Vocations
The most important requirement in becoming a Poor Clare is a good will and a spirit of sacrifice, together with the firm determination to give whatever is necessary to gain this Pearl of Great Price, and to remain faithful until death. We secure this pearl by our four vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and enclosure.
For those who are discerning a vocation to our particular community we offer a live-in experience of our way of life.
For young girls discerning their call to our form of life we offer THE BLESSED MARIE CELINE DISCERNMENT GROUP. You will have the opportunity to speak with the Novice Mistress, Novitiate Sisters, and the other Poor Clares of Annunciation Monastery, while studying classics such as THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. It is a great opportunity to be with other girls who are striving to respond to Jesus' call! We take our youngest Blessed of the Order as our inspiration. Burning in the heart of this young woman was the fire of God's love. "O JESUS! I AM ATHIRST FOR LOVE!" she wrote in her notes. Our community believes Jesus' love is burning in the hearts of the young girls who are apart of the Blessed Marie Celine Discernment group, who await the happy day when they are of age to become postulants. May many more young souls be apart of this privileged opportunity.
Prayer
My Jesus, Here is my tongue that You may watch over it; that it may not utter more than pleases You; and that my silence may speak to You. Here are my ears that they may listen only to the voice of duty; and to Your Voice, O Jesus! Here are my eyes that they may not cease to behold You in every face and in every work. Here are my hands and my feet that You may make them agile, that they may be riveted to Your service alone, to the execution of Your desires. Here are my thoughts that Your Light may possess them. Here is my heart that Your Love, O Jesus! may reign and rest in it.
Renew this offering every morning, at every Holy Communion. And I, I give you, My little daughter, I give you today.
Morning Offering composed by Sister Mary of the Trinity, Poor Clare of Jerusalem, and Our Lord’s response.
This Gift of Thyself
Every First Friday at our midnight Office of Matins we expose the Most Blessed Sacrament and in full prostration before Him we make a long consecration of ourselves and the whole world to Him, reciting the following prayer.
O Jesus, my Lord and my God,
concealed beneath the lowly Species
before which we prostrate ourselves in adoration
permit us to offer to the Eternal Father
in union with Thine own unspeakable annihilation
our humble protestations of loving homage.
We make then this offering
in sacrifice of thanksgiving for This Gift of Thyself
in the mystery of Thy Incarnation,
in supplication for the special graces we need
for ourselves and for the world
in every trial and temptation,
that the past may be repaired
by a more perfect fidelity in the future,
every moment of which
is a gratuitous gift of God's mercy.
Saint Agnes of Assisi
Little Sister of Our Holy Mother Saint Clare