Clare provides the “roadmap” of prayer for evangelical life precisely because she lived under a monastic rule while ardently desiring evangelical life. To really cling to what she believed in, she had to consolidate its meaning for herself and those who followed her. The monastic path to God is quite different from the evangelical path. It emphasizes divine transcendence rather than immanence, the ascended Christ rather than the crucified Christ, spiritual union with God rather than the physical expression of divine love. The monastic quest includes the silence and solitude of the cloister to seek God whereas evangelical life, with its focus on the Incarnation, means that God is to be found in the cloister of the world.
— from the book Franciscan Prayerby Ilia Delio, OSF
//Franciscan Media//