Adoration Monastery

An Invitation from the Sisters of Poor Clare's of Perpetual Adoration

Dear Friends in Christ,
May the Lord grant you His peace!

We the Poor Clare's of Perpetual Adoration, Catholic Bishop's House, Palayamkottai announce the good news that we will be celebrating the Feast of St. Clare of Assisi, our Foundress feast on 11th August 2012. It is a solemnity and also it is a celebration of the beginning of 8th centenary of our order. We end this jubilee year on 11th August 2012. Hence, we consider our Monastery in the diocese of Palayamkottai as a jubilee memorial. We sincerely thank our beloved Bishop Rt. Rev. A. Jude Paulraj DD who invited us and has given us a new house for our mission.

You may be thinking what are these Nuns doing all the 24 hours inside the walls of a House?

We are here for the greater glory of God and to pray for you. We are also for the entire world and the church of Christ. The very name we bear as Poor Clare's of Perpetual Adoration gives us a true identity and indicates our form of life. Our life within the cloister is mainly centered around the Eucharistic Lord and dedicated to an uninterrupted day and night perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. By doing this we express in our life that vision which our founder had, and we continually offer grateful praise , as we rejoice in the Lord's Eucharistic Presence.

We maintain ourselves by the work of our hands while every sister in the community takes her turn daily for adoration and seven times a day go in common to say the Prayer of the Church that is Divine office and the rest of us occupied with various works and domestic duties. We consider work as a fundamental means of our support and of our exercise of charity for others. When our labour proves insufficient to meet our material needs we turn trustfully towards the Lord. As mendicant Nuns subsisting only on faith in the Word of God and of the generosity of people like you, we never experience a sense of abandonment.

We earn our daily bread by baking the Altar Bread, sowing Altar Linens and Chausable. We do all our household duties in an atmosphere of silence, solitude, seclusion, prayer, peace and joy.

Some salient observations about our Life:

Some well-intentioned people are inclined to think that our enclosed way of life is an out-mode. It may have served a useful purpose in the past, but it is not at all relevant for today. What the society needs very much today is the presences of Religious Women who are involved in active apostolate in the field of education, health-care, social uplift and in many other spheres and make our substantial contribution to the general well-being of Society.

Well. We do not deny that the church and Society of today need the involvement of more Religious Women in active ministries. But the Church and the Society also need the presence of Religious Women who invite the attention of people to another important dimension of Christian life, namely the primary place to be given to God and to prayer in our day to day life, as persons specifically called by God to a contemplative way of life. Our special vocation in the church is to bear witness to this particular dimension of Christian life.

We read in the book of Exodus that when the Israelites passed through the desert into the Promised Land the Amalekites came and attacked them. Joshua fought the Amalekites while Moses went up the top of the Hill to pray. Whenever Moses raised His hands in prayer the Israelites would win but when he lowered his hands the Amalekites had advantage (Ex: 17:8-11). In this episode the Christian tradition has always recognized the efficacy of prayer that obtains victories from God. Our role in the church as Poor Clare's of Perpetual Adoration is to be in the presence of the Lord, with our hands and hearts uplifted in prayer, so that the battle is won against all the forces of evil existing in the world in various ways.

The official proclamations of Popes about cloistered life:

The words of His Holiness pope John Paul II, addressed to our Poor Clare sisters at the protomonastery in Assisi on March 12,1982, continue to re-echo among the daughters of St.Clare: "In our age it is necessary to repeat St.Clare's discovery, because it is important for the life of the Church. You do not know, hidden and unknown as you are, how important you are in the life of the Church, how many problems, how many things depend on you. We need the rediscovery of that charism, of that vocation; we need the rediscovery of the divine legend of Francis and Clare".

The statement of Pope Pius VI, "The Church needs people who pray who are willing to remain on the mountain top to be struck by the light of the Word of God; and who will from their illumination send light of grace over the whole Church".

We wind up our invitation with the blessing of our Mother St. Clare:

"May Almighty God Bless you!
May He look upon you with the eyes of His Mercy
And give you His peace.
Here below May He pour forth His graces on you abundantly.
And in Heaven may He place you among His Saints. Amen".

If you like to have more information about us please contact us either personally or over phone. We whole heartedly invite and welcome young girls to join this particular way of life. We are now planning to construct a Chapel adjacent to our monastery for the faithful to join us in adoring the Eucharist Lord. You may contribute for this noble cause. Thank You.

Our Address:

Rev. Mother Superior,
Poor Clare's of Perpetual Adoration Monastery,
'San Anthonio', Catholic Bishop's House, Post Box No.108, Palayamkottai-627002, Tirunelveli Dt., India.
Telephone: 0462 - 2522113.