Ignatius Press author Mother Mary Francis wrote the religious bestseller A Right to Be Merry in 1956, a loving, humor-filled semi-autobiographical account of the life of cloistered Poor Clares. The book was written at the direction of her abbess who hoped it would win a $1,000 writing prize to pay for repairs to a leaky roof. Instead, the manuscript was published by Sheed and Ward, and remains in print today, available through Ignatius Press. Mother Mary Francis helped found four new Poor Clare monasteries, including one in Holland, and led the restoration of two others. She was a strong voice for authentic religious life during the turmoil of the years following Vatican II. In addition to serving as abbess of a convent and of the federation of Colletine Poor Clare monasteries in the U.S., Mother Mary Francis was a prolific writer, producing spiritual meditations, plays, books and poetry. She died February 11, 2006, a few days short of her 85th birthday. |
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No one who has not lived in a cloister can fully understand just how intertwined are the lives of cloistered nuns. 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.">> READ MORE OR ORDER |
Following up her very popular book about the happiness of the contemplative life, A Right to be Merry, Mother Mary Francis tells the story of how a cloistered Poor Clare Community, wholly content to stay where it was, is called forth by God to go abroad and found five more contemplative communities. >> READ MORE OR ORDER |
"The poems of Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C., arise - blossom would be a better word - in that region where our human experience finds itself challenged by faith - by The Faith, really. One is awakened by the demanding syntax, the fresh vocabulary, and the curious focus (on everything from a turtle's eye to a Ph. D. examination to the Stations of the Cross). A book to be kept near one's breviary, one's missal, and one's Bible." --Thomas Howard >> READ MORE OR ORDER |
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These meditations on the famous prayer of St. Ignatius by a Poor Clare nun and well-regarded spiritual writer will help
every reader deepen his prayer life and draw closer to the Person of Christ. Popes, saints, and common folk have made this their daily prayer for centuries.
Let the Abbess of cloistered nuns help you reflect deeper on the profound thoughts of this prayer that are needed to shape a devout life in Christ. |
In these gentle, simple, yet profound conferences, Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C., explores both the necessity and the difficulty
of Christian friendship. Friendship is the basis of all fruitful love, she wrote. Whether we are single or married, priest or religious, the Lord himself called
us his friends and commanded us to be the friends of one another. With this small volume, Mother Mary Francis inspires us and helps us to be patient by revealing
both the demands and the rewards of our vocation to love and be loved. |
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