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Looking for a place to hang their wimple
Poor Clare sisters need help building new monastery
By Ambria Hammel, ahammel@catholicsun.org
December 4, 2008
BLACK CANYON CITY — Five religious sisters devoted to quiet adoration are now shouting for joy.
That’s because the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration began the first phase of construction for their new chapel and monastery. The cloistered order ceremoniously broke ground on a 40-acre plot of donated land just over a year ago.
The sisters, currently situated in the hills overlooking Black Canyon City, secured enough funds to build the chapel, but they need more for its interior and the rest of the property.
“The chapel we want to make as beautiful as possible because it’s for the Lord,” Sr. Marie André said.
The young women — all in their 30s and 40s — also have concrete dreams for a new $8-million Our Lady of Solitude Monastery. While that may sound grandiose, the sisters were quick to point out its simplicity.
“It sounds like a lot, but it’s its own city. Twenty-eight people will live in that city,” Sr. Augustine Marie said. That’s more than quadruple the number of religious sisters living in seclusion now.
Still, the 28 cells, dining room, sewing room, laundry area, kitchen, offices, music room, courtyard and recreation area will be nothing extravagant.
“We’re Franciscan and we live a simple life,” Sr. Marie St. Paul said. “We only have what’s necessary.”
That includes adequate space for prayer and reflection, but not just for the sisters.
“It’s a chance for people to get away from the busy-ness of the day and focus on eternal truths,” Sr. Marie St. Paul said of the chapel and monastery.
The property will feature two guest retreat houses — one for priests and another for laity — and a public side to the chapel where some 150 Catholics will visit for daily Mass, confession, adoration and silent retreats. The sisters are limited to almost no outside guests now due to limited space.
All told, the sisters need $15 million for the project. So they are praying for additional spiritual and financial support, plus donations of labor or construction material to bring what they call their “medieval dreams” to a monastic reality.
They’re about one-third of the way there and are willing to make up any financial shortfalls with discounted or volunteer services and material donations.
“The whole thing is that we’ll have a monastery and an enclosure,” Sr. Esther Marie said. “That’s what our vocation is.”
And that’s what the sisters have been missing for the entire three-and-a-half years they’ve called the Phoenix Diocese home. They’ve also sacrificed perpetual adoration, said Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who invited the sisters to Arizona as the diocese’s first contemplative order.
Their current quarters can only accommodate seven sisters. A novice is moving in next month. The Poor Clare constitution requires that at least 12 sisters live in community before starting perpetual adoration, but they can’t aspire to that while living in Black Canyon City.
“The new monastery will allow them to live as a full-fledged cloistered contemplative community, and thus fulfill more effectively and fruitfully their mission in the Church,” the bishop said.
Plenty of help needed
The sisters are excited about their future. Building plans are in the hands of the county and the sisters met with various construction companies last week to move the project forward.
Plus, workers pulled the electricity lines within the last month, which Sr. Marie St. Paul said is a huge step.
Donors have already provided for the crucifix, several stained glass windows, one tabernacle and the monstrance.
Rita Lee, a St. Thomas the Apostle parishioner who met the Poor Clares three years ago, said she and her husband were attracted by their “beautiful spirit and joy.” The couple committed to helping the sisters however they could.
It turns out the money the pair donated provided the funding for the chapel’s monstrance.
“We were honored that our contribution would be used in this beautiful way,” Lee said. The Lees happened to be in Spain last year where the three-foot piece originated and were able to see the monstrance during its design phase.
The monstrance will be visible from both the public and the cloistered part of the chapel.
Donors have also sponsored a tabernacle for the cloister and several windows.
The windows, which will sit somewhat below the chapel’s 75-foot dome, honor the sisters’ Franciscan heritage and other saints who had a striking devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. A quote from each of the saints about the Eucharist will adorn the bottom of each window.
Sr. Marie St. Paul said there is still plenty of help needed with additional stained glass windows, pews and other artwork, including statuary.
Donors can also purchase a “living stone” through the monastery’s “pathways of prayer” program. The engraved bricks will form the walkway around the public pathways of the monastery and chapel.
The sisters said the bricks make great gifts, memorials and remembrances of special occasions.
“I think the Lord really stirs up in people’s hearts the desire to help,” Sr. Esther Marie said. Whether it’s monetarily, through guidance or donation of material goods or services, she added, “We give our little to God and God increases it a thousand fold.”
Sr. Marie André expects the new monastery and chapel to be “rejuvenating.”
“That’s important for contemplative orders to be able to offer a place of quiet prayer,” Sr. Marie André said.
The sisters hope to move to their new site, about an hour west of Phoenix, within the next three years. That will depend on the prayerful and financial support of the faithful.
Our Lady of Solitude Monastery
The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration are now in the first phase of construction of a new monastery and chapel. They’re still in need of prayerful, financial and material support for the
$15-million project.
For more information on the project or to donate, visit: www.desertnuns.com.
Photos by Ambria Hammel/CATHOLIC SUN
Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration sisters Marie St. Paul, Esther Marie and Marie André pray in their makeshift chapel Nov. 21. Sr. Mary Fidelis prepares lunch for all five women living at their temporary monastery (bottom, left) and Sr. Augustine Marie stamps letters to community supporters (bottom, right).
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