Community - A Gospel Life

The Poor Clares at Faughart live the gospel as a contemplative community.

All Christians are called to live the gospel. Francis and Clare had a particular “seeing” of the gospel that, for them, was a way to experience the gospel in its fullness. Clare describes this way for her sisters in her Rule, which she calls a Form of Life. Poor Clares today continue to follow the pattern laid down by Clare as our way of living the gospel together in community. Our way of gospel life has five essential elements.

Contemplation as a Journey of Transformation

“Transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation.”

(3rd. Letter of St. Clare to St. Agnes of Prague)

In keeping with the earliest Franciscan tradition the sisters live the eremitical form much loved by St. Francis who always sought out solitary places in nature and in the harmony of creation. For the sisters, this implies the practice of daily prayer in solitude, in a hermitage. In this way the life of the community is first of all rooted in contemplation.

Integrity of the Life

St. Clare recommends that there be enough land to ensure the “ integrity and seclusion of the monastery” . The monastery at Faughart has just enough land to provide the seclusion necessary for solitude, contemplation and silence. This enables the rhythm of the day to be an experience of the gospel life in three dimensions.

•morning for silence, solitude and contemplation

•afternoon for ministry and work in the main monastery building

•evening for community prayer and recreation

Although in a rural area, the monastery at Faughart is close to the town of Dundalk because St. Clare always desired that her sisters live in a place accessible to the people. As Poor Clares, our identity is with the people, for St. Francis and St. Clare taught that Christ came among us to be our brother. This relationship of sisterhood with all people is our following in the footprints of Jesus and is fundamental to the Franciscan gospel experience.

The Grace of Poverty

“Let poverty be your portion which leads you into the land of the living. Clinging totally to this, my most beloved sisters, do not wish to have anything else forever under heaven for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and His most holy mother.”

(Rule of St. Clare Ch.8)

Through the grace of poverty the sisters are called:

•to embrace the path of conversion

•to identify with the poverty of Christ through the work of inner transformation

•to identify with the humility of Christ through putting themselves at the service of one another’s good and wholeness of life to care for one another’s needs through work as it is sent to them in the providence of God. In this way the sisters share in the experience of their mutual dependence on God.

Community:

The Gift of Sisterhood

“Let the sisters be always eager to preserve among themselves the unity of mutual love which is the bond of perfection”

(Rule of St. Clare Ch.10)

Life in community is the locus where the gospel is experienced, that is, Christ among us, who leads us through his Spirit and whose guidance we are committed to follow together in obedience and in the daily service of one another.

The daily gathering for prayer (Eucharist, Divine Office) and the weekly meeting in community continually draw the sisters into this gospel experience.

“Let them devote themselves to what they should desire to have above all else, the Spirit of the Lord and Its holy activity.”

(Rule of St. Clare Ch.10)

Mission and Ministry

“I consider you a co-worker of God

and a support of the weak members of

His ineffable body.”

(3rd Letter of St. Clare to St. Agnes of Prague)

The sisters give expression to their call to mission by their form of gospel life as described above. This is their primary prophetic witness, which continues the fulfillment of the prophecy of St. Francis, remembered and spoken of by St. Clare, where he referred to our vocation, saying,

“. . . ladies will dwell here

who will glorify our heavenly Father

throughout his holy, universal Church

by their celebrated and holy manner of life.”

(Testament of St. Clare 13, 14)

The ministries of the sisters are according to their gifts, always bearing in mind the exhortation of St. Clare,

“The sisters to whom the Lord has given the grace

of working are to work faithfully and devotedly . . .

at work which pertains to a virtuous life

and the common good. They must do this

in such a way that, while they banish idleness,

the enemy of the soul, they do not extinguish