Manana - Poor Clare Colletine Vocation Newsletter
Manana - Poor Clare Colletine Vocation Newsletter
Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Roswell, NM
. . .
Are you a young woman who . . .
- wants to turn your pockets inside out for God and love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength? - has a driving ambition to send everyone to heaven? - can see as St. Francis did, a potential fiddle and bow in a pair of sticks?
Do the words MY GOD AND MY ALL say it all for you?
Then don't delay to take full advantage of this ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME-FOR-AS-LONG- AS-YOUR-LIFETIME offer awaiting you in our little desert monastery, where a blessed life for God features a life of . . .HARD LABOR!
That's right! Here is your chance to serve God with that full enthusiasm of mind and body bequeathed to us in our Franciscan way. If you have ever secretly supposed the contemplative life to be a leisurely round of devotional exercises, punctuated by strolls in the garden and a spot of embroidery now and again, FEAR NO MORE!
You will be relieved to know that for the cloistered nun loving God demands full-time spiritual, mental and physical elbow grease. For our Lord well understands our need to throw ourselves wholly into this business of loving Him, and so He delights to send his handmaids scurrying up ladders toting gallon cans of linen white point to beautify his house, or out to the fields to haul in the autumn leaves (by the parachute full) and the winter pecan crop (by the barrow full)!
He will expect you to love Him who is the truth by working your mental muscles in pursuit of the truth as you delve into the riches of Logic and Moral Theology classes.
Here in our little desert monastery you will be given ample scope and freedom to pursue an ambitious career as a fully certified, full-time lowly servant of God. No prior experience in furniture stripping, laundry management or agricultural engineering is required. Just come with a generous supply of that spiritual energizer-zeal for the kingdom of heaven, and all else from thimble coordination to logic's syllogisms to lawn mower mechanics to persevering prayer will follow.
Wondering how there will be time for a full schedule of prayer and so much besides? Stop your puzzling! Our daily horarium provides abundant accommodations on this point with its simple expediency of . . .
LONG HOURS. Imagine the joy! Each night you will leap from your sleep at the enchanting hour of 12:30 a.m.!! Again no prior experience as an early bird is required. Rest secure - our rising bell comes fully equipped with exceptionally penetrating tonal qualities. There is of course no time to be lost in the great work of singing God;s praises, and ultimately only the long space of all eternity will suffice for the task. But our midnight start each day is a practical step in this direction and provides a basic introduction to the praise-lifestyle of heaven.
URGENT! "So many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them."
Do these words of our Lady to the children at Fatima burn in your heart? If so, then you will understand as all Poor Clares do, why there can never be days or hours long enough!
To maintain standards of integrity in advertising, we must here admit that the Poor Clare who has found the hours in the monastery to be long, has not yet been discovered to exist.
HARD LABOR! LONG HOURS! As if that weren't incentive enough, this life also features (you guessed it) ...
NO PAY!! Yes! Say goodbye forever to that jingle in your pocket for there are no salaried position to be had in the monastery, no payroll, no wallets, not even a piggy bank. However, this essential absence of banking accessories does not mean there are no accounts to be kept. From the moment you cross the threshold of the papal enclosure, you will have to cope with the ever-present reality of handling your CONSTANT AND INSURMOUNTABLE DEBTS!
Every day in the cloister unfolds within the gratuitous context of our Lord's providential hundredfold. From the inestimable gift of the Eucharist, to the constant charitable services of your sisters, to the supporting gifts of our wonderful friends and benefactors, to the solicitous guidance of your superiors to your morning cup of donated coffee; your debt of gratitude will always seem to outstrip your ability to meet your payments. "How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me," cries the psalmist. And so will you!
HARD LABOR. LONG HOURS. NO PAY. CONSTANT DEBT. With such a line-up as this, you might expect places to be limited and going fast! RELAX! There is always room for as many more as the Lord of the harvest sends!
STILL ROOM! For one thing, Poor Clares don't need much. Depending on the response to this ad, we can snugly seat four at those refectory tables currently spaciously set for three. This will create several empty places next to our postulant Jacqueline. If more respond we can bring up the extra table from the basement. I still more respond, one of your first assignments might be building refectory tables.
Sister Immaculata, our obliging cook, will be more than happy to raise the level of the soup and the oats. There are still straw sacks (our form of mattresses) in storage; and we have assembled over the years a fine selection of postulant jumpers. One style suits all (with a little personalized hem adjustment).
And as if that weren't enough, your monastic cell will include, a fine firm straw sack on wooden boards, a wash stand and basin, a bench, a window, holy water font and -- standing room besides!!
THERE'S MORE! Our grounds also hold 43, yes forty-three, private retreat houses. These come with all the modern conveniences of running water (when it rains), reclining chairs (insofar as you can recline on a tree stump), air-conditioned comfort (when the wind blows), solar heating (in summer) and a spectacular view unhampered by the confining presence of walls or roof. What more could be desired?
THE CATCH! Here it is, you say, the fine print, the bottom line. Such an offer as this probably seems just too good to be true an there has to be a catch to it. Well, quite frankly, there is a catch; and that's the cost, which for some might prove prohibitive. For the price of embracing this life is nothing less than all you have to give. Lest you accuse us of inflationary practices, this costly price-tag attached to a religious vocation was put there by Jesus Himself. "Go and sell all you have," "He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back . ."
Abandoning the old fishing nets, be they stereo, Volkswagen, or roller skates is only the beginning; for Jesus will continue to turn inside out the pockets of your heart until everything there is His. So if you are tired of searching high and low for that one really valuable pearl, then "Come," with ALL your heart and ALL your soul and ALL your strength, - "and see." For there can never be labors too hard, nor hours too long in the service and praise of God and in the life and death struggle for souls, then it follows that . . .
THERE CAN NEVER BE TOO MANY POOR CLARES!!!
Contact:
Mother Mary Francis, PCC Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe 809 East Nineteenth Street Roswell, NM 88201
Colletine Poor Clare Daily Horarium
12:30 am Matins, silent prayer, suffrages
5:00 Rising for Lauds
5:16 Lauds, brief silent prayer; Cross prayer
6:00 Coffee; order cells
6:25 Private Exposition
7:00 Conventual Mass
7:50 Beginning of full-day Exposition, Terce, adoration hours
10:45 Sext, private prayer, examen, Cross prayer
11:30 Dinner, general work, free time
1:00 pm None, private prayer, Cross prayer
2:00 Classes, work
4:05 Rosary, Vespers, private prayer, Benediction
5:30 Collation, free time
6:30 Recreation
7:30 Compline, Cross prayer
8:45 Retire
Novitiate instructions are given twice daily. Solemnly professed nuns are free to have a period of spiritual reading whenever they find it best for them. All may make the Stations of the Cross during the day as convenient, and read of study in cells before retiring.
Taken from homepage of the Poor Clares
http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/franciscan/clares/
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