Place your mind before the mirror of eternity,
place your soul in the brightness of His glory,
place your heart in the image of the divine essence
and transform yourself by contemplation utterly into the image of His divinity, that you too may feel what His friends feel as they taste the hidden sweetness that God himself has set aside from the beginning for those who love Him.
Casting aside all things in this false and troubled world
that ensnare those who love them blindly,
give all your love to Him who gave Himself in all for you to love:
Whose beauty the sun and moon admire, and whose gifts
are abundant and precious and grand without end.
Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) is a Catholic saint, one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi and founder of the Franciscan order for women. This passage is published in Easwaran’s spiritual anthologies, “God Makes the Rivers to Flow” and “Timeless Wisdom.” The audio recording is by Eknath Easwaran’s wife, Christine Easwaran.