St. Clare of Assisi and Poor Clares | Full Movie | Kingsley McLaren | Arturo Sbicca

[Music] [Music] No [Music] [Music] in Assisi that was snow everywhere on that Christmas Eve of 1252 it fell softly in the town square and on paradise hill well a great Basilica emerges built to honor the holy man's and Francis already dead 26 years [Music] it fell in every corner of the city accumulating high on the stones on the gates and on the barren trees [Music] it fell lightly on water and silently on the convent of San Damiano [Music] completely alone with her infirmity which had accompanied her for 30 years in the coldness and in neaten compatibility of movement fair is unable to share the joy of celebrating with the other sisters the holy day of holy days Christmas the night on which the Son of God was born the feast day that Francis loved the most that night in the Basilica of Saint Francis the live manger scene was being celebrated it was st. Francis himself who initiated the reenactment of the nativity scene and another Christmas Eve many years before in the town of Greta not far from Assisi just before midnight even in her secluded dormitory Claire hears singing mysteriously she can also see images of the events taking place at that very moment in the Basilica suddenly the wall in her room seems to disappear the night suddenly illuminates [Music] the following morning with the serene knowledge of having experienced her last earthly Christmas Claire describes to the sisters every detail of the Christmas celebrations which had occurred in the Basilica the night before [Music] Claire is born in 1193 in an aristocratic home near San Rufino the town's Cathedral a father is a knight of nobility the mother alone profoundly religious she is born in an Assisi involved in the alternating disputes between Pope Innocent third and the emperor frederick ii in this climate of continuing belligerence Clare's education was influenced by the culture of the times the pure ideals of chivalry and knighthood and the epic stories of the saints unrivaled heroes who fought for the triumph of faith and for the well-being of the poor [Music] not yet an adolescent though no longer a child Claire is presented to society during the months when all the city is talking about the genteel son of Peter of Benidorm Francis the youth who knew how to sing the sweet melodies of the troubadours and who was the soul every gathering in those days of the medieval past a girl matured more quickly the years around the 10th were those of first blushes first stirrings of Secrets flowering from lips maybe this is the earthly love of Claire for Francis the furtive glances of a no longer child who makes of a handsome 20 year old night idol of a secret dreams yet it was this same young man who provokes curiosity judgment and comments Frances recognized for bravery and daring in all his deeds unexpectedly returns from a crusade in Korea suddenly refusing to go to war and begins to do things which were considered by most mad [Music] Frances had given a radical turn to his life toward a greater adherence to the gospel giving back to his father even his clothes all of the townspeople of Assisi were present when in front of bishop guido he undressed from that moment on he began to search out solitary places where the noises and distractions of the world could not find him and where he could encounter the poorest of the poor the lepers [Music] at 16 Claire had acquired a spiritual maturity which fascinated those around her especially those who suspected a secret decision of celibacy [Music] Claire is beautiful noble rich she knows how to spin vine cloth she has all the requisites to become the wife of anyone was powerful men of the city instead she longs for absolute abandonment to Providence she desires to give herself entirely to God Francis fascinated visits Clare often had instills in her ears the sweetness of a marriage of Christ Suede's her to preserve the jewel of chastity for that blessed husband that love has incarnated among humankind Christ the Lord Himself new creative direction between Claire and Francis deeply loved each other as a man can love a woman and vice versa in the forest and most beautiful sense of the word love between two people for I feel that both Claire and Francis had realized their humanity fully and this for me you need to realize it in Jesus Christ for it was Christ their highest blessing and therefore they came together in his blessing that is united in the Lord that was the person loved and searched after by both of them in an absolute and total way encounters and discussions lasting two years from twelve ten to twelve twelve further mature in Clare her desire to abandon everything without reserve she is determined to follow the path of Francis who has a new man with new virtues renewed the way of perfection by now vanished from the world I will take you to the desert and I will talk to your heart and you will answer with all of your being with all of your strength and it was a game Francis together with Bishop widow of Assisi who plans her escape from the world it is Palm Sunday 12:00 12:00 that morning in the cathedral the bishop makes Clare aware of his approval of her vocational decision in the afternoon she sells her dowry and then distributes the money to the poor at sunset she secretly leaves her home and descends through the town towards the pot soon caller Francis with two other friars comes to meet her at the bottom column Francis preferred sanctuary from one trip to another player allows her hair to be cut the sign of renunciation and removes forever a variegated onyx thus detaching from the past and all worldly possessions [Music] the rage cursing and and treatments of her father find her irremovable and firm in her decision [Music] two weeks later she has a guest in a convent near the Armitage on the slopes of Mount Subasio that place where Frances often went to pray himself her sister Catherine just 14 years old also runs away from her house to join Claire [Music] the Fuhrer of the relatives again can do nothing against a will so strong [Music] forty days of trials prayers reflections a novitiate submitted to claire by francis himself before definitely receiving her into his fraternity and entrusting her with the convent of San Damiano [Music] the small cloister of San Damiano becomes the voluntary enclosure of Claire and of her companions while Francis and his when two pilgrims for the world often in conditions of precarity that in those times were not even thought of for women in her Testament Clare remembers that it was fitting that she begin this new community of women in that very special place where Francis experienced his own conversion so many years before and because it was he with his own hands who had rebuilt those walls when describing her new life within the sacred enclosure their rites the cloister that must contain the almighty Jesus is not a house of stone but the very same body of each sister one's body has vestibule of the temple a cloister entirely interior toward the imitation of the mother of God the which gave birth to a son which not even the skies could contain yet the Virgin Mary gathered him in the small cloister of a saintly breast and carried him in her virginal womb [Music] no more shall you be called forsaken or your land desolate but you shall be called my delight and your land espoused for the Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse as a young man marries a virgin so I will marry you I your architect and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you let us make a home and a dwelling place for the one who is the Lord God Almighty Father Son and Holy Spirit you are the light of the world and your light must shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly father [Music] at San Damiano Claire gives life to a new experience communal life with work by one's own hands and above all a life of poverty her solicitude was ever aimed at the creation of a community of Prayer in which the life of each takes place in the choir of the fraternity working with one's own hands so as not to be far from the fatigue and problems experienced by the poorest where lips ceased to pray hands begin as with Francis the very cornerstone of Clare's new religious order was the virtue of poverty a life deprived of any sort of guarantees a life relying solely upon the generosity of townspeople and travelers [Music] how often did Claire's sense of trust proclaim the truth of the Gospels divine providence dresses the lilies and feeds the Ravens how much more will God provide for his children her ideal was an absolute poverty working to give and begging to live the privilege of poverty that was what Clare asked of the Pope the privilege to live without privileges as she herself writes in one of her letters to Agnes of Prague Oh blessed poverty who bestows eternal riches on those who valve and embrace her oh holy poverty God promises the Kingdom of Heaven and offers eternal glory and a blessed line to those who possess and desire or it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God for Clare the vow of poverty is a vow of freedom ownership is like a cage with golden bars in which the humble skylarks so quickly become accustomed that they no longer think of escape to the wide blue sky at San Damiano Clare sweetly enters into the depths of silence into the hands of God she hands over her spirit clothing each action each moment that passes within tendons little by little contemplation allows her to penetrate the profound mystery of God in which silence and words solitude and communion separation and presence intimately joined together insolence initial meant a startled experienced silence at the beginning was the experience of loss of difficulty in feeling at homes but in a space that seems deserted but this initial feeling is perhaps because of a reaction to the world of noise in which one is immersed until definitely entering the convent it is also the fear finding oneself alone in silence literally said little by little though silence becomes populated and animated and becomes the place where you can discover your own true identity so you realize that the scripture is not only written words for God speaks in silence because God speaks to the heart in the heart knows how to listen only if it is silent Quan Dennis with trans in solitude do parlante Silencio por que do par linear por el correo ceases cult are a soulless se fossil Enzo si si si ritalin elephant the vision of Christ crucified generate Sinclair the desire to imitate him and to share even in his physical sufferings but Francis did not approve of the mortification that Clare voluntarily submitted herself to to the point of taking ill suffering should be accepted when it arrives but should not be sought out he advises her penitence and poverty are never for Clare the fruit dubber announcement of sacrifice rather penitence and poverty enormous of the imitation of Christ she reflects on the words of the 22nd psalm they have pierced my hands and my feet I can count all of my bones they open their mouths against me like ravaging and roaring lions I am like water poured out my bones are all disjointed my heart has become like wax melting away within my bosom [Music] Jonah's prigioni santa chiara canadian there is an expression of st. clair that in the last few years has particularly struck me when she invites st. Agnes to look into the mirror that is Jesus Christ and to see the fatigue and pain sustained by the Redeemer who announced the kingdom and when I understood the fullness of this phrase I've since tried to live the moments of fatigue the moments in which my flesh or my heart rebels against what I'm living or the moments in which my flesh or my heart has to exert itself to live a sacrificial aspect of daily life I've tried to welcome these moments into my life as my way of being together with the Lord too fatigued in this announcement of the kingdom it was a physical fatigue it was the weariness of long trips the fatigue of scarce food and the exhaustion from lack of sleep and it was also a moral and spiritual fatigue resulting from a growing incomprehension against him and a dismay at the apparent failure I see his experiences repeat themselves in my own experiences and I look upon this aspect of penitence as not something to flee from as something to improve upon during the day and they are all of those moments when we seem the most diminished in our own reality a dying [Music] la nostra giornata sono prefer to take a moment the employee chisaem registry diminutive de la nostra re alte the 14th of september 1224 three times the disease dies of Francis fall upon the passion account he then understands that his desire to imitate Christ in all would soon be granted his painful eye disease became his garden of gethsemane and the high mountain of laverna would be his Calvary on that sacred mountain between sky and Earth God placed his seal on the life and message of Francis who after many years of self-denial and interior renewal found himself finally free from the weight of his own humanity illuminated now by transparent renewal Francis suffers in life for two more years worn out by a crescendo of physical tribulations yet seeing Claire again at San Damiano allows him to write a hymn the canticle of the creatures his own spiritual testimony a poem in which he praises the God of all creation [Music] he left the earth as symbol of enrich and purity and of death [Music] he let the air a symbol of gifts from the Holy Spirit and of spiritual combat he left the water as the sacred maternal symbol of beauty and of peace he left the moon as symbol of sacrifice and of mystic Knights fire as the symbol of love of light of knowledge and bounty he left the Sun as symbol of transforming unity and a prayer [Music] because of Claire's own illness she fears dying before Francis in his own agony however Francis assures her he will pass by a San Damiano for last goodbye at the port soon Cola the 3rd of October 12 26 at sunset Francis gives the last sign of his nuptial love for Lady poverty a few moments before dying he asks to be laid upon the ground there on the bearer [Music] you small thin all serrated he was the very image of Christ removed from the cross [Music] after his death the body of Francis is brought to the Church of San Damiano from behind their grille Claire and her sisters have patiently waited for the promised last visit of Francis Lowe in tears and suffering for their grief they are left with a profound consolation for after God Francis had been for them the solace of this world [Music] the encounter was of a solemn dignity in the silence that makes up the confines between time and eternity [Music] Claire outlives Francis 427 long years during the witch her Christian example grew ever stronger and knowing the responsibility of her commitment to the ideal even heavier Claire felt it her sacred duty to continue the work of Francis to maintain his original spirit without betrayal [Music] [Music] the profound awareness that Claire had at the bond that forever United her with Francis presents itself in a vision that she had when Francis was still alive for Claire and for her contemporaries visions were the symbolic language used to indicate profound truths the language of the religious experience of sentiment and of desire [Music] Claire in the suffering of her great physical ills which accompanied her until her death would make up her life hours of prayer as of those of work hours of joy as of those of suffering in a continuous contemplatively a humble experienced silent and diligent in its love the femininity and maternity of Claire sublimates in the spirit of service in which she quietly carries out humble deeds in the imitation of Christ in questa la población de Chiara a famous life will chosen imitation player our life of community asks of us to be reciprocally mothers and daughters if not you cannot be a sister finis being mother and daughter there is all of the possibility to live the whole spectrum of feelings and feminine qualities [Music] as claire best describes from the nuptial imagery of the song of songs [Music] draw me after you we will run in the fragrance of your perfumes whole heavenly spouse I will run and not tire until you bring me into your secrets until your left hand is under my head and your right hand will embrace me happily and you will kiss me with the happiest kiss of your mouth in the course of one of her last physical crises Claire writes her Testament in closing a benediction also in the name of Francis [Music] and because the way and path is difficult and the gate through which one passes and enters to life is narrow there are both few who walk it and enter through it and if there are some who walk that way for a while there are very few who persevere on it but how blessed are those to whom it has been given to walk that way and to persevere till the end let us be very careful therefore that if we have set out on the path of the Lord we do not at any time turn away from it through our own fault or negligence or ignorance nor that we offend so greater Lord and His Virgin Mother and our Blessed father Francis [Music] for this reason I bend my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that the Lord Himself who has given a good beginning will also get the increase and the final perseverance her last concern before dying was to safeguard her vow of poverty to defend that one privilege which the Pope still hesitated to concede but the long-awaited seal of papal approval was finally delivered on August 9th 12:53 just two days later Claire dies in complete fidelity to her Francis she died on earth to be born into heaven go without anxiety My blessed soul for you have a good escort for your journey go for he who created you has made you holy and always protecting you as a mother her child he has loved you with a tender love [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] eight centuries have passed since the death of Claire living in the shadow of Francis as long as he lived she never attracted the attention of historians or witnesses of her time it was in existence purposely hidden she left practically no traces of her hidden life apart from a few letters and her rule yet she was up until her death for all those who knew her the personification of her beloved Francis and it was Claire against the winds and troubled seas of her violent times against pressures exerted even by each succeeding Pope it was she who maintained the fidelity to the original ideal and to the integrity of Francis message [Music] they're sometimes exists souls so on earthly and so pure that by a stroke they entered into the Holy of Holies and once entered the very thought of any other union any other choice of life would simply be something impossible [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] look upon him your spouse more beautiful than the children of men despised struck scourge untold times throughout his whole body dying amidst the sufferings of the cross consider and contemplate him and desire to imitate him if with him you suffer with him you shall reign [Music] if with him you weep with him you shall rejoice [Music] if in his company you died on the cross you shall possess with him heavenly mansions in the splendour of the Saints and your name shall be inscribed in the book of life [Music] poor Sinclair the period of her life in religion is a period of fecundity a time for the fruits of marriage like marry without pronouncing her virginity Claire offers up her body to the mystery of the birth of the moor a spiritual maternity that transformed into a concrete experience the same experience of many sisters who today choose to live following her example within the walls of a cloistered convent a city of Prayer more than 20,000 women in the world hidden with Christ in God with a love without reserve for all of humanity [Music] yes or no moto code in turn yellow shake though I am very happy to have chosen to follow clare of assisi mostly for this characteristic aspect of our spirituality which is community that is the actual living with the sisters living together the same vocation Francis and Clare considered the sisters to be a gift of the Lord and we also in turn are called to become gifts of the Lord one for the other and what is truly important is that we know how to discover in the sisters the face of the Lord and this is the thing the thing to which we are called the thing to which we aim towards which we walk I'd like to say another thing about st. Clare st. Clare teaches us a lot especially because she is a woman she was a woman completely realized in womanhood and this she achieves above all in her great love towards the Lord towards her bridegroom who she has chosen and she testifies this also in her love towards the sisters and we also are called to this because our love is completely turned back to the Lord who is our bridegroom with him we also lived this relationship of commitment and then also with the sisters we feel as though we have to become mothers of every sister whom he puts beside us mother of each sister and also we'd like to say mother of every man and woman this spiritual maternity is so mysterious to understand to comprehend because the world needs to have things concrete needs to touch to see while we with our life so close so far away so hidden with our prayer we truly feel as mothers through prayer we continually generate sons and daughters of the Lord to relearn the contained experience in Europe [Music] to see centimeter ah increase the ethical and equity no one feels motherhood in the measure in which one is fertile there's no need to generate children in a natural way to feel fertile to be pecans the highest for Kennedy is that of love of a love that is lived of an incarnate love you in amongst ourselves of a love that in the concreteness of life draws us near to the other even without who knows what grandiose gestures of a love that is able to say look I'm here and I can give you life I'll bring you inside of me and for us many times even talking amongst ourselves we discover that living together brings us to feel inside that we must give birth to the world that we must give birth to each other in turn that every day we must look at the world and each other with a renewed and unconditional love [Music] Artorius Jerry change right marry a maternity that emanates from inside that characterizes each relationship inside of the religious community that qualifies religious communion as a gift of the spirit the spirit the maternal quality of God and so as to make clear to all a nature of love solicitous and effusive with which to care for the brothers it was the desire of some Francis for the Friars superior to be called mothers [Music] La Veta prefer a prison yesterday new treated asila answered easily 2d Burkholder Ella libera real khadisha communal life needs to be nourished by silence and solitude and silence and solitude I gather the true reality of Who I am I gather myself before God only then can I contribute to the community because I come back freer less conditioned from the small things that make up the ugly and the beautiful of a communal life a life that wants to be evangelical but that pays in each moment the price of one's own instinct of humanity egotistic and oftentimes mean and therefore at these times silence permits me to recuperate that which is truly human and therefore that which is truly divine because communal life is the reality of the continual incarnation of the Lord communal life is there for humanity and divinity it is the attention towards the absoluteness of God and it is the experience of our own human limits it's very instead of Las Colinas a month it is at these times that I have discovered the importance of not running from moments of solitude and silence even when they hurt because you don't gather immediately their savings strength their rejuvenating strength which opens us up to a communion with others I have discovered the importance of not running from these difficult moments but of living them to the fullest having the courage to feel bad to feel lost to feel alone because it is only passing through these moments that one can gather and understand all of the importance and all of the beauty forget Istanbul twisted Waddell employee sending forth cordially total import answer $2 [Music] men and women live towards the expansion of themselves but find themselves only by losing themselves life is a journey to face with joy but also with an awareness of the end with hope but also with the realization that humanity is not perfect but that perfection in this world is something to which one must always strive even with knowledge of perhaps never arriving [Music] new food on Mackey I am a woman who needs to have things very precise and immediately I want things right now and one day I went to church and I put myself there in front of my lord only two minutes but I remained there and I said Jesus what do you want of me do you want do you want me a poor Claire do you want me married I asked all my questions I said I'll do my part but you do yours it's one that I left you if you want to be perfect go sell what you possess and give it to the poor do not bring along anything for the journey [Music] whoever wants to follow me must disown himself [Music] or even do laverna is to arriving at Mount Averna I was amazed by this austere and silent place there is something special in the air and there was something that changed inside of me I went inside a grotto the grotto of Saint Francis and there I had an encounter with a person I did not have a vision nor did I hear a word but there was a silence that for me was a present just a tool una presence in the most profound part of ourselves there where the voices of the world did not reach in the heart of silence lives God there is where his home is found where his voice is heard where he can be spoken with in silence a silence that exercises an infinitely discreet but irresistible attraction where the truth of each is born and strengthened it is silence that builds the life of prayer as a temple being built without the glamour of tools where your treasure is there your heart will also be found [Music] imagine a tiara Capri Gavin de sarousch honest alguna the image of st. Claire praying when the Saracens assail the convent of San Damiano seems to be more and more the key for understanding our active presence in the world because I have come to realize that I care very much for this world and not in an abstract way but truly I am aware of how situations take my heart especially those of suffering or those heart-rending situations that jump out at you and I always experience immediately afterwards that the sensation of powerlessness and then I think I must do something to fight against these things that are the temptations of every human heart those of profit of power of possessing at every cost with overpowering others they are the little situations that I find myself confronting every day in the square foot of my monastery instead of in the open space of the world but they are identical and so my contribution is in prayer and it is in looking to evangelize negative feelings that I carry inside and that are perhaps the same negative features that determine wars that determine exploitation that determine oppression before solidus this is it I have discovered how it is the heart that determines the person and my heart works in a monastery as the hearts of my contemporaries work in their environment of work of family I love it and I see the monastery as truly a microcosm of humanity whether in the day-to-day life amongst the sisters or whether in those times of encounter with the public aware that we have a degrading which is an integral part of our formation and of our maturity CRP bellavita fraternity on us or Alessia para el khazzani momento encontró a la grotta hey caifano parte integrant a de la nostra format Co Nadella Nostra monteriggioni [Music] I can add that name see the grading is a sign that for us is important it's important because and especially for those whom we encounter because it must call it tension exactly to this it must call attention to the profound sense of our life that is belonging completely to the Lord this dimension of being separated does not close us off the grading does not limit us absolutely it limits us in a physical space but this physical space then opens us up through prayer through a relationship with the Lord we must look upon the grading as a sign of this our exclusive belonging to the Lord reserved for the Lord to become a gift for the world the monastery is not reclusion for the mortification of oneself the annulment of one's vital functions but a choice that exalts the fullness of life and that gives the true meaning of Liberty withdrawal from the world becomes an opening to the world isolation is nothing but the premise for spiritual communion a small space takes on the confines of the entire world the humble walls of a cluster contained paradoxically boundless regions only sworn our honorable exile Nakano every sound has its own unique beauty but it also has her medals however only by entering into a relationship with others sounds as a chord form a harmony created I have learned here in a monastery what it means to enter into a relationship not just having relationships but to enter into a relationship to deeply rejoice in the other and to feel the other deeply rejoice in youth and this is possible in an imminent way in the small confines of the convent where you can truly experience a great love in a small place Vincent this attention towards the other it puts you in the heart of God himself it's love that you feel you have received and that you continually receive it is this that pushes you towards the other which makes you be one for the other I will never be able to understand love if no one loves me because I know of love in the measure to which I have been loved to see oneself to reflect upon oneself in the face of another is to discover the horizons of one's own conscience the more one broadens the conscience the more one diminishes the body and the maximum unknown until the body will coincide with the maximum expansion of the conscience it is truly necessary to extend our horizons but this is always a violence for those who wish to remain closed in their own reality and for those who desire to broaden their horizons to grow in their own humanity they will always and inevitably be suffering [Music] for sale because maybe the things we are most afraid of are those that make us suffer the most maybe it is necessary to reconcile oneself with reality so as to hurt less Christ's conquered death and Clare has given I believe the most beautiful testimony of a correct attitude towards death when she said while dying go secure my soul because the one who has created you has sanctified you and has always loved you as a mother her small child if God loves us in this way if dying we fall into the arms of God and there will be suffering there will be fear there will be anguish however there will also be faith hope and certainty then with the grace of God on the other side there will be light in your hands I entrust my spirit are passing to another Shore a passing with only the time it takes to take a step and then on towards the beyond to realize that in almost a moment's passing the major part of my existence has been spent here all in the length of a breath in a suspended moment gathered in the fragrance of his mystery with the poverty of his being in tune with the universe my life as a poor Claire perhaps not yet but a sweetly cradled dream and yet here I am lucid and attentive towards the events that occur around me where I perceive the presence of God this presence the more I desire it the more I see it in the smallest and apparently most insignificant things I wanted to hear your steps in the garden and walk with you and instead you placed me curved and patient to cultivate it for you and for me and for as many who stopped to live in your house I wanted to embrace the whole church and you gave me a small and hidden place where to love and suffer is the training that expands and consumes existence I want it to be filled by you but you gave me joy and waiting vigil you did not disillusion me you did not betray me Lord when you captured me to render me free to become every day that which all of life cannot even humanly reach do not defy me of your help of your gift of mercy Here I am mendicant of grace by hunger and thirst for justice I have penetrated me of this in the swift passage of time I have thrown open this soul at the rising of the Sun my new day my son my endless thing that I should see that I should shine that I might warm myself in your light in your brilliance that I might live outstretched toward you as the Roses of my garden when you will want me passing by my side you my god I will not dare to call you I will admire and silence Laurie you

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Keywords: Christian Videos, Christian Films, Christian Movies, Religious Movies, Films, Movies, Entertainment, Feature Films, Assisi, St. Clare, Kingsley McLaren, St Clare of Assisi and Poor Clares full movie, St Clare of Assisi and Poor Clares, St. Clare of Assisi and Poor Clares, St. Clare of Assisi, full documentary, religious documentary, Catholic documentary, religious, religion, Christian, A Hidden Presence, monestary, medieval harmonies, Christian mysticism

Id: 8sHma-mWlTg

Length: 68min 13sec (4093 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020