We all know that friendship bound Francis and Clare. He enjoyed speaking with her. He gladly listened to the graceful words flowing from her lips like honey. Clare, too, longed for his presence and tasted the words that Francis spoke "of the good Jesus."
Yet again and again they restrained themselves and refrained from seeing each other. Above all, Francis believed that not visiting Clare gave honour to God, who meant so much to him.
Clare, however, suffered a great deal from not seeing Francis. She always pleaded with Francis' brothers to dissuade him from such hardness.
Accordingly, Francis once invited Clare to a meal at the Portiuncula, the small settlement of the brothers close to Assisi. She ate together with the brothers and some sisters while sitting on the bare ground. Both felt as bound to the earth as they did to God. And thus they spoke with each other, listening spellbound to the thoughts behind the words they said. Then God cast a divine fire onto their lips and into their hearts. They became nothing but fire and flame. The fire of love was so large that it blazed beyond the settlement and encompassed the entire area. The fire was so large that the fire brigades from Assisi and Montefalco, from Bettona and Spello raced to put it out. In vain, of course. Who, after all, wants to extinguish the love that God kindles among us mortals? (adapted from Fioretti 15).
Lesson Unit 3 - Franciscan Collaboration Today
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