“I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that through the prayers and merits of the glorious and holy Virgin Mary, His Mother, and of our most blessed Father Francis and all the Saints, the Lord Himself Who has given us a good beginning will also give the increase and constant perseverance to the end. Amen”
Testament of St. Clare no. 23
Mother St. Clare
Saint Clare , Her name means “Light” or “the shining one”.She is the mother of our Order which she called the “Order of the Poor Sisters”, now known as the Order of St Clare or the Poor Clare Sisters.
She lived in Assisi, central Italy, in the 13th Century and was inspired to begin her religious life by the example and advice of St Francis , a fellow citizen of Assisi who had been converted to a life of total poverty , following Jesus , spreading the love, peace and joy of the Gospel everywhere.
She chose to lead that Gospel life in the monastery of San Damiano where, very soon, many young girls and ladies came to join her. From the cloister, the light of her holiness shone and spread and a great number of monasteries were founded through Italy and other countries.
Today the Poor Clare Sisters are in all continents of the world and number around 20,000. In Africa there are about 35 monasteries.
Who we are
The Order of St. Clare whose members are known as Poor Clares (or Sisters of St. Clare) has been in existence for more than 800 years.
Poor Clares or Daughters of St. Clare are nuns whom God in his Mercy has called to embrace the Life of the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, following in the footprints of St. Clare who, in her own turn took St. Francis of Assisi as “planter and mentor” in her total self-offering to Jesus Christ who is the WAY to the Father.
Like our Mother and Foundress, St. Clare of Assisi, we desire above all else to imitate the way of simplicity, humility and poverty as we were taught from the beginning of our conversion by Christ and our blessed father Francis” (Test.56-57)
Our Life of Prayer
We live a life wholly centered on prayer. Hidden with Christ in the cloister, we keep watch in silence and love, bringing the joys, sorrows, and needs of humanity to him in prayer and everything we do and think about.
Daily Liturgy
Select date
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time
Letter to the Ephesians 4,7-16.
Therefore, it says: "He ascended on high and took prisoners captive; he gave gifts to men."
What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended into the lower (regions) of the earth?
The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers,
to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ,
so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming.
Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love.
Psalms 122(121),1-2.3-4a.4b-5.
"We will go up to the house of the LORD."
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity.
To it the tribes go up,
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD.
In it are set up judgment seats,
seats for the house of David.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 13,1-9.
He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them --do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!"
And he told them this parable: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?'
He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'"
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
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