Emmaberry's Pcc Countdown

[ChristinaTherese]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1348379040' post='2485622']
[url="http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/to-live-uniquely-for-christ.jpg?w=205&h=300"][img]http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/god-is-enough.jpg?w=182&h=300[/img][/url]
[url="http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/the-mystery-of-mary.jpg?w=172&h=300"][img]http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/too-small-a-world.jpg?w=202&h=300[/img][/url]
[url="http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/the-mystery-of-mary.jpg?w=172&h=300"][img]http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/urged-on-by-love.jpg?w=197&h=300[/img][/url]
[url="http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/the-mystery-of-mary.jpg?w=172&h=300"][img]http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/into-his-arms.jpg?w=176&h=300[/img][/url]
[url="http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/the-mystery-of-mary.jpg?w=172&h=300"][img]http://poorclares.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/bridegroom-and-bride.jpg?w=210&h=300[/img][/url]
[/quote]

I love those drawings. Especially the top one, because it makes me think of the bell tolling and saying over and over again, "God is enough[, let us come and worship Him]." (The bracketed portion only implied, not said.)

[PhuturePriest]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1348379040' post='2485622']
Aw, FP, whose going to be on VS at crazy hours of the night with you?

Oh, man, when we see each other in Heaven, it will be like a tiny re-enactment of Saint Francis meeting Saint Clare... except it will be ordinary old us of course.... Although in Heaven we will be 'Saints' in the truest sense of the word, so I guess it will be like the two Saints meeting! Maybe they'll even introduce us.
[/quote]

I know, right? I'll be all alone...

Saints of course, but not as cool. Well, at least I won't be as cool, anyway. I'll probably be known as the Saint who was a parish Priest that got kicked out of the diocese for asking the servers to wear cassocks and not robes, whereas you'll be the great Saint who led thousands to Heaven.

[emmaberry]

[quote name='Christina Thérèse' timestamp='1348419548' post='2485698']
I love those drawings. Especially the top one, because it makes me think of the bell tolling and saying over and over again, "God is enough[, let us come and worship Him]." (The bracketed portion only implied, not said.)
[/quote]

Christina Therese, this is beautiful! I have never thought of 'bellsong', as they call it, that way before. Obviously the Poor Clares (and [i]you[/i]!) have.

[quote name='FuturePriest387' timestamp='1348452282' post='2485837']
I know, right? I'll be all alone...

Saints of course, but not as cool. Well, at least I won't be as cool, anyway. I'll probably be known as the Saint who was a parish Priest that got kicked out of the diocese for asking the servers to wear cassocks and not robes, whereas you'll be the great Saint who led thousands to Heaven.
[/quote]

I am sure we will both have disaster stories following our entrances to Heaven.

You'll have the cassock-robe story to follow you, and I'll probably be the cloistered nun who broke the Great Silence the most!



So I spoke to Mother today and....


drumroll....


I am entering on January 13th, Our Lord's Baptism and Holy Mother Colette's date of birth! Yay!

Edited September 24, 2012 by emmaberry

[ChristinaTherese]

Yay! We have a date! One hundred and twelve days....

[Jennifer]

[i]Lovely news.................you can now start your genuine countdown for your entrance on such an appropriate day. !![/i]

[i]God Bless !![/i]

[emmaberry]

I typed out a ginormous post (because of pics) and it magically closed.

Here we go again:

This newsletter is darling: [url="http://www.poorclaresroswell.com/Annual%20Newsletter%2008-07.pdf"]http://www.poorclaresroswell.com/Annual%20Newsletter%2008-07.pdf[/url]


2011 EUCHARISTIC PROCESSION PICS AND ARTICLES/BLOG ENTRIES:
[url="http://www.olgofm.org/2011-11-11_Padres_Trail_Extra_%202.pdf"]http://www.olgofm.org/2011-11-11_Padres_Trail_Extra_%202.pdf[/url]
[url="http://joenelsblog.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html"]http://joenelsblog.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html[/url] (scroll halfway down)

Pics:

[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hkyYqVyfqr4/UGAqclSNCoI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/RF6Wvz7PABA/s437/Screen%2520shot%25202012-09-24%2520at%25204.39.22%2520AM.png[/img]
[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TBxVXwfzJnc/UGAcEveoybI/AAAAAAAAALo/doimROMhGqk/s471/pcc.jpg[/img]
[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uFMu6iVYmbU/UGASaPy3DEI/AAAAAAAAALM/RLtC-gVQ2FA/s547/pccs%2520pdf.jpg[/img]
[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rly_XhVK1FA/TLe0h1CaSrI/AAAAAAAAAPI/N1uGt4DUhIs/s1600/DSC02273+Sisters+at+Mosoleum.JPG[/img]
[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rly_XhVK1FA/TLe05tPYOoI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/TR0IfqARhbs/s1600/DSC02280+Blessing+in+conventyard.JPG[/img]
[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rly_XhVK1FA/TLe1j8l4hqI/AAAAAAAAAPY/aCqP8NwOpTU/s1600/DSC02290+Sisters+have+a+new+dog,+a+stray,+Juniper.JPG[/img]

the dog!



THIS NUN IS THIS NUN-WHO KNEW?:
[img]http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2012/0325/images/poorclares02.jpg[/img][img]http://www.poorclaresroswell.com/PCC1.jpg[/img]

The above first picture is accompanied by a lovely article: [url="http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2012/0325/8.aspx"]http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2012/0325/8.aspx[/url]



WOW, JOURNALISM HAS REALLY GONE DOWNHILL FROM THEN: (and they interviewed Mother back when she was 'Sister Angela'): [url="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1870&dat=19791223&id=iVEfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=C9IEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3118,3727738"]http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1870&dat=19791223&id=iVEfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=C9IEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3118,3727738[/url]

Interesting picture:

[img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-OszSx1EpvAk/UGAj-Ha1_dI/AAAAAAAAAL8/53P25mWNqK8/s679/Screen%2520shot%25202012-09-24%2520at%25204.11.35%2520AM.png[/img]



THIS LESBIAN PASTOR WROTE MOTHER FRANCIS AFTER READING A RIGHT TO BE MERRY REQUESTING A PEN PAL AND, LO AND BEHOLD, HER PEN PAL WAS MOTHER, OR AT THE TIME 'SISTER ANGELA.': (Sorry for the caps!)


[b] [url="http://ceciliainthecloset.blogspot.com/2010/04/reading-right-to-be-merry.html"]Reading "A Right to Be Merry"[/url][/b]
[color=#555599]


In 1948 (the same year my parents were first, refused, and subsequently, permitted to be married in the church) the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, sent out an urgent call to the Chicago monastery of Poor Clares. Clare of Assisi founded what were then called the Poor Ladies, with the help of her friend Francis, back in the 13th century, part of a great church renewal. They are an order of cloistered, contemplative nuns. That means that, once they take their vows, it is their firm intention never to leave their monastery again, but to live their whole lives there, lives of service to the world through their self-offering of prayer, work and contemplation. In 1948, apparently, the Archbishop felt that Roswell, New Mexico urgently needed the presence of such a group of women. And so nine Poor Clares, who had all thought they would live and die within the Chicago enclosure, boarded a train for Roswell, to meet their Mother Abbess and Novice Mistress (who had preceded them by several months) to found a new monastery there. This is the book I am reading, at thirteen.[/color][size=4]

I am absolutely gripped by this story. (And I didn’t even know the parts about the spaceship and the aliens, which only came together for me in the late nineties when I started catching up on “The X-Files.” Sister Mary Francis maintains a judicious silence about all that.) What was it that so enthralled me about this book? Was it the romance of the cloister—living as a bride of Christ? (Oh yes, at least partially.) Was it the promise of life close to the earth, reading about the nuns growing and canning all their own vegetables (no small feat in the desert climate of New Mexico)? Or was it this: The book is called “A Right to be Merry.” That title comes from a quote of someone referring to the anchoress Margery Kempe, who also lived a cloistered life: “These poor ladies have as great a right to be merry as any in the world!” [*Those of you who have read the sermon, [url="http://magdalenesmusings.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-1948-roman-catholic-archbishop-of.html"]here[/url], know that I incorrectly attributed the quote, there, to Saint Francis. I had conflated the quotes and the fact that the Franciscan rule of silence permits laughter. In other words, I, evidently, made it up.]

Whatever it was, this book was so influential for me that I found myself, at a certain point, writing to the monastery in Roswell to ask whether I might have a pen pal from among its inhabitants. My letter was answered by Mother Mary Francis, herself the abbess. She said, yes. I could correspond for a time with a Postulant, Sister Mary Angela. Sister Mary Angela could write me exactly four letters per year. They also put me on the monastery newsletter mailing list. I was in heaven.

I remember the letters I wrote as being rather passionate and florid. I was on fire to be a Poor Clare. I could not wait. All this fervor had erotic overtones for me, I feel sure—as does religious fervor generally. Passion has a single source, and we experience every kind of passion in our bodies. I would probably cringe to read the letters now. Sister Mary Angela’s letters were, by contrast, kind, measured, chattily informative. Not passionate though.

Eventually the day came when Sister Mary Angela was to be invested as a novice and take her first vows. I wrote to Mother Mary Francis, inquiring what would be an appropriate gift. Poor Clares take a vow of poverty. According to the rule of Saint Clare, “The sisters shall not appropriate anything to themselves, neither a house nor a place nor anything, (but be) as strangers and pilgrims in this world.” So the question of an appropriate gift weighed on me: it wasn’t as if one could send a tchatchke or trinket or piece of jewelry. Mother Mary Francis wrote back: “Eighteen yards of unbleached muslin would be nice.” My long-suffering mother (no doubt reminding herself that she had promised to raise this girl Catholic) took me to an Atlantic City fabric store, where high on a shelf the clerk found a bolt of dusty but unbleached muslin. We bought it. I took it home and washed and dried and ironed it, then gift-wrapped and packaged it for the postal service to transport it from the East coast to Roswell.

On April 10 I was working on a sermon for “Holy Hilarity Sunday.” That phrase, “A right to be merry,” kept floating in and out of my mind. I thought, by now they surely have a website—and of course they do. They have a new abbess, too, Mother Mary Angela—unless I am mistaken, my old pen pal. As I scanned through the pages—detailing much of the monastery’s history—I found a page dedicated to Mother Mary Francis, whose book so affected me. It gave her dates—she was born in 1921 (my mother was born in 1920). She died on February 11, 2006, the day on which my mother died.

This odd little coincidence has been on my mind and heart ever since I learned of it. And I know why—I knew why a shiver went up my spine when I first saw that date. Mother Mary Francis was a spiritual mother to me, in ways my mother was unable to be. My mother did what a good parent should do. Teach your children all you can, and when you find there’s some area in which you are unable to teach, find someone else who is able. My mother struggled with her faith her whole life—she looked at me with a kind of awe, because she believed I had a “hotline” to God. This makes me so sad. I do not have a hotline. I am no mystic. My prayer discipline is spotty at best, though it fills me and nurtures me when I bother to take it seriously. I probably should have been clearer with my mother about how lacking my own spiritual disciplines were, about my own experiences of the deafening silence of God, and of my own very real doubts and questions. But I wasn’t. I let her think I was spiritually genius, partially, because it gave her such pleasure to think it. But also because I so very much wanted her to love and approve of me. (Which she did. She loved me.)

It is my intention to spend some time with my two mothers, with J., who loved and raised me, and found resources for me when she experienced herself as lacking them; and with Mother Mary Francis, as truly my spiritual mother as if I had entered the monastery for a time at age 13. I have purchased another copy of “A Right to Be Merry” (though I suspect there is one hanging around in my attic, I wanted to read the preface written when it was reprinted in 2000). I will be recording privately my thoughts and impressions and associations as I read, as I re-enter this sacred space of nearly forty years ago.[/size]


Oh, I also set up a blog. It has nothing on it, yet, so don't rush over there all at once.
[url="http://entitledtopoverty.blogspot.com/"]http://entitledtopoverty.blogspot.com/[/url]

[Julie de Sales]

I have a question regarding the Rule of St Clare: it’s very difficult to observe it and I noticed that some of the prescriptions are not respected nowadays. For example, fasting at all times, not using feather pillows, speaking at the parlor only in the presence and hearing of two sisters, etc. etc. So, how can somebody profess that she will observe the Rule of St Clare if in practice you can observe like 50% of what is written there? I know that things have changed in 800 years, but I would prefer to enter in an order where you can really do what the Rule says. Or maybe there are some monasteries that keep all the prescriptions?

[PhuturePriest]

[quote name='Julie de Sales' timestamp='1348495395' post='2485970']
I have a question regarding the Rule of St Clare: it’s very difficult to observe it and I noticed that some of the prescriptions are not respected nowadays. For example, fasting at all times, not using feather pillows, speaking at the parlor only in the presence and hearing of two sisters, etc. etc. So, how can somebody profess that she will observe the Rule of St Clare if in practice you can observe like 50% of what is written there? I know that things have changed in 800 years, but I would prefer to enter in an order where you can really do what the Rule says. Or maybe there are some monasteries that keep all the prescriptions?
[/quote]

The Franciscan Sisters Minor are the only Poor Clare Community in the world that follows the original Rule of Saint Claire and everything it says to do.

[Totally Franciscan]

Emmaberry, I thank you so much for the beautiful post above about Mother Mary Francis. How I miss her. I never knew her, of course, but I feel as though I have known her through her writings, her photos, and personal emails to me from someone who knew her. The photo above with a final profession nun is my favorite. One can see so much in Mother's face at that moment. What a blessing it is to see her final resting place. What a blessing that you will live there where she lived and to have her close to you as you live your Poor Clare life. I am so full of joy that you have received your entrance date. Please say a prayer for me and for all of us here at Phatmass when you first go to Mother's final resting place that Mother will look down on all of us and intercede to her Spouse for all our intentions. I will be praying for you. God bless.

[emmaberry]

[quote name='Julie de Sales' timestamp='1348495395' post='2485970']
I have a question regarding the Rule of St Clare: it’s very difficult to observe it and I noticed that some of the prescriptions are not respected nowadays. For example, fasting at all times, not using feather pillows, speaking at the parlor only in the presence and hearing of two sisters, etc. etc. So, how can somebody profess that she will observe the Rule of St Clare if in practice you can observe like 50% of what is written there? I know that things have changed in 800 years, but I would prefer to enter in an order where you can really do what the Rule says. Or maybe there are some monasteries that keep all the prescriptions?
[/quote]

I cannot speak for non-Colettine Poor Clares (I'm not really licensed to speak on any of them actually!), but the Colettines do perpetually fast, don't use feather pillows, sleep on straw mattresses, rise at midnight, I believe they speak at the parlor in the presence of other sisters, perhaps with one listening outside the door. I have only spoken with Mother Abbess alone before. One thing to remember about the rule of Saint Clare, is that most of the penances (the Franciscan Order [i]is[/i] the Order of Penance) are to be waived by the Abbess for the weak and young. So a postulant who cannot handle the fast is to be given something extra to eat, along with the elderly or the sickly. This goes for the sleep deprivation, straw mattress, and bare feet as well. So the weak can be permitted a lie-in, a soft bed, or shoes inside.

Last note, this is why I was very firm on joining Clares of the Colettine reform or, as they like to call it, of St Colette's 'reversion', since St Colette did not reform the Order but restored its primitive rigorous observance. St Colette knew that Poor Clares were taking the very brief and simple rule and using those aspects of it as an excuse to not be rigorous in their observance, so she wrote up Constitutions for her nuns that expand upon the principles St Clare laid down in the Holy Rule. These constitutions give very good insight into what it means to follow Saint Clare in modern times, even though they were written hundreds of years ago!

You may be thinking of some Poor Clares who do not follow many of the prescripts in the Rule, so they are more lax in their discipline of following the Rule? Also, I need to note that there are OSC (Poor Clares of the Primitive Observance)

I appreciate your honest question, but could you please be more specific about what in the Holy Rule is impossible to follow today? Certain aspects are no longer applicable, but this happens with any of the rules. I would think this would happen the least in St Clare and St Francis' Holy Rules, since they are so brief compared to, say, the Rule of Saint Benedict, which is very detailed-although as the Father of Western Monasticism, he has that license.

[EmilyAnn]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1348522465' post='2486125']
I appreciate your honest question, but could you please be more specific about what in the Holy Rule is impossible to follow today? Certain aspects are no longer applicable, but this happens with any of the rules. I would think this would happen the least in St Clare and St Francis' Holy Rules, since they are so brief compared to, say, the Rule of Saint Benedict, which is very detailed-although as the Father of Western Monasticism, he has that license.
[/quote]

Even the Rule of St. Benedict has to be adapted to the modern-day in places - it is like 1500 years old after all!

I remember Mother Mistress talking about this sort of thing in one lesson. I can't remember exactly what she said, but the general impression I got was that the Rules do sometimes need some interpretation and some things are impractical to follow nowadays but what is important is that they adhere to the Rule as much as is practically possible and that changes they make are in the spirit and charism of their founder. Like I said, the Rule of St. Benedict is 1500 years old. The Rule of St. Clare is like 800. The world has changed a lot since the times of the great religious founders.

[emmaberry]

[quote name='Totally Franciscan' timestamp='1348515470' post='2486069']
Emmaberry, I thank you so much for the beautiful post above about Mother Mary Francis. How I miss her. I never knew her, of course, but I feel as though I have known her through her writings, her photos, and personal emails to me from someone who knew her. The photo above with a final profession nun is my favorite. One can see so much in Mother's face at that moment. What a blessing it is to see her final resting place. What a blessing that you will live there where she lived and to have her close to you as you live your Poor Clare life. I am so full of joy that you have received your entrance date. Please say a prayer for me and for all of us here at Phatmass when you first go to Mother's final resting place that Mother will look down on all of us and intercede to her Spouse for all our intentions. I will be praying for you. God bless.
[/quote]

Totally Franciscan, this is beautiful and really touching. May God reward you for your kindness and encouragement. I will do just that when I see Holy Mother Francis' resting place..no doubt it will be an emotional experience. I am sure she is watching with special care over the Roswell PCCs and over us all from 'her foundation in Heaven' as she would say.


[quote name='EmilyAnn' timestamp='1348523693' post='2486149']
Even the Rule of St. Benedict has to be adapted to the modern-day in places - it is like 1500 years old after all!

I remember Mother Mistress talking about this sort of thing in one lesson. I can't remember exactly what she said, but the general impression I got was that the Rules do sometimes need some interpretation and some things are impractical to follow nowadays but what is important is that they adhere to the Rule as much as is practically possible and that changes they make are in the spirit and charism of their founder. Like I said, the Rule of St. Benedict is 1500 years old. The Rule of St. Clare is like 800. The world has changed a lot since the times of the great religious founders.
[/quote]
Yes, you are so right that it happens in every rule somewhere along the way! One example of this in the Rule of Saint Clare is the prescript that "the nuns who don't chant the Office should recite ____ number of Pater Nosters." This is not applicable today, because everyone can read and chant the Office, but back then nearly all women (even the well-bred) were illiterate. I am sure there are tons of other examples in her Rule, and in Saint Benedict's as well. It would be interesting to read a book just on this subject.

[quote name='FuturePriest387' timestamp='1348498548' post='2485981']
The Franciscan Sisters Minor are the only Poor Clare Community in the world that follows the original Rule of Saint Claire and everything it says to do.
[/quote]
FP, I love you, but I don't know if this is true. I read something that said these Sisters eat meat when it is donated to them, for example, and that is not in accord with the Rule of Saint Clare. However, it is in perfect accord with Saint Francis' charism of poverty, so they must be focusing on that in this matter. These Sisters obviously observe the Rule in a very vibrant and disciplined way, I am not trying to put them down! They are a wonderful group, but I think there are other Poor Clares who follow the original Rule, not the mitigated version allowed by Pope Urban which allowed for communal property ownership. Also, the Colettine is not a mitigated version of Saint Clare's original Rule, it is a reversion to the rigorous primitive observance from the time of Saint Clare and Saint Francis. Sometimes following the original Rule and nothing else does not equal a more disciplined observance of said rule, though this doesn't seem to be the case in these Sisters' (I should say nuns' now!) case.


[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1348522465' post='2486125']
Also, I need to note that there are OSC (Poor Clares of the Primitive Observance)
[/quote]

I should have edited this to say that 'there are OSC Poor Clares who follow almost every Colettine discipline, but I have never seen any who go barefoot.'

[PhuturePriest]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1348535555' post='2486263']
FP, I love you, but I don't know if this is true. I read something that said these Sisters eat meat when it is donated to them, for example, and that is not in accord with the Rule of Saint Clare. However, it is in perfect accord with Saint Francis' charism of poverty, so they must be focusing on that in this matter. These Sisters obviously observe the Rule in a very vibrant and disciplined way, I am not trying to put them down! They are a wonderful group, but I think there are other Poor Clares who follow the original Rule, not the mitigated version allowed by Pope Urban which allowed for communal property ownership. Also, the Colettine is not a mitigated version of Saint Clare's original Rule, it is a reversion to the rigorous primitive observance from the time of Saint Clare and Saint Francis. Sometimes following the original Rule and nothing else does not equal a more disciplined observance of said rule, though this doesn't seem to be the case in these Sisters' (I should say nuns' now!) case.
[/quote]

Oh, I hope I didn't offend you in any way. This is simply what they said on the site. You could be perfectly right.

[Chiquitunga]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1348535555' post='2486263']FP, I love you, but I don't know if this is true. I read something that said these Sisters eat meat when it is donated to them, for example, and that is not in accord with the Rule of Saint Clare. However, it is in perfect accord with Saint Francis' charism of poverty, so they must be focusing on that in this matter. These Sisters obviously observe the Rule in a very vibrant and disciplined way, I am not trying to put them down! They are a wonderful group, but I think there are other Poor Clares who follow the original Rule, not the mitigated version allowed by Pope Urban which allowed for communal property ownership. Also, the Colettine is not a mitigated version of Saint Clare's original Rule, it is a reversion to the rigorous primitive observance from the time of Saint Clare and Saint Francis. Sometimes following the original Rule and nothing else does not equal a more disciplined observance of said rule, though this doesn't seem to be the case in these Sisters' (I should say nuns' now!) case.


I should have edited this to say that 'there are OSC Poor Clares who follow almost every Colettine discipline, but I have never seen any who go barefoot.'
[/quote]
Yes, I have never seen an OSC community go barefoot either. But yes, besides that, the St. Louis OSCs seem to follow everything else, like rising at midnight. Also these OSCs founded from Boston in Japan seem very much like the Colettines too, [url="http://poorclare.org/japan/"]http://poorclare.org/japan/[/url]

I'm with you Emma .. if I was to go Poor Clare, I'd go straight for the Colettines!! (if that were God's will of course) I love how they call St. Colette their Holy Mother also. And I love St. Colette, period She had a long struggle until she knew what God wanted from her .. and she was a recluse!

In Rockford I learned also from Mother Dominica that there was a Colettine community in Avila when St. Teresa was founding her first monastery (San Jose) and she drew a lot of inspiration from them (she also had a vision of St. Clare, which I used to have a holy card of!!) Mother also told me St. Teresa wanted barefeet like them but wasn't granted it. I had never heard that one before. I will have to look it up, but I trust Mother Dominica's knowledge .. pretty neat!

About the Poor Sisters of St. Clare, yes you would still call them Sisters as they are not technically Nuns yet, as they would have to be officially in the Order and profess Solemn Vows. They are not a religious institute at this point but a Public Association of the Faithful, so their vows are private and not public as religious vows are, as posted about [url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/122938-franciscan-sisters-minor-now-poor-clares/page__st__40#entry2474550"]here[/url]. Not to say anything against them! Please forgive me! Just stating the facts. Many religious communities in the history of the Church took a long time to be finally official, etc. and were full of saints already (like St. Clare of Montefalco's community for instance .. or even Sts Francis & Clare themselves!!)

Another strict Poor Clare observance are the Poor Clares of the Immaculate. I don't know their history by heart, but their (four I think) monasteries in Italy were Poor Clare monasteries before (I [i]think[/i] OSC.. Urbanists I remember hearing, not sure exactly what that would be then, OSC?) and then they became PCs of the Immaculate - Clarisse dell'Immacolata. I don't know all that much about them, but I did notice they have double grilles in their video

Love this soo much!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1KmarrhR0&feature=share&list=PL0DFB72E9DD955C61[/media]


More about them here, [url="http://www.mtstfrancis.com/index.php/franciscans/poor-clares-of-the-immaculate"]http://www.mtstfranc...-the-immaculate[/url]

[quote]
[size=5][color=#000000][font=perpetua, garamond, serif][background=rgb(243, 243, 243)]The Poor Clares of the Immaculate [u]live according to the original Rule of our Holy Mother Clare, with no mitigations[/u], and the Traccia Mariana, a document drawn up by our founder, Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, which gives clear indications on how to faithfully live out the charism of Sts. Francis and Clare in the modern world, following the example and teachings of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe. They wear a grey-blue habit (like the friars and sisters), with a sky-blue veil and the Miraculous Medal worn over the breast. [/background][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=perpetua, garamond, serif][background=rgb(243, 243, 243)]The three existing monasteries are located in Italy, but young women from other parts of the world (including the U.S.A.) have begun to enter the Order as well, which gives us hope that in a few years' time they will begin to found monasteries in other countries, and on other continents.[/background][/font][/color][/size]
[/quote]

edit: actually, if I were fluent in Italian (and if it were up to me! It's God's decision!) I'd go first to the Clarisse dell'Immacolata Love the Colettines just as much though!

Edited September 25, 2012 by Chiquitunga

[Chiquitunga]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1348454637' post='2485854']So I spoke to Mother today and....


drumroll....


I am entering on January 13th, Our Lord's Baptism and Holy Mother Colette's date of birth! Yay!
[/quote]

Emmaberry, that's wonderful!!!!!!

Congratulations!!! <-- p.s. our nun emoticons really look like postulants, don't they? well, in this case it works well