I ran away from my aristocratic family and became a nun at the age of 17, after hearing Saint Francis preach about faith and detachment. I followed a strict rule of poverty and loved to serve the Lord, and my group of followers became known as the Poor Clares. My sisters and I wore no shoes, ate no meat, lived in a poor house, and kept silent most of the time. Yet we were very happy, because Our Lord was close to us all the time. I was often ill, but my youthful spirit never left me. Today there are thousands of Poor Clare nuns living throughout the world, dedicated to contemplative prayer.
"Behold, I say, the birth of this mirror. Behold Christ's poverty even as he was laid in the manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. What wondrous humility, what marvelous poverty! The King of angels, the Lord of heaven and earth resting in a manger! Look more deeply into the mirror and meditate on his humility, or simply on his poverty. Behold the many labors and sufferings he endured to redeem the human race. Then, in the depths of this very mirror, ponder his unspeakable love which caused him to suffer on the wood of the cross and to endure the most shameful kind of death. The mirror himself, from his position on the cross, warned passers-by to weigh carefully this act, as he said: "All of you who pass by this way, behold and see if there is any sorrow like mine." Let us answer his cries and lamentations with one voice and one spirit: "I will be mindful and remember, and my soul will be consumed within me."
from a letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague by Saint Clare of Assisi
