Eevery January, the Church in the United States calls the faithful to prayer and action for two urgent prayer intentions:
- the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 17-25) culminating in the liturgical Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25; and
- the Pray for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, centering on the March for Life on January 22nd, the annual non-violent public protest against Roe vs. Wade the U.S. Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion America in 1973.
Missionary Contemplatives
Our missionary contemplative sisters are found in nine monasteries around the world (Argentina, Peru, Brazil, USA, Holland, Spain, Italy (2), and Ukraine). While all the contemplative sisters pray daily for the needs of the Universal Church and for our missionaries, each monastic community is also dedicated to a special prayer intention as part of their mission.
We wished to highlight the two whose missions correspond with the great prayer intentions and call to action that we are facing this week in the Church in the United States, and invite our readers to share their prayer intentions with these sisters!
The Monastery of Blessed Gabriella della Unita: Prayer for the Unity of All Christians in Italy
Founded in 1996, the Monastery of Blessed Gabriella of Unity is located among the agricultural fields of Pontina, a rural area of the Province of Latina 100 km south of Rome.
Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela, IVE, our founder, wished for one of our contemplative monasteries to take on the prayer for Christian Unityespecially under the patronage of Bl. Gabriella of Unity (1914-1939). She was proposed as an example and model of spiritual ecumenism by His Holiness John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint (“That they may all be one”).
Vatican page of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
More about the monastery on the Italian website.
Send the sisters a prayer intention: mon.gabrielladellunita@servidoras.org
The Monastery of St. Gianna Berretta Molla: Pro-Life Monastery in Brazil
Originally founded in 1997, and then temporarily closed until its reopening in 2009, the Monastery of St. Gianna Beretta Molla is dedicated to praying for human life in each individual and in the family, supernatural life as well as natural life, praying for those who work against life, in particular those who promote abortion, interceding for their conversion. The sisters seek in this way to give witness to love for life in all its healthy manifestations.
Official Site for the Annual March for Life in Washington, DC
More about the monastery on the Brazilian website.
Send the sisters a prayer intention: mon.giannaberettamolla@servidoras.org
Visit our Catholic Culture Social Doctrine page “Promoting a Culture of Life”
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