Visitatio
An Intentional Community
We are made for communion: with God and with one another. Flowing from this conviction, community is at the heart of Mary and Elizabeth and the other apostolates associated with St. Paul Institute. It is both the source and the fruit of our mission.
Our missionaries have formed an intentional community known as Visitatio. This is Latin for “Visitation,” making reference to the time Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke. Visitatio is a community of intentionally chaste women who are sacrificially committed to one another and a common way of life, witnessing to Christ.
They endeavour to create an immersive culture of Christian sisterhood which rejoices in the salvific mystery the Lord is working in each woman’s life, as witnessed in Luke 1:39-56. Centered around prayer and a communal life which seeks to emulate the virtues found in the mystery of the Visitation, this culture forms a potent environment that awakens faith in Christ, brings it to maturity, and hopefully fosters in every woman who encounters it, a proclamation of her Magnificat for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
Visit Us
Our communal life is held together by the thread of a “plan of love.” This plan is one of loving God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Practically this looks like sacred times and places where we meet to pray, work, and be with one another on a daily basis. This thread when lived in love weaves together the culture Visitatio strives to create which awakens faith, brings to maturity, and assists us and those who join us in giving their Fiat and proclaiming their Magnificat.
We meet for prayer at 6:20 am and 6:20 pm cst Monday – Saturday, and we encourage any woman to join us at the St. Joseph House, our place of communal prayer. We pray the Liturgy of the Hours, the rosary, a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, and participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass together.
Monday – Saturday at 6:40 pm we gather for a communal meal at the adjacent Mary and Elizabeth House of Prayer and Formation. We invite women to join us for this time of shared meal and community.
We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. “We know Him in the breaking of the bread, and we know each other in the breaking of the bread — we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship. We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.
Taco Tuesday!
On Tuesdays we invite women 18 – 35 to join us for gratis tacos! Tacos, community, and enjoyment – we want to get to know you! Join us for a relaxed evening of praying the Liturgy of the Hours together followed by authentic recreation with conversation, food, and fun. Beginning January 2023.
