Daily life in a Poor Clare Monastery is geared to the closest possible union with Jesus. Our prayer is centered round the Eucharist and communal recitation of the Divine Office – the Prayer of the Church. Seven times a day the community gather for the different “Hours” of the Divine Office :
Office of Readings
Morning Prayer (Lauds)
Little Hours – Terce, Sext and None
Vespers
Compline
As Scripture says: “Seven times a day I praise you.”
We also have time for private prayer – one and a half hours – and spiritual reading, as well as Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on specific times and days.
Saint Clare says in her Rule for the Sisters,
“They ought to desire above all to possess the Spirit of the Lord
and His holy working” (Rule X).
As a sister lives the life, prayer gradually permeates the whole of her day, not necessarily in words but in the awareness of God’s presence everywhere, in all situations and in every created thing.
We can and do promise our prayer in answer to all requests.and we take all the cares and needs of the world to our hearts.
In its essentials, Saint Clare’s life of prayer is summed up in the advice she wrote to Saint Agnes of Prague. Talking about our relationship with Jesus Christ she wrote,
“Love Him totally who has given
Himself totally for your love.”
“Gaze upon Him, consider Him,
contemplate Him, as you desire to imitate Him”
which Poor Clares today, are trying to do, conscious that we are always only “beginners” because, as St Francis said on his death bed, “Up until now we have done nothing.”