United with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles seek above all else, a life of union with God in prayer as guided by the Rule of St. Benedict. Totally consecrated to the Queen of Apostles, these women take Our Lady's hidden life at Ephesus as an inspiration for their own. They seek to be what she was for the early Church: a loving and prayerful support to the Apostles, the first priests, and daily offer prayer and sacrifice for the sake of her spiritual sons.
These days when I am homebound with these preemie babies, I find prayerful inspiration in the lives of the consecrated religious who eschew the ways of the world for a hidden life of prayer, devotion, and service. The world often misunderstands those who forego the social or outgoing or utilitarian path, and yet our Church values both the active and the contemplative forms of religious vocation. Increasingly, my vocation has led me toward a newfound hermitage sensibility and introversion.
God has set a heavy responsibility on my heart and life with these little children, and I want to do God's will with a fixed determination and devotedness that requires a kind of whittling away of all of the extraneous, all of my own selfish pursuits, everything that I might have crafted out of my own desires or my own personal accord. These days, I am at home, hidden, quiet to the world, and devoted to the domestic apostolate that God has placed before my family and me.
Ora et Labora, Ora et Labora, Ora et Labora. This prescription leaves very little time for any other pursuits. I am trying today to envision my life as a form of consecration, a life of union with God in hidden prayer not unlike our Lady and as guided by the Rule of St. Benedict similar to these beautiful women, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. Thanks be to God!
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