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Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters Melville, Lot 300 Capuchin Way, Pumula, Melville, Port Shepstone (2026)

08/06/2026

We would like to extend an invitation to all Junior Franciscan Girls of the ages of 16 and above to join us for one week during this special jubilee Year of St Francis. Pray with the sisters, learn more about St Clare and the life of the Capuchin Poor Clares in South Africa.

For more details contact us on 072 571 8700 or 063 116 2875

Franciscans Mariannhill DioceseYoung Franciscans - Durban RegionDiocese of Mariannhill - South AfricaDiocese of KokstadArchdiocese of DurbanUmzimkulu Diocese YOUTHMedia for Better World Africa

22/05/2026

Resource for May: in the month of May pray the Franciscan Crown Rosary!

The Franciscan Crown Rosary also known as the Rosary of the Seven Joys dates back to the year 1422 when a young man after entering the order of the Franciscans as a novice was not allowed to decorate a statue of our Lady with fresh flowers as he was used to do.

As he contemplated leaving the order because he feared he was lacking in devotion to our Lady, he saw a Vision of the Blessed Virgin who told him to weave for her a crown of roses from his prayers instead.

Our Lady requested the young friar to say one Our Father and ten Hail Mary's in honor of seven joyous occasions in her life: (1) the Annunciation, (2) the Visitation, (3) the birth of Christ, (4) the adoration of the Magi, (5) the finding of Jesus in the Temple, (6) the resurrection of Our Lord, and (7) the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven.

The young novice prayed as instructed and as the novice master passed by, he saw an angel weaving a wreath of roses. After every tenth rose, he inserted a golden lily. When the wreath was finished, the angel placed it on the head of the novice.

The novice master demanded under holy obedience that the novice explain to him the meaning of the vision. The Crown of seven joys soon spread to the entire Franciscan order. Later, two Hail Marys were added to make the total of the Hail Marys equal to seventy-two, the number of years that Our Lady is said by Franciscans to have lived on earth. At the end of the Rosary, a Hail Mary, Glory be and Our Father were added for the intention of the Pope.

How to pray the Franciscan Crown:

1. Make the Sign of the Cross.

2. Pray the Opening Prayer“O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be tothe Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning,is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”

3. Start at the Bead closest to the centre piece: Our Father and announce the first mystery. Pray 10 Hail Marys. 1x Glory Be.

4. Repeat for the other 6 mysteries listed above.

5. Below the centre piece say the additional 2 Hail Marys to make the total number of Hail Marys 72.

6. Pray for the intentions of the Pope 1x Our Father, 1x Hail Mary, 1x Glory Be.

7. There are different ways to finish the rosary. You can use the usual prayers at the end of a rosary, or make a simple sign of the Cross or say St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer before the Cross: “We adore you, Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all your churches throughout the world, and we bless You, because by Your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

What a beautiful devotion to honour our Lady in this month!

08/05/2026

We are still in the Season of Easter. How do we know that? Just look at the colour of your priest's vestments on Sunday!

We have gone in a few weeks from Lent (purple for penance and rose for rejoicing at the midpoint at Laetare Sunday) to Easter (white/gold for joy) and will after the red of Pentecost (red for passion/Martyrs and Holy Spirit) soon be back to green for ordinary time. Everything at Holy Mass has meaning. Whether the flowers are opulent at High Feast days or missing like during Advent and Lent, it all signals to us what is going on in the Church's calendar.

As Capuchin Poor Clares one of our activities of simple work in the monastery is to sew liturgical vestments. A few examples of Chasubles and Stoles are shown below, but we also make Albs, Chalice veils, Palls, Purificators and Altar cloths. And of course, our own habits are also made by us here in the Monastery.

If you are interested in ordering any liturgical items, please Sr Irene via WhatsApp on 063-116-2875. Prices vary based on materials and designs but Sr Irene will be able to assist you with any questions you may have. Please note that items are made to size so we do not keep any stock. Ordering in advance is essential.

Hopefully you still have a few Easter eggs left to celebrate the Easter season before it draws to a close. Please remember to pray for us as we are praying for you.

of Mariannhill - South AfricaMedia for Better World AfricaArchdiocese of Durban

27/04/2026

Finding Joy with St Francis - Desert Days Part 3 - final part

"Be still and know that I am God" - Psalm 46:10

Our plates are full. So full that nothing else can fit. How do we hunger for God when we are always full to the maximum?

We need silence. To empty ourselves out. It might feel impossible right now to find even one day to go to the "desert". That alone tells us that there is too much on our plate. We need very little but we want it all.

St Francis teaches us to let go of all of it. His life is a testimony on detaching from everything that is unnecessary. But how could we live like that? Maybe it is not so much about giving everything away but about owning nothing. So that we are not owned by anything. Even the good things in our life can own us when they have a hold on us. But we need to be free so we can follow the Lord truly.

Everything we have is temporary. God entrusts everything to us but we do not own it. We need to detach from everything to be free. We need to spend time with the Lord to be able to hear his voice. How do we recognise the Shepherd's voice when we do not listen for it by reading Scripture regularly? Because we do not make the time?

A desert day could be spend at a Monastery, following the time table of the Monastery. Praying along the Liturgy of the Hours, attending Holy Mass, praying the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet and spending time in front of the Blessed Sacrament are the best ways we can spend our time. It might take a lot to take a day out but it will always be worth it.

A visitor that was at our Monastery for a week on retreat last year said the following when he left: "I am leaving reality and I am going back to unreality." Come and See.

of Mariannhill - South AfricaMedia for Better World Africa

20/04/2026

Finding Joy with St Francis - Desert Days Part 2

On Friday we were talking about making a monthly desert day. Today let us look on more reasons why desert days are needed in our lives.

1. We need time for uninterrupted prayer for our families and friends.

So often when we make a commitment to pray, something else comes up and we find ourselves taken away. Sometimes we even promise to pray for someone and we might forget or we just do not seem to find the time to do so. A desert day can give the "free" time to do so. Because we make a commitment and once we start we will find that we do not want to miss it. A good suggestion is to make a list of the people that we want to pray for beforehand and we take the list with us to our desert day. In this way, while we touch the paper with our hands as we pray for each one, we can touch the people in our lives with our prayers.

2. We need time for uninterrupted prayer for our enemies.

Jesus told us to pray for our enemies. This is a hard task but a very important one. A desert day can give us the time to also pray for all the people that we experience difficulties with. Whenever we pray for an "enemy", we put something good out into the world. We match insult with love. Persecution with forgiveness. Angry words with kindness. And maybe our hearts will soften and we can reach out to others again and just sometimes an "enemy" might become a friend. But even if not, we can choose to forgive and find healing for ourselves. If we stay angry, we only harm ourselves.

3. We need time for Scripture.

St Francis often prayed: "Who are you, God? And who am I?" and St Jerome said: "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ". How can we truly know and experience God if we do not spend time with Scripture? A desert day is a great time to read Scripture, maybe even to read one of the Gospels completely. And the following month another one. A desert day can give us the space like St Francis to contemplate "Who are you, God? And who am I?". Especially when we spend time before the Blessed Sacrament asking the question, we can experience and know God.

Bonus: Spending some of the time in nature during a desert day, can allow us to gain some perspective on whatever difficulties we might be experiencing in our life. Sometimes all we need is to experience something as fragile as a butterfly or a newborn chick to remind us that all life is precious and kindness is free.

17/04/2026

April Resource for the Jubilee Year of St Francis:
Finding Joy with St Francis

We continue to celebrate this special jubilee year of St Francis which commemorates 800 years since his passing.

For April we suggest that you make a desert day to find joy with St Francis. Even in suffering after receiving the stigmata and nearly blind, St Francis continued to praise the Lord and even wrote the Canticle of the creatures where he praised the Lord for all of creation and praised the Lord together with creation.

What is a desert day?

It is a spiritual practice where we take a day apart in silence and solitude to rest and pray with the Lord. It is a good practice to make such a desert day once a month and also to take the time to take stock of the month. Like Jesus that went into the desert, it is most fruitful when one makes this day a mini-pilgrimage. This means spending the day at an adoration chapel or a shrine or to go to a retreat centre or a monastery.

The day is best started with Holy Mass and spending time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. The day would also be a good time for a monthly confession but if no confessor is available at the place of your choice, then plan it for another day.

Pack some Scripture and a packed lunch (unless you prefer to make your desert day a fasting day), and plan your day ahead. If the grounds allow, why not pray your rosary while taking a walk?

Do not forget to pack a journal, as a desert day is likely to bring up some things that you might have put off. It is completely normal to sit in adoration and have resentments dwell up. Be open to what the Lord is showing you and acknowledge your feelings so you can start working through them.

We need time in silence and prayer as it is easier to constantly be "on the go" instead of dealing with the things and emotions that we would rather avoid. A good tip for a desert day is to leave your phone at home or if you are travelling by car to a venue, then leave your phone for the day in the car.

Lastly, a desert day is a wonderful opportunity to develop an attitude of gratitude. Let us write a list of things that we are grateful for in our prayer journal and thank the Lord for all the blessings that He has given us and also for the ones that He is going to give us in the future.

Peace starts to develop when we can truly be grateful for what we have, instead of living in constant anxiety and worry over what we do not have. When we can be peaceful, then we can also pass this peace on to others around us. And in time, we will find that gratitude and peace becomes a constant current in our life that connects us to our Lord, and we will find that we do not want to miss our desert day.

Our crosses may be heavy at times but a desert day can give us new strength to carry them and re-discover joy in our lives. St Francis lived with joy, continuously praising and blessing the Lord and so can we!

13/04/2026

We are back after a very prayerful Lent and a joyous Triduum and Easter celebration and we continue to hold you all in prayer during this wonderful Easter Season.

We would like to share with you some images from our Lenten Season and our Easter Celebrations.

If you have any prayer intentions, we would love to pray for you and we will write them down and put them into our prayer basket which is placed next to the altar in front of the Blessed Sacrament exposed where we adore our Lord around the clock.

You can message us or email your prayer intentions to [email protected]

of Mariannhill - South AfricaArchdiocese of DurbanUmzimkulu Diocese YOUTHDiocese of Kokstad

17/02/2026

Resources for March

We hope that you have started to look into the book suggestions we gave you for your spiritual reading for this Lent and we would love to hear from you if you are enjoying the reading.

To remind you of your commitment to the year of St Francis, we are giving you a new resource attached to this post: some bookmarks that you can print out and use for your reading. There are 4 variants per A4 sheet, so why not keep one and pass the other three on to your friends to motivate them to join you to read about the live of St Francis of Assisi.

We will be offline from posting on Social media for the duration of Lent, but we will continue to pray for you and your families of course.

Another way to remind yourself of your commitment to the Jubilee year may be to set up a statue or picture of St Francis or St Clare and decorate it nicely like one our sisters did in the picture below. A jubilee year is to be celebrated!

Stay blessed this Lent and we will let you know what we are up to when we will join you on Social Media again on Easter, when we will leave the 40-day Lenten desert together with the risen Christ.

Oremus pro invicem - Let us pray for one another

of Mariannhill - South AfricaMedia for Better World AfricaMariannhill Diocese Youth MinistryCapuchin FranciscansFranciscans SASouthern CrossSouth Africa Needs Our LadyLeadership Conference of Consecrated Life - LCCL - South AfricaUmzimkulu Diocese YOUTH

16/02/2026

February and March Resources: Committing to the Jubilee Year of St Francis & making Friends with St Francis

Have you ever spent time with someone that you had only heard about before and discovered that they were actually very different from what you thought that they would be like? For example, you see someone every week at church but then you actually speak to them and they are not what you expected (hopefully in a good way!)

We might have a lot of preconceived ideas of St Francis of Assisi. Maybe you think he was a nature loving hippie that walked around and spoke to the birds? (okay, this one is true).

But do you know about his background of being a frivolous party guy that only cared about fame and riches growing up? Or that his birth name was actually Giovanni, but his father changed it to Francesco because he loved everything French so much?

What about the fact that St Francis was the first person we know of that received the stigmata? (St Francis had a great devotion to St Michael and received the stigmata while observing St Michael's Lent.)

In short, if we want to know about someone, then we need to get to know them. First: talk to St Francis. Ask him to be your friend and to pray for you. Second: for Lent, read a good book about St Francis. We suggest the following:

1. the Autobiography called "The Life of St Francis" by Thomas Celano. Brother Thomas was one of the first followers of St Francis so we can get some firsthand accounts from him.

2. the Autobiography called "The Life of St Francis" by St Bonaventure. One saint writing about another saint. St Bonaventure did not know St Francis as an adult, but his autobiography was officially commissioned by the Franciscan Order. St Francis is said to have healed St Bonaventure from a serious illness as a child.

3. St Francis of Assisi by GK Chesterton. This one is considered to be the best appreciation of St Francis's life and is written in more modern English.

Whichever one you pick, you will encounter a fascinating man who will lead you closer to Christ by imitating him in a way that he is said to have walked perfectly in the footsteps of Christ. Grab your coloring pencils and hang this picture up on your fridge as a fun reminder of your commitment to the Jubilee Year!

of Mariannhill - South AfricaMedia for Better World AfricaMariannhill Diocese Youth MinistryCapuchin FranciscansFranciscans SASouthern CrossSouth Africa Needs Our LadyLeadership Conference of Consecrated Life - LCCL - South AfricaUmzimkulu Diocese YOUTH

13/02/2026

We continue our resources for February:
1. see attached the Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary which outlines how the plenary indulgence can be obtained by means of a pilgrimage

2. the Prayer to St Francis for Peace as a print out. An A4 sheet will give 4 copies, so feel free to share these with your friends and family.

FYI: Capuchin Poor Clares are members of the Second Order and our Monastery is therefore a place for pilgrimage as outlined in the decree below.

Excerpt from the decree: Full decree in the pictures and link attached.
"The year 2026 will mark the culmination and fulfilment of all the preceding celebrations: indeed, it will be the Year of Saint Francis and we are all called to become saints in the contemporary world, following the example of the Seraphic Patriarch."

"The plenary can be received under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer according to the intentions of the Holy Father), also applicable in the form of suffrage for the souls in Purgatory:

to all the faithful without distinction who, with a heart detached from sin, participate in the Year of Saint Francis by visiting, in the form of a pilgrimage, any Franciscan conventual church or place of worship anywhere in the world dedicated to Saint Francis or connected to him for any reason, and there devoutly follow the Jubilee rites or spend at least a reasonable period of time in pious meditation andraise prayers to God so that, following the example of Saint Francis, feelings of Christian charity towards their neighbours and authentic vows of harmony and peace among peoples may spring forth in their hearts, concluding with the Our Father, the Creed and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clare and all the Saints of the Franciscan Family."

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2026/01/16/260116c.html

Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters Melville

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