The Blessed Father knows that his Spiritual Daughter will never betray him by doing anything of any kind against the divine plan; therefore, when the stigmatization had renewed in his flesh the mystery of the Cross and completed as much as possible his identification with the Crucified, Clare became the confidant of this loving secret. She strove to make the physical sufferings of the stigmata more bearable, but most of all, her soul became the cup into which poured the overflow of this painful grace, and as Mary had mixed her tears with the blood of Jesus, she united her tears with the blood of Saint Francis.
In narrations on her agony, nothing reminds the usual anguish of this hour. Her death evokes the serenity of Mary?s last day; she remained then deeply human through her need both to give and receive some affection; she suffers to depart from those who
are mourning her and attempts to console them; she remembers the first days of her vocation and is moved at the memories which they revive in her.
Saint Francis
