Minister's Post of August

Abounding Joy

The joy abounds! It was such a delight to have our first gathering back at the Mission since the start of the pandemic. Celebrating Mass together in the St. Clare chapel was amazing and Fr. Tom Herbst's talk was equally so. As a community we are blessed with so many wonderful examples of fellow Franciscans walking each day following Christ in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi.

In August, we celebrate the first Franciscan woman, St. Clare of Assisi.  Clare was a contemplative and referred to herself as Francis's 'little plant' (you'll often see her in iconography portrayed with a plant).  Clare was the ;little plant' that helped too seed a forest of goodness in the world.

     Clare defied the powerful male authority figures in her family to follow this little poor man from Assisi. She defied the wealth into which she was born to embrace a life of poverty. She defied her aristocratic status to embrace the lowly. Clare was a radical.
     Clare created a community of ladies, the Poor Clares, in which sisters of both noble and poor birth prayed and worked together - something usual, even radical, at that time. Clare was the first female founder of a community that wrote her own rule and have it approved by the Pope. We are blessed to have one of Clare's sisters, our own Sr. Madeline Fitzgerald OSC, as the Spiritual Assistant to our community. Clare's legacy definitely lives on!

Pace e Bene +
Laura Chun, OFS
Minister, San Luis Rey Fraternity