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The Franciscan
family consists of
friars, nuns and lay people. The Second Order of Saint Francis is
known as the Poor Clares, or formally, OSC - Order of Saint Clare.
It has been my privilege to meet some of these good people and so I
have learned that the OSC is the contemplative branch of the
Franciscan family.
People in Florida
know a Poor Clare very well. She is
Sr. Briege
McKenna, OSC, a well-known, charismatic speaker. All of us know
another Poor Clare, all over the world, Mother M. Angelica, founder
of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama, and the
greatest Catholic communications network, Eternal Word Television
Network (EWTN) which was launched on August 15, 1981. Now, in its
26th year, EWTN has become the largest religious media network in
the world, transmitting programming 24 hours a day to more than 123
million homes in 140 countries and territories on more than 4,800
cable systems, wireless cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), low
power TV and individual satellite users. And, when we cannot sleep
there is
EWTN-Radio,
which is on short-wave. Their programs are also heard on certain
AM/FM stations (Florida: Tallahassee, Pensacola, & Naples area).
They can also be seen/heard via the Web on
streaming audio and video.
In order to
understand the sort of life Poor Clares live we need to first look
at the life of other Franciscan religious who preach or teach or
care for people directly in any number of ways. For example, Saint
Francis and his friars were called to make God visible on earth by
spreading the Good News of God's love to the whole world by bringing
that love and care to those in need. Clare and her sisters went the
more feminine way of giving themselves to the love of Christ itself
and their faith in the power of this love alone. That is the charism
of her followers. Their life demands a total gift of themselves to
God in the belief that by their union with God they can be a more
fruitful means of effecting the spiritual balance of the entire
world.
They are
contemplatives but the fact that they are not externally engaged in
charitable works does not mean they have renounced the Christian
mission. They forfeit efficiency and immediate service in many
areas, but have a definite mission within the Church; a job defined
not by what they do but by what they are. Their apostolate is
contained in the way they live - in the dedication demanded by the
life itself. Years before they came into existence while Saint
Francis was rebuilding the little church of St. Damian, he predicted
that one day women would be there who would glorify God by their
holy lives.
The Poor Clare
Monastery I've visited in the mid-1990's (before they completed
their present monastery; one of my visits was to the
Groundbreaking), was the
Monastery of St. Clare in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are located at
1505 Miles Road.
There are also
Colettine Poor Clares. Nicolette (Colette) of Corbie was born in
1381, daughter of a carpenter. In 1406 Colette received permission
from Pope Benedict XIII to undertake a reform of the three Orders of
the Franciscan family. Unsuccessful in her attempt to bring reform
to the monastery of her native Corbie, she finally succeeded in 1410
with the reform of the monastery at Besancon. Over the next three
decades she founded sixteen houses where the reform took root. Her
sisters were noted for their firm refusal of property ownership,
whether individual or corporate, and for their emphasis on strict
enclosure. There is a monastery of Colettines in Roswell, NM,
Barhamsville, VA, and in Cleveland, OH, and
there may be other locations.
Here is a list of
Poor Clare houses in USA:
Alabama,Birmingham
Arizona, Phoenix
California, Los Altos
Colorado,Denver
Florida, Del Ray
Florida,Fort Meyers Beach
Florida,Largo
Indiana,Evansville
Indiana, Kokomo
Illinois,Belleville
Illinois, Minooka
Illinois, Rockford
Louisiana, New Orleans
Massachusetts, Jamaica Plain
Michigan, Saginaw
Minnesota,Minneapolis
Montana,Great Falls
Nebraska,Omaha
New Jersey
New York, New Rochelle
Ohio, Canton
Ohio,Cincinnati
Ohio, Cleveland - 1
Ohio, Cleveland - 2
Ohio, Columbus
Pennsylvania, Langhorne
South Carolina,Greenville
Tennessee, Memphis
Texas, Brenham
Texas, Victoria
Virginia, Barhamsville
Washington, Spokane
Let's keep our sisters in the Franciscan family in our prayers and
thank Our Lord for giving the world this strong contemplative group
in our family. Source of addresses and charism/spirituality
description: various OSC websites.
Fred Schaeffer, SFO
6/22/2007
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