Poor Clare Colettines — Palos Park, Illinois

Clare plunged herself into the heart of God.

Life of the Cloistered
Poor Clare Nuns

A Woman Who Had "Everything"

Why did Assisi's loveliest debutante of 1212 want to lock herself up in a cloister? Why did laughing, singing, sought after Clare want to live in silence and prayer? Why did a girl whose home was a castle desire to be poor, to live by the work of her hands and the alms of the faithful? What the world calls "everything," Clare assuredly had. It was not enough. Her heart was too great to be filled with less than the whole. She simply plunged herself into the Heart of God. There she could fulfill her destiny. There she would be another sign of contradiction to those who look for happiness everywhere except in God.

Saint Francis of Assisi was a great contemplative, but God asked him to sacrifice his love of silence and retirement to preach the Gospel, to let his contemplation overflow onto his active apostolate. Saint Clare of Assisi had a burning missionary heart, but God asked her to channel all its energies into the love and reparation of the cloister. Saint Francis was a contemplative in the marketplace; Saint Clare a missionary in her cloister. Her mission field was the whole world, though she would never see the world. Together their lives were a unit, and each the perfect complement of the other.

Spiritual Maternity of Souls

It needs a great heart to fashion a contemplative, a capacity for love so wide and deep that only God can fill it, a missionary zeal so ardent that no fewer than all the souls in the world can satisfy it. The cloistered Poor Clare is destined for the spiritual maternity of countless souls. The more perfect her life of love, the more fruitful is her motherhood of souls. Virginal love partakes of the boundlessness of Christ's love for souls. A Poor Clare's Divine Lover has a heart of infinite Love. It is to be expected that her own capacity for love will go on increasing as she grows in union with Him.

What stirs in the heart of a young woman called to the cloister? Or, how does she know she is called? The answers are as numerous and varied as those who are called. Maybe she read about the Poor Clares. It may be that she knelt in the public chapel and heard the chants of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Divine Office, flowing on and on in a river of prayer. Or, it may be that she knows next to nothing about the Poor Clares. And yet that small insistence in the soul remains. I? I! Impossible! Or—is it?

Vocation — A Free Gift of God

A vocation is a free gift of God. It is offered, not forced. God invites, but He does not compel; and eternity will reveal how many vocations have been lost or disregarded. The rich young man in the Gospel was assuredly called, but he did not respond. He had a vocation, but he chose not to follow it. The Gospel says that "...he went away sad" (Mt 19:22). Doubtless he remained sad for the rest of his life.

God does not choose a young woman because she is good, but because He is so good. The one who thinks herself qualified to be a great success in the cloister is probably the one who will fail, whereas the one who is confused and humbled at the idea that God should look towards such poor material as herself for the fashioning of a contemplative nun is likely to persevere.

Separated from the world, the Poor Clare is in a better position to love it selflessly and to compassionate its miseries. She has a spiritual perspective on suffering and on souls. As the bride of Christ, she prays with the complete confidence of one loved, cherished, chosen. And Christ is a Lover who will never fail her, never desert her. He will be forever faithful, loving, devoted to her. And out of this union of God and creature will issue blessings for all the world.

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