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Poor Clare Monastery

" What is the sum total of night vigils, fast and abstinence, silence and prayer, withdrawal and work? What does a lifetime of penance produce? Perhaps no life has been more subjected to misinterpretation than the cloistered contemplative life. A cloister is variously thought to be: a haven for those unfit to live in the world; a refuge for the frustrated; a sinecure for those unwilling to take on the burdens of the active apostolate. A Poor Clare monastery is decidedly none of these. The nuns are called Poor Clares because they are poor, living by the work of their hands and their minds and on the alms of the faithful, and because they are followers and daughters of one of the most charming women who ever lived. Her name was Clare, Clare of Assisi. 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. In a world dizzy with pleasure, there is a dearth of joy. In a welter of luxuries, there is a drought of Christian gaiety. But to the martyrs who sang on their scaffolds, to the confessors who laughed in their labors, to the virgins who despised earthly prestige and station for the love of Christ, the Poor Clares add their humble testimony: it is in giving that we receive. And giving all, we receive all joy. “I will see you again and your heart will rejoice. And your joy no one shall take from you” (Jn 16:22). The contemplative’s heart already rejoices as her whole life keeps watch for his coming. Joy is the sum total of night vigils, fast and abstinence, silence and prayer, withdrawal and work. Joy is the product of a lifetime of penance. "
 - POOR CLARE MONASTERY OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
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