Entitled to Nothing At All

Investiture Ceremony of a Poor Clare

Today I spoke with the Portress Sister on the phone, and it was so nice to hear her voice. I asked her to pray for my little sister, who is sick with a cold and whose birthday is tomorrow. The Portress asked her name then said, "How fitting since this is the Year of Faith...This next year will be our Year of Emma!" (Feel free to 'guess' my little sister's name.) I told her that I hope I will persevere to the completion of this ‘Year of Emma.’ We joked that perhaps the 'Year' will turn into years, then decades, and so on. If I do persevere in the Monastery, I will go through different periods of formation.

Generally, the Poor Clare formation follows this pattern:

Postulancy: 1 Year

Short Veil + Postulant Garb

Noviceship: 2 Years

Habit + White Veil

Juniorate: 3 Years

Temporary Vows + Black Veil + Cord Knots

Solemn Vows: Forever!

Wedding Ring

Roswell Poor Clares

I must say I was not expecting so much affection and love from my Sisters ‘this early in the game’, to so speak. I suppose I was expecting them to act in the same way a parent does when their child finds a lost pet. The parent usually tells the child: "The animal will probably not stay with us." In this way they err on the side of caution so the child does not get their hopes up only to be dashed if the animal does in fact leave. I am so pleased this is not the case with my Sisters the Poor Clares! I often wonder what community life is like if they shed so much love on an applicant. Mother Francis said in A Right to Be Merry, “Just as the vow of enclosure enlarges the heart of a nun to gather all of suffering, sinning mankind into it, so does it immeasurably increase her tenderness toward her spiritual Sisters. New postulants are very often struck by this, but it is only the living demonstration of the words of our Mother Saint Clare: ‘If a mother love and nurture her daughter according to the flesh, how much more ought a Sister to love and nurture her Sister according to the Spirit.’ There is never a spirit of every-man-for-himself in our cloister.” Note: This affection is not something the Sisters use to 'rope' girls into entering.. In fact, I didn't experience much of this until the visit where Mother told me of my acceptance. I think this is the point where Sisters normally begin to really bond with the person. 

Nuns have too much fun!

 Many experienced religious are quick to agree that community life is both the greatest joy and greatest penance as well. It should not require a great stretch of the imagination to assent that community life is a penance in the truest sense of the word, especially if we are considering a cloistered community. “Cloistered nuns rub souls as well as elbows all their lives, and if they do not step out f themselves to get a true perspective , they can become small-souled and petty and remain immature children all their lives long." But, as Mother Mary Francis points out, they also have ‘as great a right to be merry as any lady in the world.' She goes on to speak of the sacrifice involved in living with a small number of women in four walls for the whole future course of your life. “That (The common life) is where enclosed contemplatives have the edge on all other religious. They have no escape into the outside work, and can never blow a farewell kiss to their Sisters and be off to the ward or the classroom or the day nursery. Neither have they the luxury of eremitical solitude. They live alone in very close company. And if they do that well, they have ‘the greatest grace man can have under Heaven.’” But this waxing on about enclosure is for another blog post. Moving right along!

Joyful Poor Clares
After 1st Profession

 The bonding I have been experiencing with my future Sisters has been wonderful and really expanded my experiential knowledge of the cloistered nun's extraordinarily loving heart. Her heart must expand as a result of her life of virginal chastity so she can love the whole world. Most people struggle loving one person for their whole life, and a nun is supposed to love the entire world, you say? How is this possible? It really isn't for any human, even those few Saintly beings. The vocation to lead a contemplative life for love of God and all the souls in the world is quite impossible on our own. Only the grace of God makes this love for all souls in the world possible, and therefore fruitful.

"Their hearts are as wide as the universe and bottomless as eternity," says the late Mother Francis. Only women with special grace could bear to give all their love and affection to an applicant who will likely not persevere to Solemn Profession. Of course, the community is not imprudent. This is why the novitiate usually has separate recreations from the Professed Sisters, and why other separations are enforced. Yet there is still no absence of love from the Professed Sisters to those who have recently entered, which comprises the 'novitiate' Sisters, or those like me who are waiting to enter.

Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Blessed Mother is a perfect example for cloistered nuns and for all people that the greatest life is the one willingly sacrificed for the sake of God's Will. "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to Thy Word!" is the refrain repeating in the hearts of those called to the cloister. The cloistered nun identifies herself with Mary at the foot of the Cross, when Jesus gave every one of his followers the protecting embrace of His Immaculate Mother. (Jn 19:26-27) The nun imitates Mary in her love for every soul. Just as a Mother inconveniences herself to nurture her children, the Poor Clare rises at midnight to pray for the souls she loves so much.

Like Mary at the Annunciation, we can be deeply troubled by a summons from God to this obscure enclosed life. Most 'summoned' girls did not grow up with exuberant thoughts of impending nun-hood, and it is difficult to put our own plans, dreams, and desires aside for the sake of God's greater plan. "His love will make you happy," said Saint Clare. Any nun will tell you this is the truth, yet how hard it can be for us to accept it!

St. Therese

Let us say, "Fiat!" with the Blessed Mother in our holy Vocation, and also in every moment of our lives, which Saint Therese taught us could be sanctified through small acts of penance urged on by love. Six centuries before Saint Therese practiced her Little Way of adoring God in daily life (which is very Franciscan in its essence-St Francis must have smiled on this little Carmelite!), Saint Clare said this: 

"I come, O Lord, unto Thy sanctuary to see the life and food of my soul. As I hope in Thee, O Lord, inspire me with that confidence which brings me to Thy holy mountain. Permit me, Divine Jesus, to come closer to Thee, that my whole soul may do homage to the greatness of Thy majesty; that my heart, with its tenderest affections, may acknowledge Thine infinite love; that my memory may dwell on the admirable mysteries here renewed every day, and that the sacrifice of my whole being may accompany Thine."

"Totally 
love Him, 
Who gave 
Himself 
totally for 
your love." 

St. Clare of Assisi