The St. Clare Prayer Book: Listening for God's Leading

by Jon M. Sweeney

Overview

For all who love St. Francis and his spirit of passionate creativity and devotion to God, this prayer book is an invitation to experience the spiritual gifts of one of his closest companions. Clare was a deep, ready source of wisdom—a well to Francis's river.
 
Discover the spirituality of St. Clare and how it complements that of St. Francis. Enter into a week of morning and evening prayer centered on themes from Clare's life. Pray with Clare's own words in a variety of occasions. And enjoy a special appendix that dramatizes what it might have been like to be there on that first night when Clare fled to the little chapel called Portiuncula to become a brother, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557255136
Publisher:	Paraclete Press
Publication date:	02/01/2007
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	4.40(w) x 7.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jon M. Sweeney is an independent scholar and award-winning author. His books have been translated into many languages. He's a popular interpreter of the life and work of Francis of Assisi, and author of more than 40 books including St. Francis of Assisi with a foreword by Richard Rohr, and The Complete Francis of Assisi used by Third Order Franciscans. HBO optioned the film rights to Sweeney's book on the medieval Pope Celestine V, The Pope Who Quit.

In 2023, Jon published Sit in the Sun: And Other Lessons in the Spiritual Wisdom of Cats, and Meister Eckhart's Book of Darkness and Light, coauthored with Mark S. Burrows. Jon has been interviewed on CBS News, WGN-TV, Fox News, and CBS Saturday Morning, and by publications online from CNN to Romper. He's a practicing Catholic who also prays regularly with his wife, a congregational rabbi. He loves the church, the synagogue, and other aspects of organized religion. He would never say he's "spiritual but not religious." He is the father of four and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sweeney is codirector of The Lux Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at Sacred Heart Seminary; religion editor at Monkfish Book Publishing; editor of Living City magazine; and contributing editor for books at SpiritualityandPractice.com.

Editorial Reviews

Many readers know of Francis, but fewer recognize Clare, who learned from Francis founded the Poor Clares, and became known for her wisdom. Following her conversion as a teenager, her life was a cloistered one of meditation and prayer. Much of her life she remained, by choice, behind a set of bars known as the "grille." Saint Clare lived as Saint Francis taught: "Preach with your lives, and when necessary, use words."

Readers familiar with contemplative prayer and the lives of saints will recognize the divine office as a prayer pattern, with defined times and selected readings. For each morning and evening of the week, there is a preparation, Gospel sentence, confession, psalm, Gospel reading, time of silence, prayers of the saints, and a collect. Saint Clare valued the Psalms, Song of Solomon, the prophets, Matthew, and the writings of Paul; hence, scripture selections are primarily from these sources.

-Congregational Libraries Today 

From the Publisher