- Oct 24, 2005
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In May of this year, as the stately Saguaro blooms in the Arizona desert, five young women known as Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration will be coming to the Diocese of Phoenix. With God's help and that of anticipated local benefactors, these contemplative nuns will establish a monastery on a mountain peak in Black Canyon City.
Why here and why now?
At my invitation, these sisters in Christ are being sent from Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Ala. Since that monastery in the Deep South has been blest with an abundance of vocations in recent years, they have felt called by God to expand their mission of prayer and penance to the Great Southwest.
But why would young women who seem so bright and so full of life choose a sacrificial way of life, cut off from all the "advantages" and the "excitement" of the 21st century? Why spend time every day in Eucharistic Adoration and get up in the middle of the night for silent contemplation? Why forego married life and a "successful career?" Why not assist young mothers at Maggie's Place? Why not teach in a Catholic school? Why not serve the poor and hungry at Andre House?
Quite simply, they are Poor Clares because of the call of Christ, whom each of these sisters encountered in a profound and life-altering way. They would be the first to affirm the goodness of other vocations in the Church; indeed they support these through their prayers. Poor Clares live their monastic vocation out of a grateful love for Jesus and an awesome awareness of His love for them. Although cloistered within a tiny earthly space, they are living out a thrilling journey of the spirit, passing through dark nights of the senses and crossing rugged terrains of the soul, yet focused intently on the finish line: life to the full with the Blessed Trinity in heaven.
Singing pilgrimage
Each sister knows herself to be, as St. Clare of Assisi wrote, a "spouse and mother and sister of my Lord Jesus Christ." This seems foolish and even contemptible to those whose treasure is in this world. But to those called by Christ, it is as St. Paul writes (I Cor 1:24), "the power and the wisdom of God."
The first biographer of St. Francis and St. Clare, Thomas of Celano, wrote, "Francis wished that everything should sing pilgrimage and exile." This is the song sung by the Poor Clares, and by all cloistered religious as they leave behind what "this world" has to offer and set their hearts firmly on the one thing that will last forever, the Kingdom of God.
Like other men and women religious, the Poor Clares call our attention to the Church's essential identity as the Bride of Christ, far more than just an institution. Of the two great commandments, the Poor Clares beam a bright light upon the first and greatest (Mt 22:37): "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Totally yours: that's what monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience say in dramatic fashion. At the same time, they also strive to fulfill the second great commandment, love of neighbor as of self, by praying for the needs of the Church, offering sacrifices in reparation for sins, and interceding for the needs of all people.
The love of Christ caught the imagination of these young consecrated women, sustained them through eight years of religious formation, and led them to make a perpetual consecration through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. That same love impels them to come west from Alabama to establish a new monastery in our diocese.
Contemplation supports action
Thousands of apostolic religious have come to serve Christ in Arizona before them, from the early Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries to the many sisters who have taught in our Catholic schools and who have cared for the sick and poor. We thank God for the many apostolic religious who continue their work among us. Now, for the first time, a contemplative religious community comes to our diocese to complement the great work that has gone before.
St. Clare saw her mission and that of her sisters as linked with these Apostolic Institutes, especially with the evangelizing work of St. Francis and his Friars. One was not more important than the other. Both were necessary in the mission of Christ in the world.
As the five Poor Clares come to a mountaintop in Black Canyon City and begin here in Arizona to pray for us and for the needs of the whole Church, we give thanks for their witness to Christ in the hidden life of the cloister. We also welcome their solidarity with us in begging God for a new springtime of religious and priestly vocations, for more vigorous family life and for a stronger commitment to the Gospel of Life.
St. Clare's Vision
To understand the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration who are coming to our diocese in May, we must understand their foundress St. Clare of Assisi, the first woman to write a Rule of Religious Life.
Most people know that St. Clare was closely associated with St. Francis of Assisi in a great revitalization of the Christian life in the 13th century. To be sure, Clare and her Sisters fulfilled a vital role in the rapid and authentic proliferation of the Franciscan charism. Less well known are the principles of faith that made up the monastic vision of Clare. Three of these deserve particular attention:
An intense spousal love for Christ the Bridegroom,
A spontaneous joy in being Christ's Bride,
A radical commitment to the Poor Christ expressed in poverty of spirit and body.
An intense spousal love for Christ the Bridegroom
Clare considered herself and each Sister to be "spouse and mother and sister of my Lord Jesus Christ." In her four famous letters to Blessed Agnes of Prague, the frequent repetition of these relational terms reveals Clare's deep sense of her identity and mission. Clare's conviction about this intimate relationship with Jesus was reinforced by Francis who wrote in his First Letter to the Faithful that all the baptized are "spouses when the faithful soul is joined by the Holy Spirit to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are brothers and sisters to Him when we do the will of the Father who is in heaven. We are mothers when we carry Him in our heart and body through a divine love and a pure and sincere conscience and give birth to Him through a holy activity that must shine as an example before others."
Like Francis, Clare's whole sense of self and her dynamic spirituality were bound up with her relationship with Jesus. This is how she saw the identity of all her spiritual daughters. So, in her second letter to Agnes, Clare addresses the young Abbess in Prague as "the daughter of the King of kings, Handmaid of the Lord of lords, most worthy spouse of Jesus Christ."
A spontaneous joy in being Christ's Bride
Clare's vision of religious life, indeed of the lives of all followers of Christ, was firmly grounded in reality. She knew from personal experience the cost of Christian discipleship. Her decision to follow the guidance of Francis and thus to embrace the Poor and Humble Christ was met with fierce resistance by her family. But Clare was convinced that the unjust structures of Italian society at that time would not and should not last. Families of nobility, like her own, had no future if they continued to cling to power and privilege, while ignoring the gnawing poverty of vast sectors of the population, and while a rising merchant class was gaining wealth and influence.
With incredible courage for a person in her teens, Clare ran away from her parents' noble palace and ran towards her beloved Divine Spouse. Her own father never forgave Clare for this decision; to her great sorrow, he refused ever to reconcile with his daughter.
But the cost of embracing Christ, far from embittering Clare, led her to spiritual joys that this material world could never provide. From her own experience and relying on the witness of Francis, she became convinced that the only way to joy is to embrace Christ, the Poor One, whose poverty makes us rich in the riches that last forever. In her first letter to Agnes of Prague, Clare writes: "O blessed poverty that provides eternal riches to those who love and embrace it! O holy poverty, God promises the kingdom of heaven and, of course, gives eternal glory and a happy life to those who possess and desire it! It is indeed a great and praiseworthy exchange to give up the temporal for the eternal, to merit the heavenly rather than the earthly, to receive a hundredfold instead of one, to have a happy, everlasting life."
Joy in Christ, insists Clare, requires spiritual discipline, especially the practice of daily prayer where, in addition to praising God, we also bring the hurts that tempt us to anger and the temptations that could turn us away from purity of heart. Joy is a gift that requires choosing again and again to focus on the face of the Divine Spouse and upon His gifts that begin now and last forever.
A radical poverty of spirit and body
All that Clare did flowed from her close bond of affection and grace with Christ. This was especially true of her practice of poverty. She chose poverty because in Christ she found a treasure that was worth selling everything for. Poverty was for Clare a matter of love. The One she loved emptied Himself out of love for us, even to the point of death on a Cross.
Clare's choice for poverty was also inspired by apostolic charity. Unlike many established monasteries of her day which insured their nuns a standard of living higher than most of the laity, Clare deliberately chose a sparing way of life in order to live in solidarity with the poor. Her inspiration came from Jesus' words (Mt 19:21): "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." That is what Francis had done. Clare gladly did the same. And that is what persons are still doing in 2005 when they answer Christ's call to be a Poor Clare.
The Multifaceted Gift of Religious Life
Contemplative Religious Life as lived by the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, who will soon come to our diocese, is only one of many vibrant forms of Consecrated Life in the Church. As Pope John Paul II wrote in Vita Consecrata (#5), these various forms "can be compared to a plant with many branches which sinks its roots into the Gospel and brings forth abundant fruit in every season of the Church's life. What an extraordinary richness!"
We see this rich diversity here in the Diocese of Phoenix. Consider, for example, the Jesuits at Brophy College Preparatory and the BVMs at Xavier, the Sisters of Loreto at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral and many more sisters, brothers and priests serving in Catholic education. Then, there are the Missionary Sisters of Charity serving the poorest of the poor among us, the Holy Cross priests and brothers feeding the hungry at Andre House and serving in our parishes, the Sisters of Saint Francis serving Native Americans at St. Peter's Mission School and many other Religious living out the Beatitudes of Christ in an exemplary manner. For all this rich diversity, however, we have not had in the Phoenix Diocese a cloistered contemplative community. That is why we rejoice in this most recent addition to the diverse communities of Religious serving Christ among us.
Religious inspire the laity to lead holy lives
Religious do not take the place of the lay faithful in the Church's mission, nor do they diminish their importance. On the contrary, Religious enrich the whole Church and inspire all the baptized to live our faith with conviction and to hand it on with joy. The late Holy Father wrote (Vita Consecrata, 3), "In effect, the consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission, since it manifests the inner nature of the Christian calling and the striving of the whole Church as Bride toward union with her one Spouse."
All authentic forms of Religious life contribute to the holiness of the Church. They make Christ more visible and the Gospel more credible to our contemporaries. "By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus - the chaste, poor and obedient one - are made constantly visible in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed toward the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history." (Ibid, 1)
Baptism is the beginning
Religious, building on the grace of their baptismal consecration, surrender to God and place their lives at the service of the Gospel with "undivided heart." Their response is audacious; it arises from a keen awareness of being infinitely lovable in the eyes of the Lord. Contemplative prayer attunes the heart to discover God's love and also one's own lovableness. Then, in gratitude for the goodness of God and in awe of His love, Religious seek to love Him in return with an additional consecration through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Since contemplation helps us to know God's love, even those Religious who are engaged in active apostolates in the world constantly need to cultivate a contemplative spirit and to find time regularly for quiet prayer.
Many forms of Religious Life
Each Religious community manifests the mystery of Christ in a different yet complementary way. Some imitate Christ the teacher, others Christ the healer. Still others, like the Poor Clares, mirror Christ at prayer on the mountain or in the desert.
All Religious remind the rest of us in the Church of the universal call to holiness. The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration will be literally and figuratively set on a mountaintop to bear witness to Christ's desire that everyone be gathered into His Church, His beloved Bride. If you drive along Interstate 17, north of Phoenix, and look to the east as you pass through Black Canyon City, you can see the little white chapel of the Poor Clares' new home perched on top of a peak. Beginning in May, the Sisters will be praying there every day for us and for all the Church.
The Church of Phoenix warmly welcomes the Poor Clares, daughters of St. Francis and sisters of St. Clare. We give thanks that their apostolate of prayer and sacrificial love will continue the contemplative tradition begun by Sr. Therese Sedlock over 20 years ago on that same site in Black Canyon City. We welcome them with joy and welcome especially their example of prayer, sacrifice and joy in Christ.
