Sr. Janet Fearns

Christmas has come unexpectedly early. I studied my first Christmas decorations for this year in an American department store in the company of a Poor Clare nun. We didn’t buy any of the decorations although we enjoyed playing with a large and beautiful musical box crib. (The real reason for our presence in the store was her community’s familiarity with a cold remedy that my germs had made a priority for all of us!)

I was equally surprised to find myself, not in Rome, but in the United States, attending the Catholic Radio Conference in Birmingham, Alabama as the representative for Vatican Radio. It was a valuable and highly enjoyable experience to meet people from across the Americas, many of whom are in Internet communication with me back in Rome. During my brief visit I found myself interviewed four times for radio and once for television. I also managed to address a Denver meeting of the Optimists. All good publicity for Vatican Radio!

There are approximately 130 Catholic radio stations in the US, one of which, believe it or not, is sited on the fourth floor of a Poor Clare monastery! Hence my subsequent presence in that monastery in Spokane. A media apostolate fits beautifully into the Franciscan vocation. with St. Clare as the patron saint of television and St. Isidore, the patron of the Internet. However the Monastery of St. Clare is unique in the world, with its vibrant, joy-filled community of five nuns spreading the Gospel message through methods unavailable to their Foundress.

There was another unusual and unplanned (by me) encounter with the Contemplative way of life in the United States. A community of Cistercian monks has adapted its ancient charism to the needs of the 21st century and no longer spend long hours huddled over the manuscripts that they were illuminating. Instead the Laser Monks refill empty printer cartridges with such commercial success that they provide, not only for their own needs, but also for those of many charitable causes across the world. It was, therefore, a fascinating experience to sit in the Poor Clare monastery, conducting a radio interview with a Cistercian monk, equally emphatic about the community priority of prayer. They might have raised $2million this year through their refilled printer cartridges, but the Laser Monks still spend five hours of the day in prayer. The Poor Clares have a radio station within the monastery, but that has not stopped them kneeling in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament at 06.00 every morning.

One of the Poor Clares, Sr. Patricia Proctor, has the world’s most-visited Catholic e-cards website (franciscancards.com)…plus about five other websites, also operated from her office within the monastery. Not limited to radio and the Internet, Sr. Patricia has already produced three books on the Rosary, the Eucharist, and the priesthood and is now working on a volume about the Sacrament of reconciliation. Meanwhile her Community, in between producing ceramics, scented soaps and bath salts, stained glass, calligraphy…and cinnamon muffins that could lead me to consider whether I should transfer to Spokane…is also learning how they might put the fruits of their prayer life into radio programmes. Sr. Patricia and I have been working together on a new website called pauseforprayer.com which will, hopefully, be up and running by the time you read this.

So, with Christmas just around the corner, may God be with you in all of your preparations and fill you with his happiness and peace.