Our Life of Prayer
A call to become a Schoenstatt Sister of Mary is a religious calling. It is a call to a profound life of faith, love of God. We are called to fulfill God’s will in our daily life. Fostering a deep life of prayer is indispensable for our vocation and helps to sustain our high degree of surrender.
An Atmosphere of Prayer
It is essential for us as a community to foster an atmosphere of prayer in our houses. We do this not only in our times of prayer, but also by observing periods of silence throughout the day. Amid the demands of our work and apostolate, our founder urged us to foster “the cloister of the heart.” He encouraged us to always remembering that our heart is a shrine. It is a place where God and Our Lady constantly wait for an encounter of love. By cultivating an uplifting atmosphere, we help to make such encounters with the divine a reality for one another.
Marian Prayer
Our prayer life is deeply Marian. The Blessed Mother is our example of prayer. Moreover, in our prayer we foster our covenant of love with her. We foster our attachment to the shrine, our favourite place to pray and be with God and our Blessed Mother. We have regular hours of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. We call this our “Marian guard of honour” as we want to love and adore Christ as Mary did. Daily we spend time in prayer with the father and founder of our community. His love for Mary enkindles our own hearts. All our community prayers, mostly composed by Father Kentenich, have a strong Marian element. Our day is filled with hymns of love and praise to the Blessed Mother.
Apostolic Prayer
Much of our time is spent on apostolic work. Our founder wanted this as we were created for the apostolate. However, he also emphasized the importance of quality times of prayer throughout the day. Prayer unites us with God and give us strength and energy for our daily tasks. The atmosphere we create in and around us through our life of prayer is in itself an apostolate!
This prayerful atmosphere helps to make our entire day a prayer. We adore God’s will and strive to live in union with him wherever we are and in all that we say and do.
We are surrounded by the values and goods of the world. What the present day world needs are people who radiate the presence of God and Mary and thereby make ‘heaven’ a tangible reality for others. We cannot give what we do not possess. In order to give others an experience of God’s presence, we must seek his presence in our own lives.
According to the words of Fr Kentenich, “We have to contribute to a life-stream which carries a religious atmosphere. This is an inconspicuous but exceedingly effective apostolate.”