Other Resources

Our life as Poor Clares inserts us into the ecclesial reality at all levels, uniting us with our Holy Father and the universal Church, our American bishops and our local diocese. Loving the Church, thinking with the Church, supporting the Church, we imitate our Mother St. Clare in her characteristic position “always submissive and subject at the feet of that holy Church” so that “unwavering in the Catholic faith, we may forever observe the poverty and humility of our Lord Jesus Christ and his most holy Mother and the holy Gospel which we have firmly promised” (from the Rule of St. Clare). For your convenience we provide the following links:

The Vatican

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - USCCB

Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life

Diocese of Las Cruces

Poor Clare Federation of Mary Immaculate in the United States of America

Links to the following documents are another way we can share with you some measure of the “full grateful knowledge of our vocation” which St. Clare exhorted her daughters to have and to cherish. Sections particularly pertinent to our life have been noted:

1. On the Church:
    
   • Lumen Gentium - Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council

     -     Chapter V: The Call of the Whole Church to Holiness

     -     Chapter VI: Religiou

2. On the vocation to virginity and spiritual motherhood:
    
   • Mulieris Dignitatem - Apostolic Letter of Blessed John Paul II on the dignity and vocation of women
      

     -     Chapter VI: Motherhood - Virginity

     # 20 - Virginity for the sake of the Kingdom

     # 21 - Motherhood according to the Spirit

     -     Chapter VII: The Church - The Bride of Christ

3. On Religious Life:
    
   • Perfectae Caritatis - Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life of the Second Vatican Council
   
   
   • Evangelica Testificatio - Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Paul VI on the Renewal of the Religious Life according to the Teaching of the Second Vatican Council
   
   
   • Congregavit nos in Unum Christi Amor - Fraternal Life in Community, Instruction from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
   
   
   • Faciem Tuam Domine Requiram - The Service of Authority and Obedience, Instruction from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
   
   
   • Redemptionis Donum - Apostolic Exhortation of Blessed John Paul II to Men and Women Religious on their Consecration in the Light of the Mystery of the Redemption
   
   
   • Vita Consecrata - Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Blessed John Paul II on the Consecrated Life and its Mission in the Church and in the World
   
   
   • Starting Afresh From Christ - Document from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on A Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life in the Third Millennium


4. On the Contemplative Life:
    
   • Vultum Dei Quaerere - The most recent Apostolic Constitution on Women's Contemplative Life
   
   
   • Cor Orans - The Implementing Instruction of the Apostolic Constitution Vultum Dei Quaerere on Women's Contemplative Life
   
   
   • Verbi Sponsa - Instruction on the Contemplative Life and the Enclosure of Nuns