In speaking of Clare and the Eucharist, the words that immediately come to me are intimacy, love, confidence, power, and joy. There is one Reality in life from which every other reality emanates: GOD. God is “all-inclusive” without boundaries. Think of an imaginary circle. This God is the “host” of our Universe. He creates, nourishes, serves, and shares His life with us. We belonged to God even before He took flesh in Jesus, but in Jesus, God showed us His Face. Jesus is the full expression of the Godhead in human form. When we look at Jesus, we know what God is like. With St. Paul, Clare calls Jesus the radiance of Eternal Light and the Mirror without flaw in whom all the qualities of God are revealed. She urges us each day to “look into” and “study” that Mirror of the Divinity every day.

Sometimes, we “divide” Jesus into sections to concentrate on one or another of the ways He manifests Himself: Jesus in the Eucharist, Jesus in His Word, Jesus in His Divine Indwelling in our souls, and Jesus present in the community. But all are facets of the one diamond: God revealing who He is in Jesus.

Jesus was the all-consuming passion of Clare’s life. She spoke to Him, thought of Him, and loved Him consciously at almost every moment. Those who lived with her say that she approached the Eucharist with trembling, so conscious was she of receiving Divinity Itself, and that at times she radiated light. She urges her Sisters “never to let the thought of Him leave your mind” and addresses Him most frequently by the endearing term of “Spouse,” that is, the One to Whom she had given herself unconditionally, whose love she reciprocated and with Whom she shared her existence completely. In this way, I understand Eucharist in the life of Clare: the God who completely permeated her being and Who was the inner source of all that she was and did.

In the Gospel discourse on the Eucharist, Jesus says very clearly, “Those who eat Me will live because of Me....as I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of Me” (Jn. 6:57). It’s a very startling concept to realize that Jesus is comparing His union with us to His union with the Heavenly Father—humanly inconceivable.

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi said, “After Holy Communion, I reflected upon the great union of the soul with God through the sacrament, and for an instant, I felt wholly united with God, changed into God... I only saw the whole glory of God, God in Himself. I only saw Him love Himself with pure love, recognize Himself in His boundlessness, embrace all things created with pure and boundless love. I saw One in Three, and undivided Trinity, a God infinite in love, supreme in goodness, unfathomable and impenetrable... And I was with Him and knew nothing of myself. I only saw that I was in God, but I did not see myself—only God!” In other words, she says that when God looks upon us after we have received Communion, He sees only Himself.

Above all, I consider this inner oneness with God the focal point of Clare and the Eucharist. I don’t want to pass over what most consider Clare’s most amazing miracle—the freeing of the Monastery and the city of Assisi from the attack of the Saracens through the power of the Eucharist.

To begin with, it’s significant that at a time when Eucharistic adoration was not a priority, Clare had a small oratory with the Eucharist built near her room on the second floor of the Monastery and blessed by no less than seven Bishops!

The episode of the Saracens is a very good witness to Clare's faith and confidence in the Eucharist. It was a Friday of September 1240, and Saracen and Tartar troops of Frederick II’s army had been dispatched around the countryside surrounding Assisi. St. Clare was upstairs in the dormitory, gravely ill, lying on her bed. Her daughters, frightened by the roving bands of soldiers and, worse than soldiers, bandits at the very threshold of the monastery, ran to Clare, seeking protection and help from her. She comforted them with the words: “My sisters and daughters, do not be afraid because if the Lord is with us, the enemy cannot harm us. Have confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ because He will free us. I want to be your hostage so that they do not do anything bad. If they come, place me before them.” (This was taken from the Process of Canonization.)

Suddenly, at about 9 a.m., they heard an uproar and shrieks inside the cloister walls and were terrified. Some soldiers had broken into the monastery by climbing over the walls, angrily beating against the refectory door. The Sisters ran to their mother, and she, supported by two of them, Sister Francesca and Sister Illuminata, had herself brought down to the refectory door, and there, between herself and the door, placed the little silver and ivory box which contained the Blessed Sacrament. Weeping, she prostrated on the floor and prayed.

Sr. Regina Dierson, OSC
Poor Clares of New York