1. Are we vegetarians?
No. As daughters of St. Clare we receive our food fromthe generosity of
our benefactors and are happy to use whatever they can provide which often
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2. Are we totally enclosed?
Our rule states that we should remain inside our Monastery except for
reasonable and manifest necessity. This is our way of living the
enclosure. We do go out to doctors, to the airport to pick up family,
to the store for personal items that an outsider cannot choose e.g. shoes.
Most of the time we are within our Monastery. We have a grate to receive
visitors who come to our front door and a receiving room for conversation
that has a smallseparation in it.
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3. Do we chant the office?
No. But we do sing some parts of it, e.g. the opening hymn and the Gospel
canticle.
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4. Are there work duties being performed daily?
Yes, by those of us who as St. Clare says, "have the grace of working".
At the present time I am serving the community here as cook as well as
abbess. We provide the altar breads for our area but no longer bake them
ourselves. We have a ceramic department, a gift shop to serve as an
outlet for our sisters' special crafts. We also have a large property
which requires lots of labor for the sisters who can work outside.
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5. Do the younger sisters work together as a group or with the
professed community?
We do not keep a sister in formation apart from the rest of the community.
Normally, a monastery only has one or two people in formation so it is
much more practical to get to know the people you will spend the rest of
your life with. At the present time, there are eight professed Sisters
in our community.
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6. Do we have externs?
No. We no longer consider this role a
necessity in our way oflife. There are simply jobs that have to be done
outside the enclosure proper and these are regarded as any other work and
done by any sister.
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7. Is there a novice mistress?
Each monastery takes care of its own formation program. So a person enters
and is ministered to by the community shehas chosen to join. At the
present time Sr. Mary Marguerite serves as Novice Mistress. You may
contact her at stclare@mem.net
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8. What is a typical day in our life like?
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9. How do we define recreation?
Recreation for us is a period of conversation during our main meal.
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10. Do we sing a lot?
Not as much as a Benedictine community would engage in. We enjoy singing
as a community and like to do so with gusto and bounce.
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11. Any Latin?
Once in a while a priest will intone an Agnus Dei, but we rarely use
Latin as half of our Sisters are post-Vatican II and don't know any.
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12. How do you handle visitation for the sisters
and those in formation?
Most of our Sisters are originally far from Memphis so visits from family
and friends are rare. There has never been a need to make rules about it.
We have guest quarters and visitors are welcome to stay with us if they
choose.
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13. What about writing priviliges?
There are no restrictions
on letters. Some Sisters are much better at correspondence than others.
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14. What is our rule regarding silence?
St. Clare writes that we are to be silent especially in the church and the
sleeping quarters but that at all times and in every place we are free to
speak whenever there is a need. Our silence is a sign of our respect for
each other and the prayer being offered in each heart at all times.
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15. What kind of habit do you wear?
Our Rule states that the only requirement for our form of dress is that
it express the spirit of poverty. We wear a veil and a simple dress of
colors from dark brown to khaki or dark grey to light grey and use a cord
for a belt. Shoes are relative to the needs of each one - some wear sandals,
others athletic shoes and others walking shoes.
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