Franciscan Poor Clares of Rochester, MN

Four years ago after a long and prayerful  discernment your Poor Clare Sisters made a choice to move to Rochester, Minnesota where our Sisters could receive needed healthcare and we could be near to them.

 


 

Franciscan Poor Clares of Minneapolis, MN

Greetings to all of you from all of us. We have nothing to sell on our site but we have something to share with you. As modern Franciscans we know our life is meant to be not “alone with the great Alone” but wonderfully, messily, delightfully interpersonal, as we like to say “circles upon circles of relationships.”

Here are Sisters following morning prayer

We believe that the stuff of life is revelatory, full of signs pointing to deeper realities.

Our nickname is Poor Clares. We think this is a great name because we experience that it is good to live with open hands, holding our gifts and graces commonly with all our brothers and sisters. Our life is a life of prayer, as is true for many of you. In prayer we live in relationship. There is the circle of the Sisters who live here at the monastery. There is the ever expanding, contracting, expanding circle of those who worship with us and those who call or write.

The circles go on to include our friends and their concerns throughout our world. At the center of all the circles is our relational God who creates the circle and is the source of our relationships. The Center holds.

We recently celebrated the anniversary of the founding of our monastery in Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis. During the fifty years from our founding, the Community has branched out to Korea and Michigan.Saginaw-Poor-Clares1

Srs. Dianne, Laurene, Bernardone and Laura from our Poor Clare Community in Saginaw, Michigan, You can visit them at http://srsclare.com. Dianne and Laura were here recently on a visit from Saginaw.

History of The Poor Sisters of St. Clare

The Order of St. Clare was founded in the 13th century by women who collaborated with the early followers of St. Francis of Assisi. On the wave of Church renewal in their time, Clare of Assisi and these Franciscan women made gospel living available and credible to the people of the emerging towns and cities of the Middle Ages. The Sisters’ life was one of prayer, both liturgical worship and contemplative prayer. In the words of St. Clare, they saw themselves as “co-workers of God and a support to the Body of Christ.” In their focus on prayer they were ever mindful of the needs and concerns of their neighbors near and far. The Sisters offered spiritual guidance and intercessory prayer on their behalf. From kindly neighbors they received both material assistance and inspiration.

digital manuscript 00000

This is a digital photo of the  manuscript of the “Form of life of the poor sisters which the blessed Francis founded,” dated August 9, 1253 .  The original manuscript is reverently on display in the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Assisi.

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