The Poor
Clare contemplative nuns in Barhamsville, Virginia are part of the
great Franciscan family. Called Poor Clares, their title bears both
the name and aspiration of their thirteenth century foundress, St.
Clare of Assisi, who was a radical lover of Christ and a radical
spouse of His self-emptying. And her life commitment to Him, without
ever turning back, made her an heiress of the well-springs of joy.
Nearly eight centuries later, Clare's daughters bear her bright
charism in their own hearts. In this little portion of cloister on
Mount St. Francis, they receive the flame which has been passed from
their foundress over times, and distances and cultures, so that
their lifestyle (for all seasons and centuries) and their garb (ever
in fashion) give striking witness to their inner quest for that
which is eternal.
The
contemplative is an incessant seeker of God. She is one whose life's
journey is a long trek within to the heart where waits her God. A
Christian and cloistered contemplative is one who has joyfully
sacrificed everything else so that her one task may be the following
of Christ. She is one whose whole life is contingent on Him, her
only reference point. Her very atmosphere is His amazing and intense
Love. She is a bride and beloved one of this wondrous Spouse of her
soul.
Her
poverty proclaims "God is enough, and everything else is not
enough!" Her obedience is her liberation into the eternal. Her
chastity is a flaming expanse of love destined to consume her and
light the way for many. Her enclosure is a spacious silence where
the will of God can sing. She has befriended solitude, waiting,
listening, and a certain inevitable experience of aloneness as
companions on the way into the center of her being. Following their
Mother St. Clare and inspired by their Seraphic Father St. Francis,
Poor Clares are deeply devoted to the Eucharistic Presence of the
Lord. Daily exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament feeds
their ardent desire to "seek His Face". Their spirituality
focuses on the mysteries of Christ's earthly life, particularly on
His birth in the utter poverty of Bethlehem and His self-emptying
death on the Cross.
