St. Clare of Assisi
 Our Guide to the Garden of Prayer

Prayer is like a secret garden,
made up of silence and rest and inwardness.
                                        -  Jean Vanier

PART  TWO
The Master in the Garden of Prayer (The Holy Spirit)
The Holy Spirit (is) the interior Master of Life according to Christ,
a gentle Guest and Friend who inspires, guides, corrects and strengthens this life.
     When we enter the garden of prayer in the company of St. Clare, it does not take the Seraphic Mother long to introduce us to the garden's true Master, - The Holy Spirit.  If Clarian spirituality (and thus Clarian prayer) is essentially Christological, it is because of her deep communion with the Holy Spirit:  Clare attributed her intimacy with God and ascent to perfection to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the privileged Guest of her soul and the Artisan of her holiness.  (Fr. Rene-Charles Dhont, O.F.M.)

       Like St. Francis, she insisted that her followers should desire to have the Spirit of the Lord and His holy way if working.  (Rule of St. Clare)  Why?  Because the Spirit of the Lord and His holy way or working, which is given to us in Baptism, is that of  creating in the Christian the image of the Son of God.  (Pope John Paul II)

       The Seraphic Mother understood from long experience that the Spirit helps us in our weakness,  for we do not know how to pray as we ought.  But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us, with sighs too deep for words.  (Romans 8:26)

       As for the Lady Clare, so it too for us, - life in the garden of prayer begins with the INVOCATION of the Spirit.  They should pray to Him always with a pure heart,  she writes in her Rule (Chapter 10).  To the pure of heart is granted not only the grace to see God, but speak with Him, to listen to Him, to allow His light and His love to shape and transform their lives.

       Prayer progresses, St. Clare reminds us, through increasing DOCILITY to the Spirit and through generous FIDELITY to His inspiration.  Prayer, in the deepest sense, is that perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you.  (2nd Letter of St. Clare to St. Agnes of Prague)  She herself is an exemplar of this faithful docility to the Spirit.  Once, Sister Agnes di Oportulo saw the Holy Mother at prayer surrounded by brilliance, all red that seemed to emit sparks of fire.  Astonished and puzzled by what she saw, Sister Agnes heard an interior voice saying to the Lady Clare: The Holy Spirit will overshadow you.  (Process of Canonization, 10, 8)

       It is in COMMUNION with the Holy Spirit that the summit of prayer is reached, - union with and conformity to Christ.  The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer....  To be sure, there are as many paths of prayer as there are people who pray, but it is the same Spirit acting in all and with all.  It is the communion of the Holy Spirit that Christian prayer is prayer in the Church.  (CATECHISM 2672)  As members of the Mystical Body, Christ's prayer thus becomes our prayer.  Even more, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we pass out of ourselves and into Christ.  This is how St. Clare entered into the fullness of prayer until she could say: It is no longer I who pray, but Christ who prays in me!
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