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THE CLOISTERED POOR CLARE
NUNS
TO UNDERSTAND THE CONTEMPLATIVE VOCATION is to know that its apostolate is universal and timeless. The Poor Clare has stepped apart from the world and has thus got a better perspective on it. She has left the world not because she hates it, but because she wants to love it more purely and more realistically. IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY, St. Francis of Assisi founded three Orders: preaching friars, enclosed nuns, dedicated seculars. The nuns were formed by St. Clare, his first spiritual daughter; and they constituted the Second Franciscan Order. After Clare's death, these Poor Ladies, as Francis had called them, became identified with the name of their mother and foundress. They are still called Poor Clares today, living by the work of their hands and their minds and on the alms of the faithful, and because they are followers and daughters of one of the most charming women who ever lived, Clare of Assisi. To the active religious today, Holy Scripture rings out challenges. "Preach the word. Be instant in season and out of season" (Epis. 2 Timothy, IV, 2). "And He went about doing good" (Acts, X, 38). TO THE CONTEMPLATIVE RELIGIOUS, Holy Scripture underlines other words. "Your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Epis. Coloss., II, 3). "He went out into a mountain to pray, and He passed the whole night in the prayer of God" (Luke, VI, 12). "As dying, and behold we live!" (Epis. 2 Cor., VI, 9). The active sister serves God and ministers to souls in the marketplace. The contemplative nun serves God and ministers to souls from the cloister. FORMATION PROGRAM Postulancy in the Order of St. Clare today is a year of preparation for that kind of total giving which will be climaxed in Solemn Profession some six years later. The Noviceship of one or two years which follows upon postulancy is a time of refining and deeper evaluation, of profounder preparation and expectation. Now the life of prayer and penance is embraced in fuller detail.
The Vows bring a marvelous enrichment. One is truly bound to Christ now with fourfold and very dear chains. To the ordinary three vows of religion, the cloistered Poor Clare adds a fourth, that of enclosure. She promises to live in obedience, in poverty, in virginal chastity, and in enclosure. THE HABIT In an era when cumbersome religious cress is being summoned to trial for modification, the sevenhundredyearold garb of the Poor Clares stands forth already intrinsically updated. The crossform rough serge habit is a parable of simplicity. The plain white cord is both functional and symbolic, belting the garment and expressing the vows with its four knots. The headdress is unstarched and simple, the veil is flat and plain. The nuns are discalced. This is the garb functional for work and for prayer. These are the garments betokening the pilgrim journeying through the world to the Father, symbol and sign, witness to Him this religious woman loves, for whom she lives. APPLICANTS Girls between the ages of eighteen and twentyfive are eligible as applicants to the Order, with exceptions sometimes made where there is good reason. Normal good health, a high school education, and the proper qualities of mind and heart are the other broad requisites. A dowry is not required. For more information, contact one of the nine member monasteries of the federation. Write to Monastery of the Poor Clares, at one of the following addresses: 2505 Stonehedge Drive 1671 Pleasant Valley Road 300 North 60th Street 3501 Rocky River Drive 1175 North County Road 300 W 28210 Natoma Road 28 Harpersville Road 809 East 19th Street 200 Marycrest Drive 215 East Los Olivos Street 421 South Fourth Street For many persons,
the day ends when they retire at midnight. [Updated: 3/12/99] |
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In
exchanging the white veil of the novice for the black veil of the Professed
Nun, the young Poor Clare assumes her full responsibilities as a member
of her Order: prayer, penance, the spiritual motherhood of souls.