God Alone
SSVM Contemplative Spirituality
“Our nuns will consecrate their lives to contemplate and to live the mystery of the Incarnate Word in the maximum expression of his self-emptying, which is the cross. This will move them to give everything and to give themselves over completely, thus demonstrating that there is no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s brothers and sisters.”
— SSVM Monastic Rule, 6
The contemplatives of our congregation live according to the general principles of contemplative life given by the Church and those found in the spirituality and writing of the great Doctor of the Church, St. Teresa of Jesus.
Freely withdrawing from the world “for the sake of leading a more intense life of prayer in solitude is nothing other than a very particular way of living and expressing the paschal mystery of Christ, which is death ordained toward resurrection.” (Verbi Sponsa: Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns, 3)
This life is one of the fundamental structures of the Holy Church because their hidden life supports the Church’s missionary work.
God Alone
They “dedicate themselves solely to God in solitude and silence, in assiduous prayer and generous penance… [and] they always maintain an eminent position in the Mystical Body of Christ, in which not all the members carry out the same function, no matter how pressing the needs of the active apostolate may be.”
— Perfectae Caritatis, 7
The Liturgy: the Opus Dei
The contemplative life cannot be sustained without a profound life of liturgical prayer. The Divine Office, or the Liturgy of the Hours, “is the prayer par excellence, because it is the work of God, carried out together with Christ and in his Name through the Church” (SSVM Monastic Rule, 34). The sisters sing all of the liturgical hours in the traditional style of Gregorian chant.
Contemplatives of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word
Our contemplative sisters share in the apostolic work of our Religious Family by their life of prayer and penance – they are the “keystone”, on the front-lines, of all the apostolic endeavors of our Institute.
They consecrate their lives especially for the sanctification of priests and priestly vocations of our religious family and of all the Church and in a particular way for the Holy Father.
“Within our communities and also within the heart of our religious family, they will endeavor to benefit all by their own dedication, which must be solidly anchored in the most essential elements, that is, the Church’s faith, the spirituality of the religious family, Christian ethics and the celebration of the Christian mysteries.”
— SSVM Monastic Rule, 141
For women interested in discerning the contemplative life within our Institute, there is the possibility of visiting our contemplative community, sharing in moments of prayer, work, and community life with the sisters. For more information contact:
Mother Pia Mater, SSVM
Director of Contemplative Vocations
E-mail: m.piamater@servidoras.org
Tel: (347) 446-5981
