would say in particular: be transparent witnesses of the beatitudes, do not be afraid of "the high standard of ordinary Christian living" do not fear "to put out into the deep".

The Poor Clares with joy and affection received the letter sent by the CIOFS presidency to express the feelings of the secular Franciscans in the occasion of the 750^th anniversary of the death of St. Clare. This is made clear by the messages sent by some of the contemplative Communities: the Castilian Federation of Poor Clares, the Monastery of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the Monastery of Capuchin Poor Clares of Capriate d'Adda (Italy).

Of particular significance and very touching is the long letter that arrived from the Monastery of Kigali (Rwanda). The Abbess writes: "We would like, above all, to rejoice with you because of your testimony and fraternal communion for the self-same initiative; the entire Franciscan Family is very happy because we have all received the message that flows from the one heart. It is a gift for the Poor Clares in this centenary of our Mother St. Clare". And further: "Your common blessing follows above all us, your sisters from Rwanda, who live in a country so needy of this presence that witnesses to the truth of great values."