Benedictine of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Benedictine of Perpetual Adoration – Sister Marie-Annonciade of the Angels, O.S.Bap.                      of the Blessed Sacrament                                                                                                                                                    Benedictinae ab Adoratione Perpetua Sanctissimi Sacramenti                        †The first society formally organized for the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament†                                                “May God be glorified in everything.”                                                                                           A sacrificial victim soul for God in the Blessed Sacrament

Foundress:  Servant of God, Mother Mechtilde of the Blessed Sacrament  ( Catherine de Bar )       ( formerly Sister Catherine of St. John the Evangelist in the Order of the Annunciation )

Place:  Paris, France (first convent);  Lviv, Ukraine (second convent)

Year:  March 25, 1653 A.D. (first convent);  1715 A.D. (second convent)

Her Charism:  This contemplative nun is fascinated by Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.  She lives in strict enclosure according to the Rules and principles of St. Benedict of Nursia: Ora et Labora (“Pray and Work”).  She is Christ-centered in every detail of her life which is imbued with the glorification of God, prayerful study of the Holy Scriptures and Lectio Divina (spiritual reading).  Apart from prayer, the role in this Benedictine’s life is played by charity, virtue, and work (mental and physical) because “idleness is the enemy of the soul.”  Much like the Eucharistic Host, she is hidden, enclosed, silent, obedient, and abandoned to the Will of another Who is is God the Father.                  With Our Lady as Mother Who is the loveliest masterpiece of God, model, and guardian of her faithfulness and dedication, she consecrates her heart and her life to the Eucharist in the spirit of reparation for sins, and for the indifference, ingratitude, lack of reverence, and for the insults inflicted on her son, Jesus Christ, in the Blessed Sacrament.  Steeped in Sacred Scripture and liturgical tradition, and bound by vow, with a mentality of spiritual maternity this nun embraces the world and pleads for mercy and salvation for those who have departed from God and prays for those who do not want to pray.  In her heart she firmly believes that in every sinner, Jesus empties Himself.  Every morning before the conventual Mass, she places herself in the middle of the choir with a torch in her hand and a symbolic rope around her neck, and kneeling down before her other Sisters says: “Praised and adored be forever the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.  My dear Sisters, remember that we are consecrated to God as victims to repair the outrages and profanations constantly committed against the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.”   She then spends the day in silent retreat baking hosts, painting icons, and making rosaries and candles until Vespers.  Hers is a quiet life of joy, simplicity, focus, fraternal spirit, and peace combined with suffering, disappointment, and self-sacrifice.  It is a life committed to rejuvenating monasticism with Perpetual Adoration;     a life which takes a mystical and ascetic path to provide for others the divine power of the Resurrection in the midst of death; a life which corresponds to a contemporary yearning for a personal transforming encounter with the Face of God.