Like our Blessed Mother, who conceived Jesus beneath her heart at the Annunciation and immediately “went in haste to the hill country” to serve her elderly cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, Sisters of Life first must receive Jesus in the Eucharist before they can begin their work on behalf of vulnerable human life. It is Jesus living in us who gives joy and hope to those weary and worn with fear.

Our lives are profoundly Eucharistic. In the Eucharist, we find Mercy Himself at our mercy, vulnerable to all. We find the Word silent in a culture that equates communication with value, hidden in a culture that deifies the tangible, faceless in a culture that longs for recognition. Our faith in His Presence in the Eucharist helps us to discern His presence in every human life, even, and especially when that life is vulnerable, silent, hidden or diminished in any way.

All of our common prayer is prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, and we pray a daily, common Eucharistic Holy Hour that includes the Rosary, 45 minutes of meditation and Vespers.

The Sisters pray with Elizabeth of the Visitation, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Without Mary, none of us would be able to give ourselves to Jesus to the degree we desire. She is our model of self-giving, joy-filled love, our hope of promises fulfilled, and the mother of our souls. She is always there for us, leading us without fear deeper into the heart of Jesus, into the heart of Life.

Four hours a day is spent in common prayer (see horarium). Sisters also spend time each day in spiritual reading. All the convents reserve each Friday and one Sunday a month as prayer days spent in silence with extended hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

DAILY SCHEDULE

Though apostolic needs may require local convents to re-arrange the general horarium below, all houses follow this outline:

5:00 am Rise
5:30 am Common Prayer - Office of Readings/ Morning Prayer/ Meditation
6:45 am Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
7:30 am Breakfast (silent with reading)
dishes
8:30 am-12:00 noon Apostolate (common silence kept)
12:00 noon Midday prayer

12:30 pm Lunch (silence broken)
dishes
1:30- 2:30 pm Personal recreation
2:30 - 5:00 pm Apostolate
5:00 pm Eucharistic Holy Hour - Rosary/ 45 minute meditation/ Vespers
6:45 pm Supper (silent with reading)
dishes
7:30 pm Community recreation
8:15 pm Compline
Grand Silence after Compline