Her Bright Merits: Essays Honoring Ingrid J. Peterson, O.S.F.

Drink at this Sacred Banquet (4th Letter, 9-14)

Drink at this sacreD Banquet (4TH LETTER, 9-14) Pacelli Millane, O.s.c. 1. intrODuctiOn Clare of Assisi, a woman from the Umbrian Valley, lived a single passion, that is, her identification with Jesus Christ. Her experience, rather than being solitary, finds its roots in an ecclesial experience lived in relation with the early franciscan movement of the brothers and sisters in the early Thirteenth Century This text will center on the interiorization of contemplation in the writings and life of Saint Clare. In the first part, after a preliminary introduction, it will focus on four different aspects of this spousal relationship as Clare suggests to us in her writings, that is: 1. Personal call to contemplation; 2. Intensification of the call to contemplation; 3. Transforming contemplation and 4. Contemplative witness. In the second part, the focus will be the hymn given in her Fourth Letter, the hymn of sharing in the Sacred Banquet . It will look at the relationship between the First Letter and Fourth Letter, before commenting on some of the various words and phrases of the text and some of the attributes of the spouse as presented to us by Clare of Assisi. 2. clare Of assisi For Clare, a noble woman, her transforming approach always includes the Gospel mysteries of the human life of Jesus. For her, material things are always relative and her PACELLI MILLANE 96 vision of contemplative transformation acknowledges Christ, the Lamb and Spouse as its Center.1 We find a concrete expression of this sponsal relationship in the texts of the four Letters of Clare of Assisi’s correspondence with Agnes of Prague, a royal princess who embraces the franciscan vision. Written in Latin, these letters present a dynamic spirituality of Gospel transformation of the human person in and through a spousal relationship with the Risen Christ, the Lamb. These letters, written over a period of nearly twenty years, 1234-1253, were selected and preserved as documents to be attached to the canonization process of the same Agnes of Prague. Clare’s words portray her understanding of the intensification of the interior life for a follower of Christ in this clarian/franciscan tradition. Her simplicity reveals her deep comprehension of the classical approach, but Clare is less given to categories in her understanding of the affective spiritual transformation. This teaching on poverty of being and contemplation is at the heart of the four letters written to Agnes of Prague. The vocation of each sister is unique, is lived within a community and within the charism of Clare, but it is primarily a gift and relationship offered by God. In his commentary on Clare’s writings, Jesús Sanz Montes suggests that these letters are presenting spousal contemplation as a Form of life.2 Clare does not present any texts on contemplation in her Form of Life, more commonly known as the Rule, knowing that this is not the journey of everyone. If we study the Process of Canonization, we discover that there are only a few sisters who speak about their interior contemplative experience. All Sisters are expected to follow the Gospel, to be poor, to pray, to live in harmony with their sisters, but not all sisters will necessarily follow the interior journey exactly as Clare sets it forth for Agnes of Prague. 1 Cf. Brother Giacomo Bini, general minister, has written in his letter for the 750th anniversary of the death of Clare. 2 Jesús Sanz Montes, La simbología esponsal como clave hermenéutica del carisma de Santa Clara de Asís (Roma: Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum , 2000), 417-39. DRINK AT THIS SACRED BANQUET 97 In the historical moment, 1253, when the Fourth letter is written, Clare of Assisi is approaching her physical death. Her desire to have her Form of Life or Rule approved by Innocent IV, in order to bequeath this manner of life to her Community of San Damiano, is not yet realized. Interestingly enough, her focus in this letter is not about her desire to have this Rule or Form of Life approved. Rather, she is teaching or sharing with Agnes the development or dynamics of the spiritual experience which was envisioned in the document of the Privilege of Poverty, that of contemplative spousal communion. The choice of the Sisters to live the Gospel poverty which Francis had preached and had exhorted them is not an end in itself, but rather...