Sister Anthony and Sister Clare have written to Sandpiper with an update on their lives at the Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in New Mexico. “Memories of our 56 years in Bendigo are still very vivid in our hearts,” they write from “across the big pond”.
Our story from across the Big Pond since we departed from our cherished monastery in Bendigo on 17 March 2021.
After our epic flight of 32 hours, with a stop at Doha, then Dallas, and on to Roswell, New Mexico, our new home, we were met at the airport by Father Pio Maria C.F.R., the monastery chaplain, and then by Mother Angela and Sister Maria Kolbe, the portress at the monastery, “quarantine-style” late at night on 18 March (2021). We completed our days of quarantine in the extern visitors' rooms, and then were warmly welcomed into community for Easter, only to discover to our chagrin that we had carried the “bug” in with us!
The community numbers 25. Two aspirants entered this year, with another to enter in January next year, and a few more are seriously interested in joining us. The sisters are all caring and loving, with a warm sisterly spirit, where each one is accepted and approved for who they are, and include a variety of cultures: Australian, El Salvadorian, Singaporean, Mexican, and the others of English, Irish, German, or Polish descent; truly cosmopolitan.
We have a big garden area for growing flowers and veggies, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, sweet potato, capsicum, grapes, rock and honey melon, and harvest our pecan nuts.
We have three cats, Charlie, Ebby (Ebony), and Twinkle, and a variety of wildlife that visit, foxes, skunks, raccoons, tortoises, squirrels, hawks, doves, and many colourful birds. We also have honeybees!
We have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament daily from after Mass, except on Saturdays and “garden days”, when most of the community is outdoors.
We continue the time-hallowed custom of rising for the midnight Office, and the recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours spaced throughout the day, and community recitation of the Rosary. The day ends with recreation, then Compline and night prayer and bed by 8.45 p.m.
Our cloistered lives of prayer and sacrifice continue to come before the throne of God, holding the whole world in our embrace, and pleading for all peoples without distinction.
Our monastery here celebrated 75 years, beginning with a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Roswell City, adjusted to suit Poor Clare living. But it soon became evident with the arrival of eager postulants that it needed expansion, and today has room for 25 and many more, with the addition of a good-sized chapel and choir, novitiate block, laundry, and infirmary. We have a burial vault instead of a cemetery, and have nine sisters buried there.
Sister Clare and I have settled in well to our new family, and keep well, thank God. Sister Clare is a very efficient choir sacristan, and I help in the kitchen in the mornings, and work in the garden with Sister Rose Marie or make craft items for sale in our gift shop in the afternoons. Memories of our 56 years in Bendigo are still very vivid in our hearts. All the dear faces of our friends and benefactors, our daily and Sunday Mass goers, all the ready offers of help, whatever they be. Ken and Kevin, you would enjoy mowing and trimming the lawns here!
The spiritual and temporal needs of our Diocese of Sandhurst, bishops, priests, and benefactors are remembered daily in prayer. God bless and reward you for remembering us on the Sandhurst website.
Sister Immaculata checks it out at times, and prints out for us anything of interest to us – the 125th anniversary. Please keep us and our community in your prayers.
Love and prayers to each,
Sister Anthony and Sister Clare.
