a new semi-contemplative religious community of women
It is the Today of Our Lady
We are living in an era where we would greatly benefit from a voice of reason, consolation, and confident direction. Who better than a mother to console and counsel her children? Who better than a mother to teach us the lessons that will realign us to the Sacred Heart and His intentions for our times? Sr. Maria Kim-Ngan Bui had been in religious life for over twenty years when she felt an interior invitation to a more radical “yes” to the Lord. She discerned a call that could be summarized as the “Today” of Our Lady. The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Psalmist to pray and sing, “If today you hear His voice, harden not your heart,” also calls us to recognize the time in which we are living.
It is a time when Our Star of the Sea will be a sure and gentle mother to lead her dearest children through the storm to safe harbor—the Heart of Her Son.
The Church is in urgent need of contemplatives who will respond to the Lord’s voice to go out in search of the one who was once among the ninety-nine. Anyone looking on will wonder if the task is grave and perilous. Who better than Our Most Blessed Mother and Queen of Heaven and Earth to form, instruct, and guide us in her way of maturity, tenderness, and love?
Women who feel called to the Daughters of the Immaculata will feel a radical, intuitive attraction to living Total Consecration. They are generous and courageous women who will have attained a significant degree of mature femininity in Christ, and who have a courageous desire to follow our Lady into ever greater grounding, solidity, and mature femininity. Our Blessed Mother will give these women confidence in the Father’s abundant, provident love, and they will know the experience of which Saint Paul and Saint Maximilian Kolbe speak: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me through the Immaculata.”
The call to join a new group of women seeking to begin the stages of becoming a religious community is a very particular call that can only be received as a gift and sustained by a profound interior life that makes a woman more soberly courageous and mature by the grace of the Holy Spirit. She will have an interior knowing that our LORD will sustain her so long as she stays united to him. She will have a sense of self-possession while at the same time knowing that all her gifts were given to be lavishly spent on her Bridegroom and all that he desires of her at every present moment.
Called to live in and to proclaim the Today of Our Lady, we look to her to teach us how to live in that disponibility in the Spirit, which Saint Ignatius called discernment of spirits, and which we will pursue through the lens of Marian Fittingness. This Marian interior communion is our source from which we will know how and when to speak a good word to someone to draw them to the heart of the Church where Saint Paul says there is no spot, stain, or wrinkle.
The Daughters of the Immaculata were born at the foot of the Holy Cross, and the path forward can only be received with, through, and in our Immaculata, who always keeps vigil before her Son there. Our primary, and in a way our sole, apostolate—to console His Most Sacred Heart through our life of contemplation. Our sisters will receive everything from here and will give everything from here.
“What do you have that you have not been given?” —Saint Paul
“Freely you have received. Freely you are to give.” —Our Lord Jesus
Semi-contemplatives?
“‘Behold your mother’ (Jn 19:27). These words of Jesus from the holy cross are the north star of the Daughters of the Immaculata. We are spiritually born kneeling at the foot of Jesus’ holy cross with our Most Blessed Mother standing beside us calling us to purity of heart. We hear her say, ‘I am always here’ and respond by living in habitual communion of hearts “here.” We offer our whole lives as a response to the Father’s goodness and mercy in evangelical service, repentance, and intercession for those furthest from the heart of the Church or who have left her completely. Here, we say with the beloved disciple, ‘From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace’ (Jn 1:16).”
“We interiorly place ourselves in the lowest place especially at the Holy Sacrifice to call down the Father’s blessings with confidence His bounty reaches like a rush of water. He distributes freely and reaches even the lowest place—His place of rest.”
“Prayer is the foundation of our lives. Our fully/solemnly professed sisters will dedicate four to six hours of prayer in addition to the active life and prayer of the sisters. Therefore, the first apostolate of the Daughters of the Immaculata is to console Jesus’ Most Sacred Heart by gratefully receiving the Blessed Trinity’s love through repentance, reparation, intercession, and generous response marked by alacrity and disponibility, especially noting even God’s smallest invitations and gentlest whispers. We cultivate joyful confidence from our Lord that our life of contemplation draws down torrents of grace for all humanity.”
“Our formal hours of prayer transform the whole of our lives into continual prayer and discernment, that is dialog with God.”
Quoted text are excerpts from the working Statutes of the Daughters of the Immaculata
How will the sisters pray 4-6 hours a day in addition to the active life and prayer of the community?
Think of how many hours professional athletes and musicians spend practicing their craft. Through years of formation and discernment, the Daughters of the Immaculata will gradually learn to spend these many hours in prayer and to have very limited dedicated to other thins including the use of digital media. Although some sisters will collaborate with professionals to produce content for media, the community will guard our time for contemplation in joyful, discerning austerity.
What will the Sisters pray for these many hours?
Fully/solemnly professed sisters will be encouraged to spend these hours before Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. They will pray the full Rosary every day, meditate on the Readings of the day, and make examinations of conscience. Each Sister will be formed by our Lord and our Lady to pray following God’s desire. A spirit of alacrity, core to our identity, will enable the sisters to cultivate genuine cheerfulness and profoundly rooted joy.
Will the Sisters fast?
Since the Sisters are called, by the rule, to be the delight and glory of God, our fasting will be primarily adherence to the rule and our daily duties. We are to live in fittingness, and therefore our sisters will fast from something simple at each meal with prudence. Relatedly, the superior is entrusted with the care of the good health of the Sisters and the community, and she is responsible for granting permission for any extraordinary fast.
What will the active apostolate be?
The sisters will serve the needs of the local Church with attention to those who are furthest from Her heart. All the Sisters will be well-trained and capable of helping the local church in catechetical, teaching, and retreat capacities, but the Daughters of the Immaculata are firstly called to be prayer warriors for the local Church. Therefore, Daughters of the Immaculata will be bound to assiduously discern what our Blessed Mother desires her daughters to do within the charism.
How will the Sisters support themselves?
The Sisters will live on Divine Providence, but will live by the work Our Lady gives them to do. Generous, experienced benefactors are helping the Daughters of the Immaculata to wisely lay the foundations for a sustainable apostolate that will support their primary focus of hours spent in prayer and the needs of the community, both daily and for formation.
Will the Sisters wear habits?
Yes. We will firstly be obedient to the Church, and although we will petition to be able to wear the habit which Our Lady has gradually given, we will wait until our bishop gives us permission. The habit will facilitate our focus in prayer and be a daily reminder to the Sisters and those we serve that we are called to be the delight of the Heavenly Father.
Provide for the spiritual needs of her children
We are called to be prayer warriors and although some would be uncomfortable with such language, we are called in our Marian and Pauline Charism to not fight like we are shadow boxing because the reward for knowing and following Our Lord Jesus is so great and glorious and the converse is contrary to human flourishing. Therefore we take passages like this one from Our Lord Jesus to Saint Faustina to be like clarion calls to our Sisters who follow in the great line of women disciples of Jesus after Our Lady’s own Immaculate Heart: “But child, you are not yet in your homeland; so go, fortified by My grace, and fight for My kingdom in human souls; fight as a king’s child would; and remember that the days of your exile will pass quickly, and with them the possibility of earning merit for heaven. I expect from you, My child, a great number of souls who will glorify My mercy for all eternity.”
— Saint Faustina’s Diary (1489)
Horarium
3-7 am Possible time for prayer before the Most Blessed Sacrament
6:30 am Morning Prayer/Lauds & Mass
7:30 am End of Grand Silence with Breakfast
8:30 am Active apostolate, personal prayer, study, and lunch
6:00 pm Evening Prayer/Vespers
6:15 pm Supper & Recreation
7:00 pm Beginning of Grand Silence
7-10 pm Possible time for prayer before the Most Blessed Sacrament