Following Christ in Our Daily Life & Charism
To Follow Christ
When a young woman enters the monastery, she is responding to the invitation of Jesus Christ to leave all and follow Him. She embraces our way of life, shaped by the monastic experience of centuries and the charism of our Holy Father St. Dominic, in order to give herself totally to God for the salvation of souls.
This response to God’s call continues for each of us throughout the course of our religious life, as we give ourselves to Him simply and joyfully through the observances of our life. Day by day, month by month, year by year, the life forms each of us every more deeply into Dominican contemplative nuns, fruitfully pondering the Word in union with Mary for the salvation of souls.
When St. Dominic founded the first monasteries of his cloistered daughters, he drew on over 800 years of monastic tradition in determining the elements of our religious life, along with his own particular charism as religious founder. To follow Christ more closely in the specific path of St. Dominic is the purpose of our Dominican contemplative life.
Our Horarium
The rhythm of the monastic life carries us ever deeper (or higher!) in our following of Christ through the spiral movement of the days and weeks, seasons and years. Sometimes our days are filled with unexpected happenings, but most days follow the horarium below.
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5:00 am Rise
Angelus and Marian Consecration5:40am | Begin Eucharistic Adoration
5:40am | Office of Readings and Lauds (Morning Prayer)
Private Prayer7:00am | Terce (Midmorning Prayer)
7:30am | Holy Mass (see Chapel Schedule for complete current Mass times)
Thanksgiving after Mass
Breakfast9:00am | Work Period
11:25am | Sext (Midday Prayer)
Community Rosary
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12 Noon | Angelus
Dinner1:00 pm | Recreation
2:00pm | Profound Silence
Spiritual Reading and Rest Period3:00pm | None (Midafternoon Prayer)
Private Prayer4:00pm | Work Period (also Study)
Novitiate Classes
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6:00pm | Angelus
Vespers (Evening Prayer)6:25 pm | Conclude Eucharistic Adoration
6:30pm | Supper
7:30pm | Recreation
8:30pm | Compline (Night Prayer)
Profound Silence10:00pm | Retire
The Following of Christ
What animates the various activities of our horarium? The love for God and souls which we live out in our Dominican charism. In the pages below, learn more about the elements that inform our Dominican contemplative life.
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Dominican
Learn more about the zeal for souls that motivates our life, the common life that shapes it, and the vows that consecrate every moment as worship of God.
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Cloistered
Learn more about the meaning of enclosure, and the contemplative life of prayer it is meant to foster.
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Liturgical
Learn more about our liturgical worship and the centrality of the Word of God in our life through lectio divina and study of sacred truth.
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Marian
Learn more about the fervent Marian devotion that permeates our life through the Perpetual Rosary and our Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary, as well as about other Dominican devotions.
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Monastic
Learn more about some of the ancient monastic practices that shape such basic elements of our daily life as work, silence, meals, and rest, and order them towards God.