Community life calls us to be a real family. We draw strength from meditating on the love of Mary and Elizabeth in the joyful mystery of the Visitation. Our older Sisters share their experience and wisdom with our younger sisters, through their life of joy and simplicity.
In a spirit of generosity and gratitude to God, we share our gifts in community and in self-giving service. This giftedness is expressed in our work, which includes monastic tasks such as gardening, manual labor, cooking, and working in the Refectory, Sacristy, Retreat area, and Infirmary. There are also many other opportunities to be creative and to use the skills that God has given us. Encouragement and appreciation are ways that we help one another discover these unique gifts.
At mealtime we are nourished not only physically but spiritually, as we listen to the writings of our great Catholic saints and authors. This helps us live more fully our prayer life and community life, in following their examples and inspirations.
Daily recreation allows us to grow in our relationships with one another, as we come together in a family spirit, enjoying wholesome relaxation. Our Holy Mother, St. Jane de Chantal, desired that in our recreations and conversations, we would act in goodness, simplicity, and innocence, and that we should converse together joyously and cordially sharing together our thoughts on the holy things we have learned or the thoughts which occur on the different things that happen. She wanted us to speak in holy freedom of spirit, having no constraint or fear of anything but of displeasing God, whom we wish to please by our free and innocent recreations.
Prayer
Our life is a life of prayer. The celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the heart of our community life in Christ. We chant and recite the Liturgy of the Hours, traditionally known as the Divine Office, five times a day in our Choir. As contemplatives, we nourish our times of monastic solitude and silence with personal prayer, Meditation, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and praying the Holy Rosary, all of which help nourish our inner lives as we grow in union with God. Our Horarium helps us foster this intimate union:
Rising Time – Between 5:00 and 5:30 am
Meditation – 5:45 or 6:00 am
Morning Prayer – 6:45 or 7:00 am
Mass – 7:15 or 7:30 am (followed by breakfast)
(On Saturdays, Mass is at 8:00 am and on Sundays, at 9:00 am)
Manual Work – 9:00 am – 11:00
Office of Readings – 11:30 am (followed by dinner and Recreation)
Midday Prayer – 1:05 pm
Rest, Spiritual Reading, Private Devotions, Creative Work – 1:30 pm
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament – 4:00 pm
Rosary* – 4:40 pm or 4:25PM
Evening Prayer – 5:10 pm
Supper -5:45 or 6:00 pm (followed by Recreation)
Night Prayer – 8:00 pm
(*The Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet may be prayed privately or together in the Choir)
The Spiritual Directory, handed down to us by our Founder, gives us continual guidance in living our life of prayer and sacrifice in the Church. We are also fed spiritually by the many inspirational writings of St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church, and St. Jane de Chantal, our Holy Mother. Their Letters and Conferences address every human situation and inspire us to choose the way of virtue in our daily lives. Along with Scripture, the lives of the Saints, and the works of the Early Church Fathers, our Salesian Spirituality of gentleness, humility, patience, and simplicity changes the hearts and lives of people in every walk of life.
The Visitation Nuns hold a treasure that we’d like to bequeath to you. The Lord Jesus has entrusted His Sacred Heart to our Order in a special way through the revelations made to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial, France. Our riches are the virtues that flow from His Heart into ours, especially His gentleness, humility and simplicity. One of the ways in which we invite others to take part in this devotion is by celebrating a Novena of Masses in preparation for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our Chapel is filled with people expressing their love, faith, and trust in Our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart.
The Brooklyn Diocese’s new Apostolate of the Sacred Heart is re-establishing the Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart/Hour of Presence within the Diocese. The Brooklyn Visitation Monastery has been designated as the Diocesan Center for the Guard of Honor.
Our Federation’s video highlights the history of the Sacred Heart devotion : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Qb7IyiR08
Meditate on liturgical artworkwork depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus: http://visitationspirit.org/2013/06/our-new-video-of-the-visitation-museum-sacred-heart-exhibit/
United as a Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart, we offer up our prayers and sacrifices as we strive to continue His Life in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Our hope is to entrust our cherished, spiritual inheritance to prayerful women who will generously accept the call to live our contemplative monastic life.