202-543-1179
Immaculate Heart of Mary Juniorate
1326 Quincy Street NE
Washington, DC 20017
Washington, D.C. | Juniorate House of Studies
With the first profession of vows sisters enter the Juniorate House of Studies, a three year period of formation in which they will build a greater love and knowledge of community life, the pursuit of truth, missionary work, and a life of prayer according to our Religious Family’s way of life. This time of formation aims to strengthen fidelity to their profession to follow Christ so that each religious can live her consecration to the full, in the specific mission that the Church has entrusted to her. We have Juniorate Houses in Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Italy, USA, the Philippines, and Egypt. The Immaculate Heart of Mary Juniorate (USA) was opened in 2001.
“I make an offering to God of my whole being, so that my life may be a living memory of the way of existing and acting of Jesus, the Word made flesh.” – Constitutions, 254.
Community Life and a Life of Prayer
We seek to live an intense community life to be formed in the evangelical counsels and human virtues perfectly modeled by Christ. Moments of greater community include meals, recreation, and sports. “The beauty and riches of fraternal life in common are much greater than the difficulties that it entails: How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! (Ps 133:1).” (Const., 91) The community is founded, above all, on an intense spiritual life: daily Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Liturgy of the Hours, weekly confession, weekly chapter, daily Rosary, the Angelus, the Way of the Cross, and other devotions.
Our Studies
Formation in the Juniorate is characterized by studies of Philosophy, History, Languages, and Theology. Here, we spend much of our day dedicated to intellectual growth. Our studies seek the synthesis of faith and reason through contact with Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium of the Church, and the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas: “We do not content ourselves with a superficial knowledge of Philosophy and Theology incapable of understanding in all its depth the contemporary drama of atheism and therefore incapable of giving remedy.” (Const., 259)
Apostolates
Juniorate sisters serve in various apostolates on the weekends as a part of their formation. In order to evangelize the culture, our sisters are involved with the teaching, oratory, and catechism programs at various parishes; the formation of young adults; preaching through works of charity for the sick and the elderly; and spreading the Word through the publication of books. Our apostolates include the following:
Teaching/Catechism/Oratory for Children
John Baptist de La Salle, Chillum, MD (IVE parish)
James, Mt. Rainier, MD (IVE parish)
Jerome’s Academy, Hyattsville, MD
Other DC/MD are parishes
Young Adult and University Outreach
George Washington University, Washington, DC,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Voces Verbi Young Adult Group
Visiting the Sick and Elderly in Nursing Homes
Publication Work with IVE Press
Various Other Apostolates throughout the Year and the Province
Our Co-Patrons
Immaculate Heart of Mary
This devotion, dating back to the 13th century, found a greater confirmation in the 1917 apparitions at Fatima, in which she promised, “My Immaculate Heart will triumph.” In 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an act which St. John Paul II renewed in communion with all the bishops of the world on March 25, 1984. Mary’s heart is the symbol of her boundless love for God and human kind. Thus, in the Immaculate Heart of Mary we also honor her inner life, her virtues, her perfect purity, her boundless humility, her affections and her sorrow.
St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
Thérèse entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux to give her whole life to God at the age of fifteen. Living a hidden life, a hiddenness which the Juniorate sister imitates, she was gifted with great intimacy with God. Through sickness and purifications, she remained faithful to God, rooted in His merciful love. After a long struggle with tuberculosis, she died on September 30, 1897, at the age of twenty-four. Her last words were the story of her life: “My God, I love You!”
“Then opening the Gospels, my eyes fell on these words: ‘Jesus, going up into a mountain, called unto Him whom He would Himself.’(Mk 3:13) They threw a clear light upon the mystery of my vocation and of my entire life, and above all upon the favors which Our Lord has granted to my soul. He does not call those who are worthy, but those whom He will. As St. Paul says: ‘God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.’” –St. Therese, Story of a Soul
