Different communities of sisters have various times and styles of prayer. As Daughters of Saint Paul, we have a rich and full prayer life centered on the Eucharist and nurtured by daily prayer with the Word of God. Our Pauline prayer fosters a spirit of recollection and contemplation that gives a solid foundation for our active mission.

Our Daily Prayer

We start each morning with a half hour meditation on the Word of God, and we gather together daily for morning and evening prayer. Like Mary, Christ's Mother and first disciple, we ponder God’s Word in our hearts. All of our prayer revolves around Scripture.

Eucharistic prayer is truly the center of our day. We participate at Mass and make a daily hour of Eucharistic adoration. Our Founder used to call the hour of adoration “our Visit with Jesus,” because he wanted it to be deeply personal and intimate prayer. We also have the gift of an additional half-hour of personal prayer before Jesus in the Eucharist.

At other times, we have opportunities to deepen our recollection and our discipleship of the Master: in our spiritual reading, study, and times set apart for silence. Every month, we make a daylong retreat, and every year a week-long annual retreat.

Too Much Prayer?

If you add up all the times listed above, you'd see that every Daughter of Saint Paul dedicates about three hours to prayer each day. If someone isn't used to it, all of this time for prayer might seem boring or overwhelming. And some days, prayer times might be more challenging, especially if we are tired! But most of us treasure the time for prayer. After all, our strength, inspiration, energy and joy come from the Lord! There can be no such thing as too much prayer, because prayer is simply an expression of our relationship with God.

In addition, with all the demands of daily life and our media mission, it is in our prayer that we receive from Jesus the grace and inspiration to respond to the needs of the people we meet. Kneeling before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we bring the sorrows and confusion of the world to our Divine Master. Our Founder often reminded us that the privilege of participating in our mission is so great that we should “do our apostolate on our knees.”

Throughout the day, each sister finds ways to remember to lift her mind and heart to God, even amid our media apostolate and household tasks. The cheery tone of a text message can remind us to make an act of love to Jesus; a computer crashing can be an occasion to ask our patron Saint Paul for help; sister-artists pray to the Holy Spirit to inspire their designs and drawings. Prayer is an essential, vital part of our lives and mission.