Today we commemorate the great Saint Clare of Assisi, who left aside her wealth at age 18 to follow the path blazed by the extraordinary witness of her friend and compatriot, St Francis. She founded a contemplative order of religious sisters, often referred to as the "Poor Clares," and 800 years later young women continue to leave everything, join together in a life of poverty, and pray to God in the midst of our troubled and searching world.“You know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).