CONTEMPLATION IN THE LIFE OF THE POOR CLARE SISTERS
Herbert Schneider, ofm
Surprising thoughts of profound intensity on contemplation, or rather, on the way in which the
personal contemplation of Clare is highlighted, emerge in the Fourth Letter of St. Clare to St.
Agnes of Prague.
1. Aspects of contemplation
Contemplation is, specifically, an interior vision, it is something more that a perception; it
succeeds in penetrating the most profound essence of the Other, with whom it is in intimate
relation and from whom it comes.
1.1 Contemplation: interior vision/intuition
Contemplation could be defined (cf. the fourth letter, vv 14-17) as an interior vision which goes
beyond rational thought. According to the words of Clare, it is a question of a true and proper
intuition, of the capacity to intuit. Whoever contemplates immediately comes into contact with
Him who is contemplated as if He simply stands before the one who is contemplating: and the
latter has the experience of being, in turn, contemplated. The interior vision is, then, a becoming
interiorly present to the Other and to oneself at the same time; it regards interiority and intimacy.
Different to reflection, which remains distant from what is before it, intuition goes out to the
other, is a process of getting close (immediate knowledge). On contemplating the Other the soul
is inflamed and, at the same time, “stimulates” the Other. It does not get lost in, but engages
with the Other and, at the same time, realises itself. We are here faced by a process of contact
and of interior union.
In identifying with the one contemplated, the soul also reaches new ways of relating with itself,
it perceives itself in the Other. Clare defines it with the term speculare (to mirror): the mirroring
of ones own face in the countenance of the Other. One’s “I” is opened to the “You” of the Other
and in this way realises itself evermore as a gift. One’s I is with the I of the Other in a reciprocal
relationship.
Interiorisation, intimacy, is born in this relationship. The interiorisation of oneself and of the
Other in a process of inter-action leads to a more profound reciprocal understanding. In this
intuition, which continues and is developed in mirroring, the human person enters into the field
of the activity of the Other. He/she is bound to and involved in the Other who always acts. The
soul participates in the activity of the Other and brings his/her own activity to fulfilment, on the
one condition, however, that it is granted by the Other in a manner full of meaning. The living
reality and its fulfilment penetrate the soul which “sees” (intuere) and examines carefully
(speculare); the soul perceives, catches sight then of the fullness of the Other; this becoming
aware is nothing other than contemplating.
It is a question the perception of the essence of the Other and of the realisation of the life of the
Other, and consequently of one’s own in the form of sharing and compassion, as Clare
highlights. The clothing of self with the Other, the growing in the virtues of the Other is a most
precious gift for the self, even though it must be observed that it is a matter of a participation
which leads to transformation, to a reciprocal belonging.
The interior vision is, therefore, composed of three phases: the intuere leads to identification,
speculare to interiorisation and contemplare to transformation.
St. Clare of Assisi carried out and brought this interior vision to fulfilment by gazing on Jesus
Christ, the splendour of eternal glory, the brilliance of eternal light and the mirror without
blemish (4LtCl 14) in a unique and gratuitous way.
Turning its gaze to Jesus Christ, the interior vision becomes a process of the I and of the You,
where the You is something more than human, as Clare says: a reflection, splendour and mirror
of God Himself. In the interior vision of Christ, God is manifested, so that Clare and the Sisters
find it by contemplating, while they assume the features, the virtues of Christ, through the three
phases of interior vision: the intuere of the virtue of poverty, the speculare (mirroring) of the
virtue of humility and the contemplare of the virtue of love.
At the moment in which the Sisters together realise the life of Christ, they are, at the same time,
granted the grace to express themselves fully. It is not a losing of self in Christ, but rather an
entering into the person of Christ to the extent that Christ enriches the form of life of the Sisters
and brings it to fulfilment.
Only the encounter with Christ, and in Him with God, gives the Sisters an experience of God.
Only thinking of God can be of help for a more profound experience of God in the interior
vision, which is an immerging of the self in Him. Such an experience, certainly, always implies
a conversion and a transformation of the self into the One contemplated.
1.2 Contemplation: imagination (imaginatio)
Clare broadens the interior vision, therefore, to walking together with Jesus Christ through the
imagining (imaginatio) of His life: from His birth to His public life and, finally, to His death on
the cross. The determining force in this process is the imagination, which is not the result of
fantasizing about or of the representation of known or desired images, but rather refers to the
identification with and understanding of what historically exists already and it is only in this
way that it is creative and goes beyond the vision.
It is decisive, as John Duns Scotus says, that the figure imagined and evoked should be dear
(carus) to the contemplative and should act on him/her in an efficacious way. The three
elements of the vision are based, therefore, on the three virtues mentioned above, which Clare
saw realised in the life of Christ and made her own by simultaneously walking His same path
with Him.
The intuere oriented her towards the poverty of Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem. Her interior
spiritual eye pictured the manger and the poverty of the Child. She identified with that poor
Child and she herself became a Poor Sister. But it was the Child who, in His poverty,
proclaimed the glory of God. The intuere was able to penetrate to the glory of poverty. Only by
feeling the same sentiments did the intuition (intuere) penetrate into the poverty of this glory
and become an experiences of her own poverty.
Through the considerare, therefore, is the path of the humility of Jesus walked and it is possible
to imagine the concreteness of His public life in all its fullness and depth. Clare here used the
word considerare instead of speculare. She stated that it was not a question of an external
following of the path of Jesus, but an entering into and a walking together with Him in an
intimate relationship so that the humility granted to mankind could become a reality in Clare
herself.
The eternal light shines and distances all darkness from mankind in this life. In fully conforming
her existence to that of Christ, the Sister shines with the light of God.
The contemplare of the end of Jesus, who died on the cross for love, is the third and final
phase. This becoming one thing only with the love of Him who was dying lit the flame of love
in Clare through contemplation (4LtCl 27). The lover feels totally loved, as if wrapped in a
burning interior flame. Yes, the love of the Crucified took fire in Clare and so the dying
Crucified One could continue to love in Clare. When Clare spoke of the mirror of God without
blemish, she wished to indicate precisely the dying Christ, in whom it was manifested what God
is: love, and precisely not only love of Himself, but of us, in the measure in which He chose us
to live love with Him, to such an extent that we would burn interiorly with love.
At the end of this interior imagining (imagination) a mystical encounter with the victorious
heavenly Spouse occurred in her soul, as Clare wrote explicitly in the following verses (4LtCl
30ff).
1.3 Contemplation: Interior imitation (imitatio)
In the second letter, Clare speaks of the process of intuereg, considerare and contemplare in the
sense of a progressive growing close to Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
She endured in the intuere, suffered in the considerare, and died with Him in the contemplare
(2LtCl 20-21). In imitation the I is not only receptive, as in the interior vision, and not only
“visibly” creative, as in the imagination, but active in practice.
Clare indicated the goal of contemplation: imitari, to follow. It could be that this contemplation
is induced by external images; however, it results, according to the terms intuere, considerare,
contemplare, in an internal practice of imitation. Such imitation is nothing other that the sharing
of pain in identification, the result of intuere; compassion in interiorisation, the result of
considerare, the dying together by transforming oneself into Christ, the result of contemplare.
Clare felt the life of Jesus, suffered the life of Jesus and died with Jesus, while His pain,
suffering and death became hers. This is the content of the term imitari.
It is important, then, that this mystique of the cross should be accompanied by the mystique of
glory, of the victory of the love of the Crucified. Parallel to the three phases mentioned, it is
experienced that the compassion felt in the intuere leads to reigning with Him; the participation
in His suffering in the considerare leads to rejoicing with Him; the dying in contemplare leads
to the pleasure of the heavenly mansions (2LtCl 21).
1.4 Contemplation: Indwelling (habitatio)
Contemplation begins in joy, not in bitterness or adversity, as Clare writes in her third letter to
Agnes (3LtCl 10): this joy is in the Lord. It is in contemplating the Lord and, at the same time, it
is only possible to contemplate by dwelling in the Lord. Contemplation flourishes in the Lord,
not before Him or even only with Him, but rather in Him. Clare explicitly invites us to prepare
our soul as a dwelling (mansio) of the Lord in contemplation (3LtCl 22), or to be in the Lord, to
dwell in the Lord. Three times Clare suggests placing the self not only towards the Lord and
with the Lord, but rather in the Lord Jesus Christ and precisely in “the mirror of eternity”, “in
the splendour of glory”, “in the figure of the divine substance”: placing the mind in the mirror
of eternity – Jesus Christ – can be understood as a way of expressing what, in the spiritual life, is
usually meant by the term “purification” (purgatio), but is more still: a becoming grasped and
transformed by the Lord (3LtCl 12). Likewise, to place the soul in the splendour of the glory can
be linked to what is usually understood as “illumination” (illuminatio) and placing the heart in
the figure of the divine substance to unity (unio). And again: the personal encounter with Jesus
and conversion to Him become an experience of God.
Clare highlights, therefore, that this way of contemplating is activated only through the love
which, from within, seeks a personal encounter and unity (3LtCl 22.23; cf. Jn 14, 21.23). In
love, the soul can place itself fully in the Lord and become the dwelling of Him, whom it has
had as a guest in its deepest part. It experiences that He, of whom it is a dwelling, allows it to
live in Him and sustains it. He whom the soul bears in itself is He by whom it is led; He whom it
allows to dwell in it is He who allows it to dwell in Him: to dwell in God! In this reciprocal
indwelling, where the Lord is He who leads, contemplation reaches its fullness. The soul can
check if this triple contemplation has achieved such fullness when it perceives internally that the
Lord indwells in it and it in Him.
2. The characteristics of contemplation
Contemplation is, in addition, always concrete and shows precise properties and characteristics
which belong to it and, therefore, make it efficacious.
2.1 Contemplation: an encounter
Contemplation is clearly Christo-centric and, therefore, personal. An intense experience of the
Lord, already accepted in faith, is had in it. Therefore, according to St. Clare, it is not a question
of an abstract contemplation through the annihilation of the I, but rather of a contemplation of
the You with the fullness of the I in a cordial encounter of the I with the You. This is an evident
declaration against abstract contemplation, often sustained today and influenced by oriental
philosophy, by the fact that the contemplating of Clare knows the person of a Creator God, as
Jesus has shown in it. God made Himself visible in Jesus Christ, not only to us, but rather in us,
so that we can place ourselves in Him, as Clare underlines in her third letter to Agnes of Prague.
What’s more, this personal contemplation becomes evident in the mystical espousal of Clare as
described in the fourth letter: the most tender embrace (4LtCl 32). The eschatological character
of this personal contemplation emerges: the Sisters take part in the glory of the Lord through
participation in His death and resurrection, and precisely at that moment (nunc). The life of
Clare is not only esteemed for how it appears, but for her very person which participates in the
glory, pictured in the image of the most tender embrace and, more precisely, in the invitation to
follow the Lamb wherever He may go (4LtCl 3).
2.2 Contemplation: joy
Clare knew the contemplation which makes people happy, stressing the mystical aspect more
than the ascetical aspect. Obviously this is only possible in friendship with God which is not
limited to following and obedience, but rather is it the fullness of love which the person receives
from God as a gift. John Duns Scotus says it expressly: “God is love full of happiness” (De
primo principio, Prologue).
Sweetness, the enjoyment of the love of God, belongs to this contemplation. It is typical that this
should have its own fluidum, a special perfume, as Clare writes in the fourth letter, which even
revives the dead (4LtCl 13).
Joy is born and comes of itself, it is not snatched through the will.
2.3 Contemplation: cloister
It is clear then that this contemplation is possible only in the familiarity of the vital space of the
cloister. To entrust oneself to the Other, who is Jesus Christ, as the centre of one’s life is only
possible if a reconciled, harmonised interior exists.
The cloister, then, assumes its profound significance: it is not only a separation from humans,
but rather an internal relationship with them every time a person lives intimacy with Christ. In
this way, contemplation and the cloister are intimately united.
Added to this is the particular character of time, which articulates reality clearly and permits the
Sisters to be real – authentically themselves: Christ lives in them. The manifestation of the
divine reality in Jesus Christ is a characteristic feature of time in the cloister. This is not
manipulated, it is not destined for advantage, it is not dissipated, but rather is time what it fully
is through contemplation. A brief spiritual moment is precious. If the Sisters in the cloister dwell
internally full in time, they will reach an evermore profound fullness of their existence. In this
contemplation in the time of the cloister, the Sister finds herself, because she is on the way
towards Christ, who is manifested in her and she, in turn, goes to meet Him: she is made the gift
of the manifestation of Christ in time.
Silence is typical of time. It is not being mute; it is, rather, being there through a vivacious and
creative presence. It is an attentive, intimate becoming of the Lord of life, God: there is only
God, who made Himself close in Jesus Christ. While remaining silent is understood in a more
ascetical sense, silence is to be understood more mystically as an internal being beside God, an
accepting of His word and a responding of the soul to this through reflection. In this way
speaking becomes, at the same time, a speaking and a being present which has its source in God.
This silence is not only nocturnal, but also of the day, when one is conversing, working and
relating with oneself and with others. The form of speaking is discretio (Rule of St. Clare = RCl
5,8) and devotio (RCl 7,2). Silence, then, is born in word, work and encounter. The original form
is interior truth, the culmination and unity of reciprocal love and peace (RCl 4, 22). If it can be
observed in lovers when they converse and later are silent and experience the profound bond of
the I with the You, it can be seen all the more in the confiding conversation with God and the
Sisters. St. Augustine expressed this idea with touching words: “Love and do what you wish: if
you remain silent, do so for love; if you speak, do it for love; if you correct, do so for love; if
you forgive, do so for love. Let the root of love be in you, for only good can come from this
root” (Comment on the First Letter of John, 7,8).
2.4 Contemplation: a mystery
In contemplation, the person is rooted in his/herself in the measure in which he/she is rooted in
Christ and, in Him, in God. Characteristic of this is the resting in self: from the “ad extra repose
is born an internal operating “ad extra”. The contemplative does not need to seek recognition
outside, but rather “be in his/her self”, internally content. This, then, is the truth; it is not only a
question of the sacred text, but of the mystery which is contained and expressed in the text: God
Himself.
The mystery of God is accessible through openness to what really counts in life and which is
present in every historical moment. His presence is manifested in the silence of contemplation
much more than in everyday communication or duties. The contemplative Sister herself is filled
and shaped in an increasing way by this presence and mystery of God. In contemplation, the
Sister surprisingly possesses the mystery: the living closeness and the love of God, given in a
very profound friendship with Christ and in the nuptials with Him. There is something in her
which attracts in a mysterious way: the form of the Spirit, and her own, within her.
2.5 Contemplation: prayer
It is not mainly a matter of carrying out a personal effort, but of accepting the response and love
of God. First of all, therefore, it does not come from the power of the thought, but from the
spiritual gaze and taste. The soul cannot but dwell in the Lord. This always occurs in the
dialogue of the I with the You in an attitude of loving contemplation and belonging to God. On
the basis of this contemplation, prayer becomes “co-loving” (Scotus).
This prayer based on contemplation is not self-sufficient, but rests in God to the point that He
gives His being and His love in a totally personal way in the relationship You-I. I can, therefore,
experience that this You loves me unconditionally, whatever happens, for He is holy. This
experience, in the Sister who prays, leads to the love of God, granted unconditionally, and to
fidelity, as a recognition of the faithful love of God.
In an evermore powerful process of secularisation, in which the activity of humanity is
considered in a technical-functional perspective, the attention of the heart and the remaining in
the mystery of the love of God is of significant relevance for all. Contemplation is the process
which saves humanity.