Lenten Reflection: Fourth Week of Lent
The Fourth Letter of Saint Clare to Agnes of Prague (1253)
Gaze upon that mirror each day, O Queen and Spouse of Jesus Christ, and continually study your face within it, that you may adorn yourself within and without beautiful robes, covered, as it is becoming the daughter and most chaste bride of the Most High King, with the flowers and garments of all the virtues. Indeed, blessed poverty, holy humility, and inexpressible charity are reflected in that mirror, as, with the grace of God, you can contemplate them throughout the entire mirror.
Then, at the surface of the mirror, consider the holy humility, the blessed poverty, the untold labors and burdens that He endured for the redemption of the whole human race.
Then, in the depth of this same mirror, contemplate the ineffable charity that led Him to suffer on the wood of the Cross and to die there the most shameful kind of death.
Therefore that mirror, suspended on the wood of the Cross,
urged those who passed by to consider, saying:
"All you who pass by the way,
look and see if there is any suffering like my suffering!"
For Prayer and Reflection:
Then, at the surface of the mirror, consider the holy humility, the blessed poverty, the untold labors and burdens that He endured for the redemption of the whole human race.
Then, in the depth of this same mirror, contemplate the ineffable charity that led Him to suffer on the wood of the Cross and to die there the most shameful kind of death.
Therefore that mirror, suspended on the wood of the Cross,
urged those who passed by to consider, saying:
"All you who pass by the way,
look and see if there is any suffering like my suffering!"
For Prayer and Reflection:
- Gaze into your mirror, how have you seen "blessed poverty, holy humility, and inexpressible charity" reflected in your life?
- What other "flower and garments", (attitudes of Christ), adorn or clothe you life, or do you recognize and encounter in the lives of others?
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