Walled in light, Saint Colette

Mother Mary Francis

Franciscan Herald Press

<p>Mother Mary Francis tells the story of how a cloistered Poor Clare Community, wholly content to stay where it was, followed what they believed was a commission from God to go abroad and found or restore five more contemplative communities.</p>

Forth and Abroad: Still Merry on Land and by Sea

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Ignatius Press

<p>Can life really be "merry" inside a Poor Clare cloister? This happy book reveals the challenges, cares and joys of that cloistered life from an "insiders" view. The poet's cry, "O world, I cannot hold you close enough!" is the heart's cry of the enclosed contemplative. No one who has not lived in a cloister can fully understand just how intertwined are the lives of cloistered nuns. Their hearts may be wide as the universe and bottomless as eternity, but the practical details of their living are boxed up into the small area within the enclosure walls. Cloistered nuns rub souls as well as elbows all their lives, and if they do not step out of themselves to get a true perspective, they can become small-souled and petty and remain immature children all their lives long. But, as Mother Mary Francis points out, they also have "as great a right to be merry as any lady in the world." Nor is merriment all. "Hidden away from the glare and noise of worldly living," Mother Mary Francis writes, "we are enclosed in the womb of holy Church. I walk down the cloisters, and my heart moves to a single tune: Lord, it is good, so good to be here!"</p>

A Right to Be Merry

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Books by Mother Mary Francis