The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration

Several years ago, writer Kristin Ohlson began attending mass at an inner-city Cleveland church, which happened to be home to the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. Her own faith had been lost in her youth, but Ohlson was drawn to these quiet nuns who prayed behind a grille at Mass. She has written a fine book about them and her own pilgrimage, Stalking The Divine.

The order was founded by Saint Clare, the first spiritual daughter of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis called Clare's followers "these poor ladies." After Clare died, they assumed the name to honor their founder.

Kristin Ohlson's 'Stalking The Divine'

Ohlson recalls how the abbess, Mother James, asked her if she had read a book about the order. "You should read it, Kris," she told her. "You'd love it. I just know you'd just love it."

For years, Mother Mary Francis has been the abbess of the Poor Clare monastery in Roswell, N.M. Her book, A Right To Be Merry, is the classic treatment of the Poor Clare vocation and explores how one can find joy and fulfillment living in a small area within the cloister's walls. Years later, she remembers what a wise old Jesuit priest told her when she announced that she was becoming a Poor Clare: "When you enter the cloister, don't forget your funny bone."

The nuns of Mother Mary Francis' community sleep on straw beds and rise at midnight to pray, just as their predecessors have done since the 13th century. But Mother Mary Francis has adapted her ancient order to the 21st century. Her community has a Web site for outreach to the world.

In a letter to Pope John Paul II, Francis writes, "the intense interior activity of contemplation... calls us not out of our enclosure but deeply into it." Some of Mother Mary Francis' writings can be found on the community's Web site. There's also an address for prayer requests.

Kristin Ohlson says she feels grateful that the "Poor Clares keep praying even when I don't. They maintain the fire of prayer taking turns to tend it and feed it through the dark nights of the soul."

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The Orchards of Perseverance

Inside a Trappist Monastery

Web Resources

Poor Clare Sisters Web Site

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