Monthly Spiritual Message, August 2026
By Fr Joe McKay OFM
Among the small handful of writings that survive from St Clare of Assisi, the four letters she sent to St Agnes of Prague stand apart. They are brief — none of them long — yet Franciscan scholars have long recognised in them a complete school of prayer. Written across nineteen years, from 1234 until shortly before Clare’s death in 1253, the letters trace Agnes’s journey deeper into Christ under Clare’s guidance. Read together, they map remarkably well onto four movements long recognised in the Christian mystical tradition: Conversion, Contemplation, Perseverance, and Union. While the letters were written over a period of years, they can be read as one continuous journey into knowing Christ more deeply through prayer.
Letter One: Conversion – Choosing Christ
Agnes of Prague was a Bohemian princess who had been promised in marriage to the Emperor Frederick II — one of the great political matches of the age. When news reached Assisi that Agnes had refused the emperor and entered religious life instead, Clare wrote at once, overflowing with joy. The letter’s highlight is Clare’s sheer delight at a soul turning from the world to choose Christ: she frames Agnes’s decision not as loss but as the discovery of “the more excellent portion.” This is conversion not as a single dramatic break but as a clear-eyed exchange — the same exchange Clare herself had made twenty-two years earlier when she fled her own family home to follow Francis. She presents the poverty of Jesus as more beautiful, noble, and desirable than any earthly ruler:
“You have rejected all these things and have chosen with your whole heart and soul a life of holy poverty and destitution. Thus you took a spouse of more noble lineage, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Letter Two: Contemplation – Gazing Upon Christ
Writing a year later, in 1235, Clare turns from congratulation to instruction. This is the letter in which she gives Agnes — and every reader since — her celebrated method of prayer, built around the image of Christ as a rounded medieval mirror. Clare invites Agnes to look into that mirror at its sloped outer edge (the poverty of the manger), its clearer surface (the humility of Christ’s daily life), and its brightest centre (the immeasurable love shown on the Cross). Prayer, for Clare, is not an intellectual exercise but a gazing — a patient, loving attention that gradually reshapes the one who prays into the likeness of what she beholds. The letter’s highlight is its famous fourfold pattern:
“O most noble Queen, gaze upon Him, consider Him, contemplate Him, as you desire to imitate Him.”
For Clare, contemplation is not an escape from reality but a way of seeing reality through Christ’s eyes. The more deeply Agnes contemplates the pattern of Jesus’s life, the more clearly she discovers her true identity and vocation.
Letter Three: Perseverance – Holding Fast to the Gospel
Three years later, Agnes was facing real difficulty — disputes over the Rule she wished to live by, pressure from Church authorities who wanted the Prague sisters to hold property, and the ordinary weariness of religious life once its novelty has worn off. Clare’s third letter is the letter of a seasoned elder mentoring and guiding a younger sister through the long middle distance of the spiritual life, when enthusiasm has faded and only fidelity remains. Every disciple eventually discovers that the spiritual life requires endurance. Initial enthusiasm is not enough; the call of Christ must be renewed through trials, disappointments, and uncertainty. The letter’s highlight is its tone of encouragement toward steady, faithful endurance in the ordinary work of following the Gospel, rather than any new spiritual insight:
“I beg you… to praise the Lord by your very life, to offer the Lord your reasonable service and your sacrifice always seasoned with salt.”
Letter Four: Union – Being the Mirror of Christ
The final letter was written near the end of Clare’s own life, and it is filled with the wisdom of a woman at peace with her life. Here the mirror imagery of the second letter reaches its climax: gazing has become transformation, and Clare no longer speaks of imitating Christ from a distance but of being drawn into him. She addresses Agnes as “the half of her soul,” and looks forward to the day both women will stand together before the throne of the Lamb. Its highlight, and perhaps the single most quoted passage in all of Clare’s writing, is this:
“Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance, and transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation!”
This is no mere devotional exercise. Clare believes that deep contemplation leads to union. The one who looks continually upon Christ becomes transformed into his likeness. The disciple begins to reflect what she sees. Prayer reaches its fulfilment when the life of Christ is reproduced within the believer.
Conclusion
Taken together, the four letters to Agnes of Prague are less a treatise than a companionship — one contemplative walking beside another, showing her the way by having already walked it herself. What makes Clare’s method so enduring is its simplicity: it asks nothing exotic of the one who prays, only that they look, and keep looking, at the poor and humble Christ until his likeness begins to appear in their own life.
What do the letters ask today of a member of the Secular Franciscan Order?
Be honest. What in your life still needs to be handed over to Christ? Keep asking the question. Conversion is not something that happens once; it is a daily turning of the heart towards the Lord.
Gaze upon Christ every day. Consider him. Contemplate him. Look at his poverty, his humility, and his self-giving love. Nothing complicated — simply keep looking and allow Jesus’ life to reshape your own.
Prayer and Fraternity life will not always be inspiring. When it feels dry or difficult, do not be discouraged. This is the moment to practise perseverance. Stay faithful. Keep praying. Keep living the Gospel in the ordinary circumstances of daily life.
And always focus on the goal. It is not success, achievement, or spiritual perfection. It is union with Christ — a heart so fixed on him that, little by little, it begins to look like his. This is the wisdom Clare passed on to Agnes and still offers to us today: keep looking at Christ until you become like him. Then carry that likeness into your family, your workplace, your fraternity, and your wider community, so that others may catch a glimpse of the Poor and Crucified Lord in the way you live and love.
Further Reading
Armstrong, Regis J., ed. and trans. Clare of Assisi: Early Documents. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2006.
“Clare of Assisi: Letters.” Franciscan Note. Accessed July 29, 2026.
Davis, Bruce. The Love Letters of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi: The Journey of Two Great Saints, Soaked in Love, Who Changed The World. Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA: Waterside Productions, 2019.
Delio, Ilia. Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love. Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2007.
Mueller, Joan. Clare of Assisi: The Letters to Agnes. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003.
San Luis Rey Fraternity, Secular Franciscans. “St. Clare’s Letters to St. Agnes of Prague.”
http://www.slr-ofs.org/st-clares-letters-to-st-agnes-of-prague.html.
Fr Joe McKay OFM
National Spiritual Assistant
