Veni Sponsa Christi

"Religious are to have as the supreme rule of life the following of Christ proposed in the gospel and expressed in the constitutions of their own institute."
~Code of Canon Law 662

​Called to holiness by its baptism into Christ Jesus, each Christian soul endeavors to imitate the Divine Model. Chosen to mirror Christ in a most radical and visible manner as His Spouse, the religious woman draws on the graces of her baptism to respond to His call. After living the life of the community in the novitiate (where the novice learns to understand the beauty of the vocation to the consecrated life, strives to cultivate virtue, develops and strengthens a deep prayer-love relationship with Jesus Christ, and is instructed in the manner of life of the particular community), the novice who freely desires to give herself entirely to the service of Our Lord and His Church and who has been approved by the community is permitted to make her first profession of the evangelical counsels. ​By this act of public profession, the Sister assumes the observance of Christ's poor, chaste, and obedient life according to the norms of the community into which she now incorporated. The Sister is consecrated to God through the ministry of the Church and she learns to combine her first duty of union with God with the resultant responsibility of living to further His kingdom. Clinging to God and the things of God through a deep life of prayer, she becomes fruitful in grace, bearing His very life to the souls in her care.
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"As the sister strives to be Mary's visible hands at work in the world, Mary communicates to her something of her own spirit, her strength of mind, and her courageous will."
~ MSSR Constitutions