Bethlehem Poor Clare Monastery

Our Dear Friends, near and far,

Once upon a midnight in late 1998, as we were reading the assigned Scripture passage of that day's Matins, the Word of God pierced the night and descended as a flame over our entire community. It was surely a confirmation of all the other means God had been using to unfold His plan so clearly that it could not be mistaken. The passage was from the prophet Haggai: "Thus says the Lord of Hosts, 'Go up to the hill country, and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and receive my glory.... I am with you. Take courage all you people of the land, and work! Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former, and in this place I will give peace." The imperative strength of that summons shook any residue of sleep from our eyes that night, and has been to us a point of departure for most of what has happened since.

The call to relocate our monastery, first heard in October of 1997, became more emphatic with a series of cumulative experiences in 1998, the "Year of the Search." We were able to share, in recent newsletters, the reasons for our move, some of the adventure-become-travail as we sought out one site after another in last summer's heat, and then....the discovery! Our property (ours because we are under contract) has been named, by us, "Mt. St. Francis", for it was during our October novena to our Father and Founder that we were led through the forests of New Kent County, resembling the forests of Umbria which surround Assisi, until we glimpsed it, the land just waiting for a Franciscan Poor Clare monastery. The remaining months of 1998 held a welcome pause and a rest from our unusual road wandering. Contentment lay in knowing this was the place for our new monastery.

There have been returns to Mt. St. Francis. Very soon after our discovery of this place, the entire community spent several hours walking its heights and slopes, identifying various trees and shrubs, marveling at its wildlife, allowing the breathing silence of the place to enclose our prayer. There was a "conspiratio," a communal sureness that we were home. Bishop Sullivan has been intensely interested and supportive of our move. His visit to the site and his penchant for making quick sure decisions yielded this response: "Go with it!" At this writing we have our boundary and topographical maps in place, the soil tests complete, and on June 21st our application for rezoning was approved by the New Kent County Planning Commission.

On the first night of our novena to our Mother St. Clare we will be praying for her intercession as the Board of Supervisors in the County vote on confirming the proceedings of the Planning Commission. Then, deed in hand, and our hand in God's, we will move forward into more immediate preparations. One among them is...

FUND RAISING! Our Mother St. Clare tells us in our Rule, now past the 800 years endurance test, that if what is at hand does not suffice for our needs, we are to send for alms with confidence. This is definitely what we need to do, even while thanking so many of you for generous gifts already given. A whole monastery will take much more than we have saved, even though we are saving carefully. We make our simple appeal, distancing ourselves from asking anyone to pledge, and leaving the Holy Spirit free-reign in the heart of each one. Any amount is a great gift, and all are precious donors! We do pledge ourselves however, to strive to be less unworthy of your support, and to strive to repay out of the very essence of our vocation. The new Vatican document on our enclosed contemplative life has, among many outstanding passages, a section entitled "The Monastery In The Local Church." While our vocation and our apostolate of prayer is universal in its scope, (a wonderful thing to remember as local friends move to distant places) this document, entitled "Spouse of the Word" speaks of the monastery as a gift for the local Church to which it belongs (in our case, the local Church of the Diocese of Richmond). Let us share with you the exact text: "Representing the prayerful face of the Church, a monastery makes the Church's presence more complete and meaningful in the local community. A monastic community may be compared to...the guard who keeps the night watch awaiting the dawn. The monastery represents what is most intimate to a local Church-its heart, where the Spirit always groans in supplication for the entire community and where thanksgiving rises unceasingly for the Life which he sends forth each day. It is important that the faithful learn to honor the charism and the specific role of contemplatives, their discreet but crucial presence, and their silent witness which constitutes a call to prayer and a reminder of the truth of God's existence."

It has been our specific firm intention to remain as close as we could to our original place of origin in this diocese. Like our Visitation Sisters, who moved the same distance from their monastery on Church Hill in Richmond to Rockville, our new place will provide a more conducive setting for our vocation, placed as it is at a point that will radiate to all old friends and many new acquaintances.

We need the support and help of all of you. We need funds for the monastery, and help to maintain us where we are now. Later on we will need help with moving, not only the furniture of our monastery, but the plants in our garden! If there are any with skills in carpentry, painting, plumbing, landscaping, roofing, begging, duplicating, making posters, these services tithed are surely a way of giving your personal best to God. And know that we will be happy to supply tax deductible forms to anyone who requests this with a donation.

Because we as Poor Clares know that we have been purchased by Him who calls us, we know that we belong to the Church and to each of you. And because of our spiritual motherhood, each of you belongs to us. We want our new monastery, and especially the monastic life pulsing within it, to "proclaim and relay the primacy of God and the transcendence of the human person." We want it "to be a summons to everyone to 'that space in the heart where every person is called to union with the Lord.'" Pope John Paul II has tirelessly supported the monastic life in the Church, insisting that "This world must never be without a ray of divine beauty to lighten the path of human existence." As we seek to respond to this need in the Church and in the world, we invite you to assist us because we need you.