The Dominican Friars live an apostolic life inspired by the common life and preaching of the first Apostles. As cloistered Dominican Nuns, we look to Mary, Queen of Apostles, to exemplify for us a life of prayer and contemplation at the heart of the Holy Preaching of both the Order and the Church.
It was through Our Lady’s fiat that the Word became flesh, and through her prayer in the midst of the Apostles that He sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church. In a similar way, our fidelity to God’s call and attentiveness to His Word enables Him to become present in the world, and our life of prayer and penance calls down many graces for the salvation of souls.
This contemplative way of life is all the more difficult today, in a world increasingly materialistic and media-saturated, yet all the more necessary. Who will dedicate her life exclusively to praise and glorify God? Who will spend herself completely in union with Christ for the salvation of souls? This is our life; this is at the heart of the Church.
The image to the left is the tall, thin side panel of a triptych by our Dominican painter, Blessed John of Fiesole, known as Fra Angelico. Mary and the Apostles gather in prayer on the porch of an octagonal building representing the Church. As the Holy Spirit descends on them in power, Mary remains in prayer while the Apostles begin to preach to the men below, who represent the Jews and Greeks outside the Church. The intersection of the door with the outstretched hands of the men shows the nearness of their entry into that union with God to be found, with Mary, at the heart of the Church.