Inside a Boston monastery, 9 nuns are contemplating their futures

The Franciscan Monastery of St. Clare in Massachusetts is closing, but the nuns are seeing it as an opportunity.
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[@coffeecup3177]

Sister has a nice sense of humor. Thank you Sister for wearing your habit. You make me proud to be Catholic.

[@adunn5173]

I pray for vocations throughout the whole church. 🙏🏻

[@Ale-mv3gr]

As I get older, the sadder I get at somethings we are losing. I mean, not all change is bad, but somethings had greater value than we thought they had.

[@sr.299scsc.8]

What is their congregation?

[@tedmartin5239]

Still, It can "set them up" to be in a vulnerable situation for anyone who might not have their best interest at heart...I am not opposed to a cloistered/celibate life...admire it, even was always attracted to it; yet here I sit, "missed the boat" as it sailed long ago.

[@anng.4542]

​@@sr.299scsc.8 They are Poor Clare nuns-- Franciscans.

[@anng.4542]

​@@tedmartin5239 Many, many people are questioning the destructive effects of Vatican II and Pope Francis.

[@michaeljohndennis2231]

Sister is a wonderful lady - she and the other Sisters have remained true to their vocations all of this time and they are now about to embark on thier greatest challenge yet, a real odyssey - I do not hesitate in praying for their success in this latest chapter of their lives lived in love for God above all else ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@toandiloya585]

So sad to know these beautiful nuns have to leave the monastery...their home 😢 Oh how I wish I was rich so I could pay for the repairs that are needed. My heart is breaking. I pray for ALL Priests, Religious, Deacons, Seminarians, and more vocations each and every day 🙏 📿

[@MeowCockadoodledoo]

they need new blood, new vocations. not just merely money to fix the building.

[@teresaoftheandes6279]

Young women are looking for traditional cloistered contemplative monasteries today, and they are finding them.

[@markc-ru4qz]

They are thriving.

[@frjohn413]

Thank you for your service to God and to us, Poor Clares!

[@sooz9433]

Blessings to you Sisters.

[@michaelpryor78]

How exciting must it be to be a 92 year old nun. She's almost there!

[@redmi9834]

I met a Poor Clare Colettine nun in Liverpool who was 90 and who had arrived by horse and coach from the new Liverpool railway station when she was 16. She had never been out of that enclosure for 74 years. The palour had a double grille with a curtain. I was very privileged for the Abbess to draw back the curtain to let me catch a glimpse of her through the double offset grille. Long gone now. RIP.

[@deborahmclean3008]

God bless the Poor Clare nuns still here,and for the great nuns that have passed,especially Sister Mary David.❤

[@Candlezen4all]

I hope they’re doing well. Prayers for these who are faithful in praying for us.

[@irenesalgado7147]

Praying for you SISTERS

[@tessietesoro7407]

Praying for all these Sisters, 🙏🙏🙏

[@anastasiarose3800]

The Catholic church has so much money, there is no reason that their most devoted sisters are left in such pitiable conditions. Surely they deserve more tenderness and care. It would be pennies for the church to build them a brand new, accessible monastery altogether, and provide them with caregivers in their golden years. The church teaches that the elderly should be cherished and cared for, and they certainly have the means to do that, so they absolutely should. To do less and leave them to care for themselves is not only negligent, but morally unacceptable. It is one thing for a sister to take a vow of poverty, it is quite another for the church to interpret that as being released from caring for their basic needs.

[@timmellin2815]

Whoa ! Great insight ! Thank you. I've posted some similar notes on the facebook pleas for sending support to the aging holocaust survivors. The nation of Israel should step up and make sure all the holocaust survivors are taken care of by the State of Israel, so they won't have to beg money from outsiders to help them.

[@dnwitte]

I didn't see anything in the video about the sisters being abandoned. Quite the contrary. Leaving 9 people to live in that gigantic plant is just terrible stewardship, so they're being moved to a more sustainable establishment. The sister herself said she would have done it years ago.

[@randall8379]

@@dnwitte Obviously the convent is too big, They need a more appropriate space that fits their needs.

[@tarahskinner923]

God Bless these dear dear Sisters!

[@handsomeblackman255]

We need them more than they know. If I can't, it revives me to know someone can. It gives me hope.

[@chrismults1500]

These Sisters are such a wonderful testament to faith in this “modern world’. Their level of following God & reminding the world of God’s presence. God Bless each of you ❤❤❤

[@dorianlelong]

Monasteries that have maintained the Latin Mass are flourishing, and are full of young, professed monks and nuns. The changes stemming from Vatican II are what have destroyed much of the Church. The proof is found what you see in this video. The nuns should have kept the double grille and the full veil, the Office in Latin, and the faith of all time. This nun speaking about "your faith" should be talking about The Faith instead: the Catholic faith that has come to us from the apostles, rather than the ecumenical nonsense coming from Vatican II.

[@paulbastier3773]

We are reaping the fruits for travelling down the road of false ecumenism since Vatican II. That great renewal and burgeoning of the church and faithful has not happened. Compare this and look at the history of the Church following the Council of Trent. There was a tremendous revival of religious fervor and reform in religious orders with new ones being founded and a great increase in the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

[@giovanniserafino1731]

@@paulbastier3773 The elephant in the closet which the Church refuses to recognize is the devastating effects of the both liturgical and disciplinary changes, particularly in religious life, which took place after the Second Vatican Council. The SSPX, which maintained the Latin Liturgy and discipline, has hundreds of seminarians all over the world. Traditional religious orders, seminaries, monasteries and Abbeys are overflowing with vocations.

[@timmellin2815]

I was raised Catholic and was converted to Christianity in my early 20s. A whole new world opened up as I trusted God in his presence, much in the same way as in the Gospel, when the inner Veil of the Holy of Holys was torn asumder at the moment Jesus surrendered his Spirit and died on Calvary. My mom was traditional Catholic and every so often wanted to attend a traditional Latin Mass service parish on some Sundays. After my conversion, when I took her, I felt the most sinister negative spirt of people trying to pray to statues to try to pray their way into God's presence, instead of simply believing that wasn't all necessary since the Gospel preaches the substitutionary Atonement of Calvery.....Jesus taking all that negativity onto Himself, so we woundnn't have to. I had a scary nun in 8th grade and guilt and fear inflicted by her rants about Mortal sins as defined in the Baltimore Catechism. Stuff like the old style Mass and that nun seem so un necessary in light of God's Gospel of Grace.

[@diannkelley3481]

Aww, I asked to be a nun here in GA at 48 and was denied saying at that age I was likely too set in my ways. Now at 61, I’m sure no monastery would take me. I will pray instead as my offering that many young women join monasteries now as they are needed.

[@davislongsworth7150]

VERY SAD. Been to Mass there many times.Remember many of the Sisters.This is a fact many communities are facing now.

[@teresaoftheandes6279]

Actually there are many remaining monasteries left in this country, but unfortunately only some are thriving and actually making new foundations.

[@maryshanley329]

Young women prefer the traditional habits, especially the simple one: Carmelites, Poor Clares, Dominicans and Benedictines.

[@francesjones9265]

I wish these beautiful sister's all the very best God bless Amen

[@flightmasterr231]

God save these sisters

[@Brenda1371]

this is very sad. Im not understanding why the church allowed these women to dwindle to such state in that Monastery? Why didn't they help them years ago before these ladies advanced so far in age. None the less I do hope and pray that they find an equally beautiful new home together and living out the remaining years they have with happiness, love and devotion until it is there time to go home

[@mpat100]

Blessings and good luck for these sisters and their community

[@jkr6208]

This is really sad 😥 but it is never too late. It should be taken as a learning curve. I think an office can be opened at Vatican that will oversee all the the challenges being faced by different religious men and women e.g. if all the churches around the world collected money to help repair the Convent. What would stop the sisters to continue enjoying their stay and finally it being their final resting place? Do we not say "Home is best" what lovely and humble sisters they are! They have accepted their predicament with such godly surrender. God bless them and still pray that this monumental convent will still be in the hands of the Catholic Church. You never know God's ways are mysterious. We may find that we shall be short of Convents in the near future hence we should strive to hold on to these holy places. God intercede for us for you are a Merciful Father. Amen 🙏🏽

[@paulbastier3773]

"The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, formerly called Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL; Latin: Congregatio pro Institutis Vitae Consecratae et Societatibus Vitae Apostolicae), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia with competency over everything which concerns institutes of consecrated life (orders and religious congregations, both of men and of women, as well as secular institutes) and societies of apostolic life, regarding their government, discipline, studies, goods, rights, and privileges."

[@timmellin2815]

The humorous stage play "Late Night Catechism" always ends with the actress playing the role of the Sister passing the hat, as it were, to collect support money for retiring religious order members.

[@paulbastier3773]

In the wake of Vatican II several Poor Clare monasteries in the UK have closed. I lived next door to one in Green Lanes, Liverpool that closed because the remaining few sisters were very old and they had not had sufficient novices to keep up the viability of the community. They were transferred to the York Poor Clare Monastery and then that closed down. I was not in the UK when the Liverpool Poor Clare monastery was closed and then demolished but I would have been there to see them off if i had been still there. It must have been a very sad day when they few remaining nuns came out of their cloister and locked the door behind them and said goodbye. One of the nuns I spoke to at the parlour grille together with the Abbess had entered when she was sixteen and was nearly ninety when I last saw her. Thankfully she died before they had to move out.

[@ryanhilliard1620]

Yep. Vatican II ruins EVERYTHING!!

[@ronilobongojr.8986]

This is a sad reality in this generation that vocation to religious life and priesthood are declining. Our bishops here in the Philippines are hospitable to welcome your community.

[@daffodilstang5292]

Will pray for the Sisters of Poor Clare nuns Monastery n for more vocations.🙏🙏🙏✝️✝️✝️

[@redmi9834]

I saw my own local Poor Clare monastery close in Liverpool. It was s very day when they vacated the place and handed over the keys. Not much over a hundred years from being built to being demolished. So sad.

[@sandrasabatini5175]

That’s a beautiful thing how the sister acknowledges abt her faith getting tested

[@michaeldevaney5728]

Do nuns mastrubate

[@tj-kv6vr]

As a Christian it saddens me how many people do NOT like us. But, our future is bright and forever.

[@vivacristorey4363]

There are still religious communities that are growing to this day. The unfortunate thing is that the longer a community goes without a new member the more likely it is to never get one as sort of a self fulfilling prophecy. I am very happy to see that the faith and love of these sisters is still vibrant despite these issues. They clearly have a deep faith in providence.

[@lovetruth5518]

I love the NUNS, my heart loves you all so much💖. I thank my best friends sister who is a Nun, she prayed for me. ♡Many years later I came to CHRIST it was her prayers that saved me through JESUS CHRIST. (As I was a big sinner)😔 Also I became Catholic, the best thing I have ever done. "GOD BLESS NUNS"🎯 Amen Amen Amen.

[@moriahmorgan5983]

God protect the Sisters and bless their service to Him. I pray they will be at peace in their new home. Most thriving communities are ones that still use the traditional Latin Mass and hold fast to traditions. Those communities are bursting at the seams with young vocations and are needing to expand by making new foundations. Many communities that made changes after Vatican II have not made it.

[@charlesrubio]

You are 100% right

[@kathyg.5742]

Exactly right! 👏👍

[@LUIS-ox1bv]

This is correct. It is the traditional contemplative orders that are growing, not the ones who chose the way of the Novus Ordo, Church of the new springtime, new Pentecost.

[@juaneeobonilla9811]

GOD bless my sisters in christ Jesus....thank you for all your devotion and prayers.

[@robertkhan7399]

May God bless these poor Clare nuns.

[@gladysclausing8785]

I pray for vocations! Lord please open the hearts and minds of those you’ve called to give their lives for the service of others in religious commitment. Amen!

[@sonyaneal6539]

God Bless the poor Clares. Peace, Joy and Love in the Most Holy Light of Christ Jesus.

[@vezna9040]

God bless you 🙏❤️ Please keep on praying for all our youth 🙏🙏

[@AmelLia-po6vz]

God bless from Bali Indonesia 😊🌷🌷

[@afriend621]

Would love to see a follow-up vid on their new home.

[@lauraharris8140]

God be with you, dear Sisters.

[@tingmedina4448]

Lets all pray for more vocations

[@dissolveillusions5682]

God bless you sisters of poor clares.May God bless you all with your heart desire...♥️✨

[@nadinefay1560]

Oh it looks like a beautiful sanctuary. A calm place for widows, young lost women and the list goes on.

[@janealbertini6604]

So sad…..blessing them♥️

[@souveniehollande979]

I recognise the tune they're singing. We use it for one of our hymns in our local Methodist parish.

[@user-mq6kg4fo5j]

Thank you for praying for the world'

[@sandrasabatini5175]

That’s a beautiful thing how you get rid of the clutter and vow to simplicity

[@formasihidupselibat9981]

In Asia the vocation is growing fast

[@catholicfemininity2126]

Maybe a TLM priest and nuns could take over that building. I notice so many young people joining the fssp and perhaps to save these places, to get more vocations, they need to bring back cloistered life or something....

[@SweettoothMarie77]

We need more vocations. Hopefully more can join🙏

[@Marjana954]

Tout respect!🎉🎉🎉

[@pauld3298]

God be with you all.

[@christianmerante3730]

three letter answer, TLM

[@andybalzar7819]

God blessed all of you

[@celinamolina7177]

❤God Bless them and help them be faithful to our Lord Jesus

[@christophermahoney3196]

God bless them and guide more women to being Sisters.

[@tedmartin5239]

I remember Monasteries closing before Vatican ll , so one cannot blame Vatican ll only...

[@timmellin2815]

The church abuse issue hasn't helped, either. Lots of church money lost in the settlements. That veil of secrecy that seems to be part of cloisterd monastery life went a little too far when the Church used that secrecy to cover up long time abuse.

[@amde8554]

@@timmellin2815yes and there was abuse against nuns too

[@davidescobar5366]

Nuns play a most important role in the RC church that most outsiders of the church can only begin to comprehend. I pray for women to continue to pursue this extremely beautiful and equally extreme important vocation so that along with these nuns here, the Pope, clergy and all us faithful in the world can continue to fulfill Gods will here on earth until the second comming of our lord Jesus Christ. I pray this through Christ our Lord Amen 🙏🙏

[@brianwarriner8826]

I pray for the sisters

[@carolnewhouse227]

There are more than 50 women's monasteries in the U.S.A. alone in Eastern (and American) Orthodox jurisdictions. Many more times that for men's monasteries. God bless you, dear Sisters.

[@kamenejustina1258]

Wishing you all sisters.keep the faith.

[@JanetUrban-tr1cz]

God bless the nuns

[@redmi9834]

With a small elderly community the night office becomes more difficult especially if it is a long Matins with nine psalms and nine readings. 'Heavy going.

[@michaeldevaney5728]

Not really you must remember that jesus carried a cross at least 2 kilometres in comparison I wouldnt refer to that as heavy going those nuns have all day to rest

[@54sme]

What about renting to Catholic women who need affordable homes.?

[@stevencortiella7609]

Just absolutely beautiful it's a shame they have to leave

[@gracemalone-xo2iu]

The eyes of the ranger are upon you

[@oldbonesNJ]

Use all of that space for studio apartments for homeless individuals.

[@AG-fl3kl]

How sad there are no vocations in our day 😢

[@timmellin2815]

No, all believers have a "vocation.' ....to know the will of God and do it wholeheartedly. You don't have to be in a cloistered order to have a "vocation". A good dose of Protestant theology added to this mix would solve a lot of the " what is my vocation" question.

[@hotmeish]

❤❤❤

[@johncarsone1579]

So sad to see the death of so many religious institutions that have given so much. It's a new reality leading only God knows where.❤😢

[@antropatico]

at any given moment there's at least one monk or a nun praying for humanity. they sustain the world through the grace of God.

[@giblonn3796]

It’s called the “Fruits” of Vatican II. A handful of aging nuns with no vocations. If they used the Latin Mass they would have plenty of young sisters to keep it going. All traditional religious orders are growing and thriving. This is yet one of many Monastic houses that is closing as a result of modernization. I’d say I feel bad about it, but I really don’t. It’s their own fault for abandoning Tradition!

[@tradpinoy]

can’t agree more. Traditional catholic communities don’t have this problem.

[@tradpinoy]

can’t agree more. Traditional catholic communities don’t have this problem.

[@paulbastier3773]

@@tradpinoy But some of them are under the eye of Pope Francis who is not a lover of tradition or the Tridentine Mass which he is making it more difficult for priests to offer. Now permission has to come from him, and you can be sure that it is not liberally being given.

[@jjny03]

“Developers already have plans…” of course 😑

[@Caocao8888]

It also looks like an incredibly empty space.

[@tradpinoy]

Monasteries that lost true catholic traditions dies. Lower vocations and fewer religious because “modernism” was accommodated by blind catholics. On the other side, traditional catholic monasteries flourishing. Why?

[@sar983]

MAY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST BLESS YOU ALL ❤🙏 😊

[@almeggs3247]

There are millions of true Catholics in their upper 70+ and 80s that would love finishing their lives in prayer and with good retirement Dying to live their final days surrounded in this environment WHY CANT THEY ALLOW US THAT OPPORTUNITY AND HELP EACH OTHER?

[@JoelStim-lj1hg]

Ale: Amen to what you said. CHANGE, is good sometimes; but Some traditions need to stay: like wearing habits& like I told a Prog. Nun once: do not knock it. THESE are the Orders that grow. The ones that believe in basic Biblical ways!!

[@Alusnovalotus]

It's a Nunnery or Convent, not a Monastery

[@susluke]

So why don't they bring Sisters or Nuns from other countries. They can train other Sisters. If you really need nuns, Priests ect, you can always invite and welcome in foreigners as im sure they would be forever grateful too. Especially if they came from poorer countries. Godbless and i hope God always protects them and guides them. 🙏🙏🙏

[@sandramiller6996]

I am a methodist, born, raised, married, bothered, grandmothered, and sadly divorced. Yet of only one marriage. 41 plus years. In my studies I find the nine to represent the 10 commandments minus adultery. My mother was a born Catholic, and in marrying my Father became a Methodist. Nunns do not marry therefore not adulterous. I, in marriage did not commit adultery. Honor thy mother and father is not as easy as it sounds. When God closes a door a window opens... don't forget to take your windows, so they don't get abandoned in a garbage dump.

[@donpanchoramos4050]

It’s very sad

[@BhupinderSingh-jt9ln]

FEW HOLY BOOKS

[@celesteheloisa9059]

❤❤❤❤😊😊

[@twirlacane]

How things have changed in our lifetimes.

[@pkwilliamson4579]

The head of the theology department at Loyola University in a large midwestern city told me 40 years ago that "We now know that Jesus is not the way, but a way." That sort of says it all for the last half century in the Catholic church. It's not whether you speak English or Latin or speak in tongues-- each renewal thinks there is some trick. Rather the 'trick' is to hold fast in faith to our Lord Jesus Christ and to not be embarrassed to proclaim his name to those around you. Monasteries are the very heart of prayer within the Church but we must all pray for our own vocation. Renewal is coming but we need to hold fast and go in Spirit and in Truth and without engendering division. Amen?

[@ericbubbles8642]

Wow yeah Ecclesiastes.🙏🙏🙏

[@frankramos5629]

The facility needs repair or demolished and rebuild . Making co ed retired Nuns and Priest . Housing foster Teen preparation for college or seminary . Thank you Sisters in Jesus Christ to answer your calling and long years of dedication . The prayer of the righteous are heard and answer in the lord time .

[@vausa1000]

have you considered bringing tenants into this big house of yours, I mean rather than you leaving..

[@aaronbrigham4743]

Amen.🙏❤️✝️

[@time-out-tuti-fruti5142]

To be used as a community centre so they found money for repairs for a community centre? I do hope the Nuns are happy in their new home but feel it is very sad they couldn’t have been helped to stay where they were with some modifications.

[@artisanann4954]

❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏

[@mvl6827]

Looks like a care-home. Albeit a roomy one.

[@timmellin2815]

Think of all the money the Church had to pay out to victims of abuse, that could have been saved and instead used to fund remodeling and preservation of old Orders like this one. Piety has a downstide when it languishes into abuse and fear.

[@lmtt123]

So he says there's 42000 nuns and 24 contemplative convents, even if that's accurate he is just being deliberately negative

[@erikriza7165]

i dont know if he is right or not. it would be easy enough to find out.

[@JoelStim-lj1hg]

Way to go. Sisters, just do like the NY CARMELS. did& pack up& move to ST. AUGUSTINE. You, are Conservative& a good group. I, am sure they would be enriched by your livess😁🙏🙏🙏

[@phyllis9750]

It's not a "sacred place.". The priests took care of that long ago.

[@user-ws9rz1bk5r]

Pakisabi nga Kay señora macappal nandito si ajim...