6. The value of femininity. María Isabel Panattoni SFO St. Clare of Assisi was born in 1194 and she died in 1253, at the age of sixty. Clare received this name because one day, while her mother Ortolana was pregnant of this her first daughter, she was praying before the image of a Crucified Jesus, and felt a voice that told her: "Don´t be afraid, you will be saved and an intense light will come to the world from you that will shine and remain as the most clear light." Following the example of life of Clare and Francis of Assisi, we can even live a more beautiful and holy life. We have a message on behalf of these phenomenal characters: to follow the Rule that shows us the fundamental elements in our way of life. The Lord calls us to be his disciples and witnesses in the world, observing our vocation and mission, following Jesus and finding our siblings. Knowing our vocation, we should love her and correspond him with total fidelity and generosity. The form of life common to the whole Franciscan Family consists in "living the sacred Gospel of Jesus Christ, deciding on each thing the Spirit of the Lord and its sacred operation". One can say that it is necessary to give absolute priority to the sentence, to the view and a perfect observance of the Gospel. "The son of God is our road" (Test. C. 1-5). This road has Clare and Francis living, until the end of its existence, a life without comfort, humble and poor. And us? Do we live a true Franciscan life? Which are our values? Our priorities? St. Clare has lived her fire of love in the cloister and she has inflamed the whole world through the example of her life. A true mystic burns a unique passion that configures it to Christ. St.Clare teaches us that only those who have conquered through love can understand the mystic, radical and absolute experience that she has lived. "The genius of the femininity irradiates one wealth when he senses the essential thing and he gives the fair value to the secondary things" (Fr.Giacomo Bini). It is not enough to understand and keep going, it is necessary to share Jesus' destination and to take his cross. It is difficult to live what it is essential and the logic of the cross. (Lc. 9-23-24) just freely interpreting the authentic values and in a consumer way of living, This logic of the cross, results not evident and it is always disturbing. The "world" doesn't accept it because it is based in the efficiency that produces a "neurosis" of the result, of the appearance, of the commendation, of the fame. Clare's and Francis' miracle, both faithful to the Gospel, it is possible from their total abandonment in God that continuous feeding an unfailing hope. These saints respond, in a loving and passionate way, to the passion of God for man with the fearlessness of absolute poverty, of the darkness that drives us to the cross, to a modest lifestyle. Clare and Francis of Assisi found the real "freedom" through the "great test" For us it is difficult to assimilate the world of "sanctity living". The ordinary values speak a very different language and they push us toward the seduction of the world, choosing the more easy road, which leads us to accumulate even more. How then we could called ourselves missionaries and apostles of Christ? It is necessary to find the deep sense of our mission, of our duty: looking for the authentic values of our activity, through Clare and Francis of Assisi and following Jesus, our teacher, to give a sense to our life, to discover how to live in love and happiness because: "Mindful that they are bearers of peace which must be built up unceasingly, they should seek out ways of unity and fraternal harmony through dialogue, trusting in the presence of the divine seed in everyone and in the transforming power of love and pardon". (Reg. OFS No.19). For this reason it is that our ideal of following Francis and Clare, it is great and magnificent. They responded faithfully to Jesus' call, true man that has loved us until death in the Cross as a malefactor. Clare and Francis have believed in the word of God to begin their new walk.
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