Why did I decide to become a Poor Clare nun many people have asked?

It is difficult to give a clear-cut answer.

" A vocation is something between God and the human soul, a calling so loud and clear that we can't mistake it and have no peace until, willing or unwillingly, we open the door of our inmost heart and consider the invitation person to person. In my own case, I had no idea as a child what Poor Clares were. I was born and raised in Cahir, where there are no Poor Clares anywhere near. But one day an older sister mentioned them to me while she was doing up my hair. She usually had a story to tell me at a time like that, to keep me quiet. I was about 7 then and my sister about 15.

I remember her words clearly - she said that the Poor Clares were always praying for people and for the whole world and so were helping to save it.

This really made an impression on me. I always wanted to help people, so I thought this would be a wonderful way to do it. When the hair-do was finished, I ran up to the Sacred Heart picture in the kitchen and told the Lord I wanted to be a Poor Clare in order to pray for the world. For a few days I was full of joy - but then it was all forgotten." Life went on in a happy carefree manner for myself, growing up with my parents, brothers and sisters. I enjoyed the simple pleasures like going for long walks along the bank of the river Suir or climbing the Galtee mountains.

The Lords voice was clear

" My preference for playing cowboys and climbing trees with my nearest-in-age brother and his friends - frequently arriving home with torn dress and scuffed shoes - seemed to worry my father a bit as he said to me now and then " where will you end ? I always gave him a grin and said ' In Heaven .' He must have wondered would I ever keep on the straight and narrow." But all the time, my wish to be a member of the Poor Clares was hidden somewhere deep inside my sub-conscious. I remember once while in primary school, the Sister who was teaching us was called out of the room and we were talking among ourselves what we would be when we grew up. When it came to my turn, without thinking I said ' A Poor Clare '. It caused great laughter and for days after that they called me the Poor Clare. I was very annoyed about it and promised myself that I would never again mention that name to myself or anybody else. However, try as I might to push those terrible Poor Clares out of my mind, as childhood turned into teens, the call grow more and more insistent. That inner struggle went on, the good Lord drawing me and I resisting, ' kicking against the goad ' as Saint Paul would call it. " Once morning during a Mission in the local Parish Church, I arrived into the church during the sermon which followed the 7 a.m. Mass. I sat into a back seat; the sermon was on matrimony. During the course of it the priest just said that matrimony will be the vocation for the greater number, that only very few are called to the Poor Clares or Carmelites. The Lords voice was quite clear as I heard ' that is your vocation.' I pleaded with the Lord, told Him that I would do anything He asked me as long as He left me in the world and didn't ask me to be a Poor Clare. The only thing I knew about the Poor Clares was that they were enclosed and the thought of being locked up forever really frightened me. But I knew I was faced with a decision. So after much prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, I got sufficient courage to say: Lord if you want it I'll do it for you. I wouldn't do it for anybody else - but on one condition: that I'll die young - otherwise I couldn't face it. From that moment on a tremendous peace decended on me and I never doubted my vocation again.

Entering the Poor Clare Monastery

When she entered the Poor Clare Monastery in Graiguecullen on June 13, 1940, I found a warm welcoming community where I felt at home immediately.

" As for my fears of being locked up, they all evaporated and I never felt the enclosure to be anything else but a blessed space whose horizons stretched to the very limits of the earth - and beyond. I felt terribly happy from the start. I had left my home and family but really felt this was what I wanted and where God wanted me. I felt a great sense of peace and contentment. "

Words to Inspire

Trust in the Lord and He will act. ( Psalm 37 )