Clare Retreat

CLARE IN THE SHADOWS, SPIRITUAL RETREAT: JUNE 2 TO 12, 2010

The story of Clare has been long overshadowed by Saint Francis. The “Clare in the Shadows” retreat explores this astounding and mysterious companion to Francis, and later to women mystics of her time.  Clare was a force unto herself who cast her own light and left her unique echo. She shattered social barriers to assume the life of a penitent religious. She held her ground, defying church authorities of her time (including the Pope) to stay true to her conviction. Ultimately, she faced a crippling malady that prevented all mobility, leaving her to forge an interior life that animated her spiritually.  Against all odds, she found a way to dig  inside herself, hold her ground, keep her mind, and overcome life’s cruelest blows. She serves as a heroic role model for all time. 

Trip Dates: June 2 to 12, 2010

 Cost: $2500 includes room and board, local transport and guest speakers.(Airfare not included.)

Retreat includes: Visits to Clare’s and Francis’ sacred sites, reflection of her letters, examination of her inner spiritual landscape as described in her letters, time for personal and private reflection.

 SPECIAL OFFER (for a limited time):

The first five registrants will be allotted a discount of $500 off the total cost of the trip. (Offer ends Feb. 10,  2010)

Trip details are forthcoming. For questions contact The Assisi Workshops at assisiworkshops@gmail.com

ITINERARY

Clare in the Shadows: A journey into the spiritual landscape of Clare of Assisi

Led by Author, Journalist and Gordon Adjunct Professor, Wendy Murray

 June 2 to 12, 2010

 For centuries, the story of Clare of Assisi has been interpreted through and overshadowed by the life of Saint Francis, Assisi’s one-time playboy who was destined to become Catholicism’s most popular saint. The Clare in the Shadows spiritual retreat explores this astounding and mysterious close companion of Francis and his truest love. Clare of Assisi was a force unto herself who cast her own light and left her unique echo. She shattered social barriers and duties of rank to assume the life of a penitent religious; to hold her ground of conviction, she defied church authorities and officials of her time (including the Pope); and, ultimately, she faced a crippling malady that prevented all mobility, leaving her to forge an interior life that animated her spiritually and inspired others of her time and many for ages to come. Against all odds, she found a way to dig deep inside herself, hold her ground, keep her mind, and overcome. She serves as a sympathetic and heroic role model for of all time. 

Little-known facts about Clare of Assisi:

• She lived in a home with an absentee and abusive father.
• She was among Assisi’s most beautiful and marriageable women of nobility, being groomed by the age of 13 her for a marriage of rank.
• She had many suitors, all of whom she stubbornly rebuffed.
• She met frequently and conspired in secret with Francis of Assisi, who orchestrate the means of her escape from her family.
• She ran away from the family home alone at night to meet Francis, who hid her, and her relatives came to retrieve her and beat her. (A few weeks later they nearly killed her sister who followed Clare, leaving her near death along the side of a road.)
• After following Francis into life as a penitent religious, she acquired (as the sisters call it) “the gift of tears.”
• She needed much consoling and when Francis was in town he would go to her to console her with “honey-sweet words.”
• The years following Francis’ death in 1226 Clare’s health declined and she became crippled. She couldn’t rise from her bed for the last 27 years of her life.
• She defied popes and emperors to stand her ground and gain a Rule (governing document) for her religious order.
• She is the first woman in Christendom to win her own Rule.

 Trip Itinerary (subject to change)

Wed., June 2

Day One: Arrive in Assisi and get settled at the guest. Stroll to the main piazza

Reflective Assignment: Write in your journal about why you have chosen to come on this retreat, how you feel so far, and what you hope to derive from it. 

~

Thurs., June 3

Day Two: Widowed Bride Theme: Overcoming

We’ll examine the story of Clare at the moment of Francis’ death in 1226. Immediately following his death, before laying him to rest inside the walls of Assisi, at Francis’ request the friars carried his body first to Clare, who resided at the convent of San Damiano. The first chapter traces:

1) The background of Clare’s family lineage of nobility in Assisi (based upon civic archival documents) including the dynamics in the home with an absentee and abusive father, as well as the family’s exile in Perguia during Assisi’s civil war (1198) and her being groomed for a marriage of rank;

2) How Clare came to know the young Francis;

3) How he and she conspired for her escape from the family home to join him in marriage to a life in penance and poverty; and

4) How she began to pick up the pieces and rebuild her life in the immediate aftermath of Francis’ death, beginning with her desperate attempt to remove from his hands the obtrusive marks of the stigmata when she beheld his body after his death.

 

Reflective Assignment: Journey through your own history to explore how early events shaped you and set the stage for who you have been destined to become.

~

Friday, June 4

Day Three: Fallen Warrior Theme: Power in the face of powerlessness

Even before Francis died Clare began to show symptoms of an undetermined crippling malady that ultimately prevented her from leaving the cloister. We’ll explore:

1) The symptoms she exhibited; various theories as to the cause of her illness;

2) How her immobility forced her to redefine her sense of purpose and personhood.

Reflective Assignment: In your journal, reflect upon whether any physical, emotional and/or spiritual issues cause you to be “handicapped” in some way. Examine yourself to take stock of how this handicap affects you, your interactions with others, and others themselves.

Saturday, June 5

Day Four: Mystic Lover    Theme: A new love

As a result of Francis’ death in combination with Clare’s crippling illness, the cloister became for her prison and her inner landscape a desert. This forced her to dig deeply inside herself to find a new and different way to understand God and the meaning of her own life. The chapter highlights

1) The religious paradigm that flourished during the Middle Ages, especially among religious women, known as Bridal Mysticism;

2) How Clare began to adopt this religious mindset and teach the same to the sisters in her Order;

3) Why it appealed to Clare, her Order, and religious women generally of that time and if such spiritual reflection is applicable for our time.

 Reflective Assignment: How do you perceive your relationship with God? As a Friend? Companion? Intimate Confidant? Distant Relative? Do you sense the need or desire to redefine this bond? If so, what practical steps  can help start you on your way?

[Saturday p.m.: Free Time]

Sunday, June 6 – Free Day

Monday, June 7

Day Five: Remembrance           Theme: Re-Writing her story

Clare left behind several documents that reflect a measured and articulate voice and reveal deep longings and religious reflection. We’ll explore the four letters written to Agnes of Bohemia (a member of the royalty who followed Clare in the life of poverty) and Clare’s testament.

Reflective assignment: Using the imagery Clare applies in her letters to Agnes of Bohemia, examine your own image, as reflected in the mirror and consider how you might appropriate this understanding of the spiritual landscape.

Tues., June 8

Day Six: Revolutionary    Theme: The power of having nothing to lose

Clare, though bedridden, stubbornly stood her ground defying popes and emperors in order to uphold her devotion to Francis’ ideals. The most astounding tribute to her tenacity is the fact that, two days before her death in 1253, she was finally granted the privilege of a Rule for her Order, under Pope Innocent IV—making her the first woman in the history of the Church to claim this honor. This chapter examines

1) The effort this took on her part to break this new ground, including her willingness to draw upon the social and political ties claimed by her family of origin;

2) The example she set as a heretofore unheard of standard for women of her age, highlighting the undeterred courage it took to defy her powerful parents, to break social rank, to defy convention, and to refuse to settle for the status quo, come what may.

Reflective Assignments: Consider what obstacles you currently face in achieving the goals and dreams you are called to. What will it take, on your part, to over come these obstacles, specifically – and to overcome any obstacles, generally?

~ 

Wed., June 9

Day Seven:  Dreamer                  Theme: Inner retreat

Like many penitents during the Middle Ages, Clare was a mystic. She was often visited by dreams and visions. During her later years she is known to have had two extraordinary mystical experiences that are explored in this chapter.

Reflective assignment: What role does “creative imagination” have in spiritual development? Where would you imagine yourself being in a place of spiritual joy and contentment? 

~

Thursday, June 10

Day Eight: Waiting Bride  Theme: Satisfaction

Two days before her death at the age of 59 (more or less) Clare received a visit from the Pope himself, who conferred her own Rule for the Order now known as the Poor Clares. (Prior to this female religious orders were subsumed under the Benedictine Rule.) By this point she was near death. This chapter examines the landscape of her life, losses, trials and battles she faced to reach this unprecedented milestone, and how, overcoming them, she was able to say as her last words,  “God, you are blessed, because you have created me.” 

Reflective Assignment: Can you pray the prayer Clare prayed before her death, “God, you are blessed, because you have created me”? How is God blessed for having created you? What gifts did he give you, that no one else in heaven or on earth can embody the way you do?

 We will also spend a portion of this day interacting with one another about what we have learned and taken away from this retreat.

 

Friday, June 11

Day Nine:  Leave for Train for Orvieto or Rome

 Saturday, June 12

Day Ten: Fly out of Rome

General Retreat Take-Away:

Anyone who faces life’s deepest challenges will derive inspiration from Clare’s unsentimental and yet totally human struggle to overcome otherwise desperate circumstances. Participants will find inspiration for Clare of Assisi as:

A Revolutionary:

Clare of Assisi broke social, economic and religious barriers in a time when such self-possession and personal resolve were unheard of among women. She assumed leadership in her sphere as a female religious, setting the example by her personal devotion and in leadership qualities that set her apart as an example for women of her time and for all ages. With humility, grace and an iron will, she defied popes and stood up against emperors to stay true to her purpose and conviction.

A Model for grit and tenacity

All of this was undertaken and achieved in the context of great personal loss on her part, and despite a crippling disease that left her bed-ridden for the last 27 years of her life—the same number of years she out-lived Francis.

Clare’s life story offers the contemporary reader a glimpse into the drama of a vivid love story with the then-local champion, Francis; of her choice to abandon her destiny among Assisi’s women of nobility to follow Francis in the vows of a penitent; of the challenges she faced confronting the grief of Francis’ untimely death; and of the isolation that kept her bed-ridden because of the onset of her crippling malady. She was a broken woman who rebuilt her life from the inside out. She appropriated an intimate yet animated spiritual vision that enabled her to re-created herself amid sorrow and loss, to stay gently and tenaciously on coarse, finally to reach the goal for which she had labored throughout her religious life, that is, the securing of a Rule for her Order at San Damiano. Clare is the first woman in the history of the church to claim this victory.

 A Model for hope:

For women and men, Clare is a model in tenacity, self-possession, patience and persistence in the face of personal devastation. She exemplifies the positive power a resolute inner life despite the unpredictable and volatile twists of the outer life. She stands out as an inspiration for anyone who has faced grievous personal loss and physical suffering, and who nevertheless longs to perceive God’s presence and goodness amid the struggle.  

 

About Wendy Murray  

 Writer and Journalist

Wendy Murray was living in Assisi, Italy, when she recently completed the book A Mended and a Broken Heart, the Life of Francis of Assisi (Basic Books, June 2008). She has spent nearly five years researching the lives of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, a large portion of which has been undertaken on site in Italy. She is respected among the Catholic (Franciscan) community in Assisi and has intimate access to the most learned scholars and experts and maintains good standing among the city’s primary librarians. Her book A Mended and a Broken Heart has been officially endorsed by the Franciscan community in Assisi and is carried in the town’s major bookstores. (Millions of English-speaking pilgrims visit Assisi every year.) She is knowledgeable of Latin and fluent in Italian.

Beyond her work in Italy, she is otherwise a seasoned, well-traveled and award-winning journalist who has published widely in many venues. She grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio (1980), majoring in religion and graduating magna cum laude. She also received membership in Hiram’s Phi Beta Kappa society. She completed a master’s degree in theological studies (New Testament) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, S. Hamilton, Massachusetts, graduating magna cum laude in 1985.

She lived in Honduras, Central America for four years where she served as regional correspondent for Time magazine. She worked as writer and editor at Christianity Today magazine from 1995 to 2000 and served as senior writer through 2005. Her work has taken her all over the world and her feature essays have won awards consistently. She has published extensively in other journals, including Books & Culture, The Christian Century, and Beliefnet.com. Twice her essays have been included in The Best Christian Writing, edited by John Wilson. She was cited in Brill’s Content as being numbered among the nation’s leading religion reporters. She has appeared on “Chris Matthew’s Hard Ball,” “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly” and was invited to speak before a select group of thought leaders by the Carnegie Council in New York.

She served as writer-in-residence at Gordon College (Wenham, Massachusetts) for two years (2004 to 2006) and has regularly taught a course on Francis of Assisi, both in Massachusetts and through the college’s international studies program in Orvieto, Italy.  She currently serves as an adjunct professor of Communication Arts.

 She has written ten books, including The Beliefnet Guide to Evangelical Christianity (Doubleday 2005), Meet Me in Managua (Kregel, 2005); On Broken Legs (NavPress 2004) and Day of Reckoning, Columbine and the Search for America’s Soul (Brazos, 2001). Her most recent book, A Mended and a Broken Heart, the Life of St. Francis of Assisi, written in Assisi, Italy, was published in June 2008 by Basic Books.