Visions of Sister Moon:An entirely fictional and imagined correspondence between Claire and Francis of Assisi

My dear Francis, my soliel de frére,

I woke again with another vision. They are coming every night now. In my vision all of the people of our world were standing by the shore of a lake, and they were unclothed. The water was brown and the people could not drink it. There was a man dressed in vestments and holding a scepter and shouting to the people that he would take care of them, that he spoke for God. They were shivering in cold, and kneeling before the man. Their bones showed through their skin. One of the women brought a dead child and lay it down in front of the man and he stepped upon it and shoved the woman away, shouting to the people to kneel and pray in front of Our Lord. As in the other visions, an army of birds descended from the South. A raptor swooped down and with his talons extended, he took off the vestments of the man. Another raptor took the man’s scepter. The man was standing naked and the rest of the birds descended, circling the man and lifting him high into the air, they dropped him into the masses. The people began to rip him apart, tearing off his limbs, the faces of the people looked to be possessed by demons.

Just then a deer appeared from the North and walked into the middle of the crowd. But he was not just a deer, he was golden and grand, his antlers were perfectly formed, and did not look to have ever been used to fight in battle. He walked into the middle of the crowd and up to where the people had torn apart the man. He bent down and licked the man, looking at him with such a compassion that I could feel my heart aching to watch. A tear fell out of his eye, and the tear was a diamond. The man was healed in body, but did not wake, and then he ascended, his entire body lifted into the sky and he was gone.

The deer then turned to the people and looked at them with the same eye of compassion, another tear fell as a diamond, and dropped into the lake and the lake became pure. The people gathered around the deer and kneeled, and then the birds returned, circling around in the sky above the deer and the crowd. The deer began to walk toward the East, the birds above him leading the way. The people rose, drank from the lake, and then followed, walking in a deep peace behind the deer, and as they walked, they regained health. When I woke, three bluebirds were at my window.

Oh Francis my love, I fear that you will not accomplish your mission by going West to Rome and I beg you not to go. It is not a holy place and the Pope does not speak for God. God speaks through the animals, through the trees, through the birds and the wind, not through a single man, not through a book. God does not condone violence, or riches of absurd grandeur. You have more of the essence of God in your eyelash than does the entire church, I beg you to see that holiness, and to stay and not leave this land, not leave me, to chase an impossible dream. To have the Pope’s blessing?  What will that give you?  Give us?  Everything we need is right here. The animals need tending, I need your love, please stay.

Your beloved, Claire de lune

©2010 Catherine Vibert

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6