Charism Statement

​In union with Mary, Mother of the Church,
we strive to magnify Jesus Christ, her Divine Son,
by communicating the Beauty, Goodness, and Truth of the Catholic Faith
in a spirit of joyful evangelization
​through living the fullness of the Church’s liturgical life.

Our spirituality can be described as Ecclesial, Eucharistic, and Marian.
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ECCLESIAL
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​As daughters of the Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ, we endeavor to live our lives with Mary Ex Corde Ecclesiae – at the heart of the Church. As in our physical bodies the heart, though unseen to others, circulates blood to the entire body giving it life and vitality, so charity is the unseen heart of the Church, its vital source.  St. Therese of Lisieux described her vocation thus, “I will be love in the heart of the Church!” “Where Peter is, there is the Church” (St. Ambrose).  We manifest our allegiance to the Successor of St. Peter, Christ's Vicar on earth by striving to study, obey, and promote the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church.  We offer daily prayer and sacrifice for Our Holy Father, the Bishops, and the clergy of the world.
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EUCHARISTIC
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​The Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of the Church's life and mission, is at the heart of our religious life. In a Marian spirit of faith and loving adoration, our day centers around the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the presence of Jesus Christ hidden in the Sacrament of His Love. As a community we daily offer a holy hour of adoration and reparation in a special way for priests and priestly vocations.
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MARIAN
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To live more perfectly our baptismal vocation from which springs our call to religious life, we consecrate ourselves entirely to Mary Immaculate using the method of St. Louis Marie de Montfort.  Our practice of total consecration to Jesus through Mary is an imitation of Christ's relationship with His Mother.  Since Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, chose to come into this world through Mary, we follow His example of loving dependence upon her whom He chose to call Mother.  We take Mary as our model and our way to Jesus, and seek each day to make our consecration a lived reality
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​“In all we say and do we strive to be Mary’s image in the world –
​her loving heart, her face, her hands, her voice – to all our brothers and sisters in Christ.”
- MSSR Constitution
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Our desire as faithful daughters of the Church is to live and love at the heart of the Church. This is, in part, lived out through our charism of living the fullness of the Church's liturgical life. When our Holy Father Emeritus Benedict XVI issued the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and accompanying letter to the Bishops ten years ago, he envisioned that the peaceful mutual enrichment of the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite would be "an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church."
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We have the privilege of participating in both Forms of the Roman (or Latin) Rite in our chapel several times a week, and it is our honor to provide the choir for the Extraordinary Form High Mass at the Cathedral each Sunday. Our communal understanding of the both Forms of our Latin liturgy enables us to appreciate and share the full richness of this key aspect of the Church's life. We strive in all our apostolates to give the traditions of the Church their "proper place" while living fully present in our current age.
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"When you shall see a soul leave all things to adhere to the Word with all her strength, live by Him, allow herself to be guided by Him... a soul, in short, who can say: for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, then you can indubitably recognize her for a spouse of the Word."  
- St. Bernard

Our consecration as religious women is most beautifully expressed and summed up by the three primary relationships in our life: Daughter, Spouse, Mother. ​

​DAUGHTER
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"I am a daughter of the Church." ~ St. Teresa of Avila

We share St. Teresa's ardent love of Holy Mother Church and strive to live each day as faithful daughters of the Church. Entering into our charism to "communicate the Beauty, Goodness, and Truth of the Catholic faith by living the fullness of the Church's liturgical life," each Sister strives to personally integrate and live the richness of the Church's liturgy, prepared at all times to share of this treasury with the souls in her care. Confident in His promise to remain with His Church until the end and His guiding gift of the Holy Spirit, she faithfully teaches the beautiful truths that her Spouse has entrusted to His Holy Church.

Mary, Mother of the Church and our Mother, share ​with us your great love for Christ and His Church!

​SPOUSE
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"The nuptial dimension belongs to the whole Church, but consecrated life is a vivid​ image​ of it, since it more clearly expresses the impulse towards the Bridegroom." - Verbi Sponsa

Her public vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience bind the Sister to following Christ's life most closely, but more importantly, they bind her to the Person of Christ in a spousal relationship. This relationship is at the heart of her consecration and the source of her personal sanctification. In quiet contemplation, in the sacrifice of self for souls in the apostolate, in the joy of community celebrations, in the sorrows of human life, in the sufferings particular to her call, the Sister is united with her Spouse in His prayer, His sacrifice, His joys, His suffering for our sins. From this union the Sister derives the graces she needs to personally grow in holiness and the grace to be fruitful in His vineyard.
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"I gave myself to Love Divine, and Oh! my lot so changed is, that my Beloved One is mine and I at last am surely His!”  
- St. Teresa of Avila

​MOTHER 
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“There is a need for people able to show... the motherly face of the Church, people who spend their lives so that others can have life and hope. The Church needs consecrated persons who, even before committing themselves to the service of this or that noble cause, allow themselves to be transformed by God's grace and ​conform themselves fully to the Gospel”
-Vita Consecrata, 105

As a faithful daughter of the Church and Spouse of Christ, the Sister is impelled by love to cherish in her heart each of the souls He has created, holding them as her spiritual children whether they are known to her or not. She carries them before His throne each day in the liturgy of the Church and strives to share His Person and His Truth clearly and lovingly with the souls entrusted to her particular care. It is through her intimate relationship with Christ, her Divine Bridegroom, that the Sister is enabled to bring forth divine life in the children He has given her.

As an extension of our liturgical charism, our maternal love, prayer, and support is particularly extended to Christ among us in His priests. Without the priest, we cannot encounter our love-offered Spouse at Calvary in the Mass and our relationship to the Church would be incomplete. Our primary support of our priests is given through our life of prayer and hidden sacrifices offered for Christ, His Church, and in a special way, His priests. Each Sister gives to the priests she encounters and works with the respect and assistance that is in her ability to give as an act of loving reverence to Christ. 
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May Our Lady keep our priests very near to the ​ Heart of her Divine Son, the Eternal High Priest!
“I take thee for my all, give me thy Heart, O Mary!”

Our charism (to joyfully communicate the Beauty, Goodness and Truth of the Catholic faith while living the fullness of the Church’s liturgical life) is imbued with a profound Marian spirit. In striving every day and every moment to live more fully our consecration “to Jesus through Mary” according to the method of St. Louis de Montfort, we allow our Blessed Mother to accompany us through the day – to act through us, to pray, rejoice, suffer and serve through us.  Truly, she gives us a share in the immense maternal and virginal love for God and others that unceasingly burns within her own Immaculate Heart. In turn, we strive to mirror her to the world – to share her tender love and grace with all we meet.

The way to Jesus, the way to holiness, is then a profoundly simple but sure way. What is required of us is that same childlike surrender and love-filled dependence upon Mary our Mother that Jesus Himself had upon her from His conception in her womb and throughout His life, particularly during His hidden life in Nazareth.  

This Marian spirit informs our entire life, even the smallest seemingly unimportant actions or each day.  Through, in, and with our Heavenly Mother all is transformed into Divine Love. On special community days and Marian feasts we renew our total consecration using St. Louis’ complete prayer, while each day we renew it by praying this prayer which succinctly expresses our Marian spirit:
Mary, my Mother,
Live in me, act in me,
Speak in and through me.
Think your thoughts in my mind.
Love through my heart.
Give me your dispositions and feelings.
Teach, lead, and guide me to Jesus.
Correct, enlighten, and expand my thoughts and behavior.
Possess my soul.
Take over my entire personality and life.
Replace it with yourself.
Incline me to constant adoration and thanksgiving.
Pray in me and through me; let me live in you, 
And keep me in this union always. Amen.