About Poor Clares…

Our vocation as Poor Clare Colettine Nuns is an answer to this gracious invitation and lofty challenge of our Holy Mother Saint Clare.

It is our greatest joy and awesome privilege to "draw near to Our Lord Jesus Christ." We do this primarily in the daily Sacrifice of the Holy Mass, offered in Latin, in the Hours of the Divine Office prayed by day and by night also in Latin, the language of Holy Mother Church, by our hours of Eucharistic Adoration and times of private prayer and meditation. This was our Holy Mother’s unique formation method as she told all her followers to always gaze upon the Lord and to be with Him always and in every place.  Following the Original Contstitutions of Saint Colette of Corbie, our second mother and reformer of the Order of Poor CLares in the 15th century, we strive to live the Gospel Form of Life as it was intended by Saint Clare.

Our community of Annunciation Monastery is blessed and privileged to have the Traditional Latin Mass seven days a week. We highly esteem the document SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM of Pope Benedict XVI and rejoice in worshiping Almighty God "In the Mass of the Ages," as the Traditional Latin Mass is often referred. "In some regions, no small numbers of the faithful adhered and continue to adhere with great love and affection to the earlier liturgical forms." We "adhere" with great respect and appreciation with the priests from the Fraternity of Saint Peter and some of our own diocesan priests who faithfuly serve us. 

"Drawing near" to Our Lord leads us into the Heart of His Mystical Body where we share and experience the joys and sufferings of that Precious Body which is His Holy Church. His Vicar on earth, our Holy Father, the bishops and priests united to him become our deep concern and the focal point of our prayers and sacrifices since our Holy Father St. Francis teaches us to reverence above all the Hands of the Priests since they only bring us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was the desire of our founding Sisters to continue our Eucharistic center when the new foundation was made from our Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford, Illinois. Thus our community became essentially Eucharistic and Marian under the title Annunciation Monastery. We never exhaust the depth of the meaning of our Blessed Mother Mary, who being the first tabernacle of Jesus always leads us to Him and concern for His Kingdom and the suffering members of His Glorious Body.

We "draw near" to Our Lord also by cherishing the Sisters the Lord sends us. Together we journey "as pilgrims and strangers in this world" and strive to support and encourage one another on the "difficult path that leads to God" as our Mother Saint Colette tells us. The monastic rhythm of our daily life of work and prayer, centered around the sacred Liturgy and grounded in the well-balanced use of our traditional customs, multiplies our joys and diminishes our sorrow.