Feast of St Chiara of Assisi

Saint and Virgin

Chiara’s reply

They praise me as a Virgin, Lord

I am sorry to disappoint

But I am no virgin.

May I ask these holy men

By what do they set their mark?

I rejected earthly comfort.

That place was a shadowland to me

and I hung on the landscape like a

dangling marionette, uselessly beautiful.

There was no comfort there.

I never earned a love song.

Then they never heard the Poverello.

His words were fire and ice in my belly

ardently proclaiming Your Love,

That song drew me away.

Away from desire.

Rather like a maiden awaiting her first suitor

My heart paced in prayer for your presence.

Like a bride in the marriage bed

My soul ached for You to enfold me.

Never known a man.

Francis was my heart’s true friend.

Love given and received without guile or charge

the fulfilment of Your benevolent Love.

What physical act could compare?

But I have not borne a child.

Are they blind?

My daughters are with them still

Loving and faithful

I have raised them all.

So, they have given me a Church

and they have made me a Saint

For being a Virgin.

You had better tell these men, Lord

There are very few virgins in Heaven.

wordinthehand2012