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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I wish to begin with the Franciscan
greeting of Peace and All Good! “Peace” identifies
our option in life, and “Good” is the fruit of the
Presence of the Spirit of God in our actions.
It is a pleasure to extend my
greetings through this page, and share with you my experience in
Religious Life, as a Capuchin Poor Clare.
I experienced my calling in Mexico,
around the year 1977, and not precisely to be a Capuchin Poor Clare,
but a missionary. In my place of
origin, Guadalupe, all of us felt very close to the Missionary Sisters
of Guadalupe, because they periodically went on missions and, due to
that, it was natural this should have been my inclination.
I did not know any other nuns.
I entered their Congregation in
Irapuato, Guanajuato, that same year, as an aspirant.
It was not in the Formation House,
but in a local house where other young girls prepared for their
official entrance into the Postulancy.
For me, the life of a missionary with
the Sisters was very appealing, and I loved it from the heart.
The time I spent with them, was
lived with all the intensity of my soul. My
companions and I, and even the very professed Sisters, were convinced
that I was born to be a missionary; but the Lord of Life, already had
traced my pathways towards another road.
One good day, a Franciscan priest came
to the school where we were studying. From that time I did not lose
sight of him; something about him impressed me. I started attending the
Eucharistic celebration, which he celebrated for the youth.
One Sunday, he announced that he would
preach the Lenten retreat for the youth. A companion and I attended
every day for the whole week to the talks. In one of these, he made
mention of the Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters in the Ciudad de
Los Olivos (this is the name of the zone where the Monastery
is located). I was attracted and
curious of knowing more about these “Capuchin
Nuns”, and with my companion, Victoria, we started to search
about them.
In the afternoons, we worked in the
bookshop, which the Guadalupan Sisters had in one of the parishes. One
day, a Capuchin Sister came to the library, and all the sudden,
Victoria, my companion, told her: “Mother, she wants to enter
with you”. I was stunned, but in reality, I was also grateful
that she would speak on my behalf, although I did not feel yet ready
for that; nevertheless, it was already a first step.
The school year was not yet over and I
begun to make vacation plans: I would ask permission to go during this
time, two months, with my family. I would be with them and later decide.
It was a strong inner battle
because I still felt inclined to the missionary life, but also felt the
attraction that was being born in my soul towards this other way of
life.
Vacation time arrived and, on
June 30th,1979
I went to my parents home; I took with me the telephone number of the
Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters of Irapuato. Almost
upon arrival, I requested entrance with them, and was given an
appointment for an interview on the 4th of July.
I took care of some things and
went to this appointment with my dad. I
did not return home; I remained with them, and from there, I wrote to
the Guadalupan Sisters. The Lord
Jesus was present in everything and in
the same manner Mary, our Mother; I felt them so close in my life.
The formation time passed and very
soon I made my perpetual profession. Some years later,
the Most Rev. Archbishop Charles
Chaput, OFM Cap., then provincial of the Mid-America Capuchins,
requested a foundation of Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters, to open a
Monastery in the city and diocese of Denver. The
Monastery of Irapuato was selected, and we were invited to come as
“missionaries”, not in the manner in which
missionaries work evangelizing with their preaching, but from our
contemplative charism of prayer, silence and enclosure.
In this manner, the Lord has
granted me to accomplish also my first calling.
I am happy to belong to the
Archdiocese of Denver, and to the Capuchin Province of Mid-America.
To my mind comes (from the Bible)
the words of Ruth, the Moabite, “Wherever you go, I
shall go, your people shall be my people and your God shall be my
God”, and thus, the same as Ruth, I feel inserted
in this land of precious mountains, where the Lord has brought me.
The life of the Capuchin Poor
Clares has helped me to make room for silence and solitude in order to
be attentive to the Word of God.
Our main mission is that of prayer.
We pray for each one of you, for
each of our Brothers and Sisters, that d those who are far, even beyond
the seas. There are two words which are fundamental in my life:
reciprocity and complementary, and I try to embody them in my own life
experience. While here in my monastery, by way of prayer and love, I
try to be, along with my sisters, one of the “sentinels of
the morning” as Pope John Paul II invited the youth to be, in
Toronto, and as he repeated in other occasions. I will also add that I
want to be as well a “sentinel of the night.”
I believe and trust that you also
pray for us, who are in the convents
and monasteries, and thus we are
united in the Lord Jesus, forming one Mystical Body.
I closet with the blessing of our
Foundress, Saint Clare of Assisi:
+May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
May He show you His Face and have
mercy on you,
May He look upon you with love and
grant you Peace,
May the Lord be with you always and
you with Him.
Amen.
Sister
María Jesús Armadillo, OSC Cap.
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