PRO LABORE DEI SISTERS
CONSECRATED
VIRGINS LIVING IN THE WORLD
We are young ladies who come to consecrate and to
dedicate our lives entirely to God serving Him in the suffering poor/destitute.
We give up father, mother, brothers, sisters, husbands, children, wealth, land
to follow and model our lives after Christ in a spirit of poverty, simplicity,
virginity and absolute obedience to God for the sake of His kingdom.
We go
through formal spiritual formation. We are then
solemnly consecrated through a liturgical rite to a life of virginity in the
world according to the Code of Canon Law as set out below-
Can.
604 §1 the
order of virgins is also to be added to these forms of consecrated life. Through
their pledge to follow Christ more closely, virgins are consecrated to God,
mystically espoused to Christ and dedicated to the service of the Church,
when the diocesan Bishop consecrates them according to the approved
liturgical rite.
§2
Virgins can be associated together
to fulfil
their pledge more faithfully, and to assist each other to serve the Church
in a way that befits their state.
Our chastity
and freedom from worldly attachments free us to love our spouse (Jesus Christ)
more fully in the poor. Thus we live in the world in order to be more closely in
touch with our poor and to reach out freely to them whenever and wherever needed
but we are not of the world in essence.
We are not bound to live in community with one another
but we do live in common as
a community of Christ disciples striving for perfection through observing the
statute of Pro Labore Dei. We are Sisters to one another, to the poor and
to the members of the community in which we live and work.
The poor, the orphans, whom we serve, the volunteer members-married and
unmarried may form a community around us as we live and work with them, praying
together, sharing all things in common as their states of life can permit; in a
mutual bond of love and in common belief that God is our Father, We are His
people, He is our God. His covenant of faithful love covers us and binds us
together in charity.
PRO LABORE DEI SISTERS
AND LAY MEMBERS
We live our lives in the ordinary conditions of the world and we operate
schools, health clinics and our spirit is missionary:
The mission of Christ. “The spirit of
the Lord is upon me. He sent me to bring good news to the poor…” (Luke
4:18; Is. 61:1).
Wherever the poor/destitute are, there we go - the highways and byways, within
the city, outside the city, within the boundaries of our nation and beyond, into
the slums and down the ‘ghettoes’. We are Christ bearers – giving birth to
Christ for the poorest of the poor in loving charity. We preach the gospel in
action in a spirit of self-sacrificing love for the rejected, underprivileged of
society, the suffering poor (corporal and spiritual).
We pass through a period of formation. Our dress at various stages remains as
prescribed by the Lord in His messages
As a Pro Labore Dei consecrated virgin ,our model is Christ Jesus and Him we
imitate through a radical option for the poorest of the poor, the destitute, the
marginalized and the oppressed, the down - trodden, the suffering, all others in
need.
The holiness of Christ is at the heart of all that we do as He calls us
repeatedly to be Holy “Be Holy as I am Holy” (Lev.
11:46
)
Our
Charism
This is our charism – to be His sacrament among them – to love them for Him,
to feed them (at least one good meal a day); to heal them, to clothe them, house
them, visit them, set them free etc for Him, to be for them all that Christ
would want to be for “His people”: the poor and needy in this day and age.
That they may see in us a living Christ, a Christ who cares, who loves them and
who wants to heal them and seeing this they will come to know and believe that
God is alive and has not changed.
Our Mission
Our mission is to work, guided by His Divine Majesty, to redeem His people from
destitution. With this in mind, we
consciously strive not to rob the client of whatever little dignity he has left.
We make no show of whatever assistance we give and avoid publicity.
Our business is to restore again their lost dignity and self-esteem, another
aspect of clothing. The
‘clothing’ is to reflect on all areas of the apostolate, for in it is the
actualization of our goal.
Our Purpose
Our purpose is to bring
God’s loving kindness and concern to the destitute, the jobless poor, the
lonely orphan, the aged poor, the abandoned, the beggar, the disabled destitute,
the homeless stranger, the sick poor, the prisoner and the children of the
destitute.
Our Spirituality
1 Our spirituality is ‘Christo-centric’ as
we strive, like Jesus our model, to live a life deeply rooted in prayer/constant
communion with God.
The Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of Christ and the Father, is the Spirit
that inspires us and motivates us to follow wherever He leads; ‘for the wind
blows where it wills’. (John. 3:8). Thus there must be a deep spirit of
contemplation in the group and at personal levels coupled with a good spirit of
attentiveness to the inner voice (discerning His will and responding to it in
complete) and always ready to follow the movement of the Holy Spirit in obedience, humility,
simplicity
and holiness
of life.
Ours is a
spirit of radical Apostolate of charity towards the destitute.
We live a life
of asceticism and self-denial
with total
conformity to the will of God, in prudence
doing the right thing at the right time and in the right place to the right
person.
In the spirit of the beatitudes (Mathew 5 vs. 1-16) , we live a life of poverty (live as if we
have not); simplicity; chastity;
purity of mind, body, thought, words and motive; poverty and
chastity of body & heart
Our spirituality is contemplation in action: We realize our desperate need for
God and our desire for a union with God and a life of holiness.
Jesus Christ the Bread of life John 6:35 gives us His body to be shared, so too
we give ourselves as bread to be broken and shared by the poor and the needy.
Our spiritual
life is nurtured by constant union with God our strength through:
v
Receiving the Holy Eucharist daily
when possible.
v
Observing quiet time for at least one hour
daily-just contemplating.
v
Every
3 pm
we do adoration where we bring before the merciful heart of
Jesus the whole world.
v
Daily prayers especially for members as in the
Pro Labore Dei Prayer guide.
v
Pro Labore Dei Consecrated Virgins live a life
of praise of God the Almighty. Seven songs of praise morning,
noon
and night – twenty one in total a day.
v
Attending three annual retreats
Ø
Three days advent retreat
Ø
Three days Lenten retreat
Ø
Six days in August (Silence)
v
Visit/Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
v
Daily we pray for the poor, the world and the
church through the Liturgy of the Divine Office
v
Daily scripture reading to know Him more and to
listen to Him in His spoken word. The Book of His Word (The Bible) is our daily
source of inspiration and guide on His will.
v
Daily recitation of the 15 decades of the
rosary – Meditation on the life, suffering and resurrection of Christ.
v
Participating in the monthly healing prayer
session in all Pro Labore Dei branches for members, the poor and others. Also in
Ibadan
, the all night vigil of prayers that takes place every first
Fridays of each month where possible. In
Ibadan
, the healing prayer session takes place every Thursday.
v
Weekly adoration together in the various branch
houses.
2
Bearing in mind our commitment to the cause of the
suffering poor and that one can get carried away in the course of the day by the
unending demands of the apostolate, whereas the branch cannot bear fruits unless
it remains on the vine, and the tree cannot have life unless it thrusts its root
into deep waters (God-the spring of living water). Whereas at the same time we
do not want to be caught, in a situation in which we cannot respond instantly to
the cry of the suffering poor at any given hour of the day, we strive to
maintain our union with God, whose holiness calls us to perfection, by rising
very early before dawn (3:00am) to be with Him and to commune with Him, to be
united with Him, to draw strength from Him, to muse on His words (the
scriptures), to commend our day and ourselves to the immaculate heart of Mary
whose love holds us so dearly to the heart of her son –Jesus Christ, and in
the silence of the night to unite with the angels to sing the praise of the
Almighty (psalms and choruses). This we do from
3:00am
till early dawn thus leaving ourselves open for the services
to which we are so radically committed.
4 Bearing
with each other and the destitute.
The spirit of Pro Labore Dei is ecclesial – The same spirit that moved the
early church to become what it is today is still at work, moving us forward to
do for God all that is His mind to do for the world today where His main concern
is the suffering of the poor and marginalized, the social injustice of our time
due to the economic recession and the great gap as it is now between the rich
and the poor.
The spirit of Pro Labore Dei is the spirit of the love of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit - a spirit that binds in an unbreakable union of love, all
of us together from various walks of life; one heart, one mind in charity to the
destitute and the neglected, giving ourselves, our time or talents as bread that
is broken and shared that the poor may be enriched and others may taste
and see that the Lord is good..
Our
Life-style
We are a self-sufficient community under the direction of the Chief
coordinator Sr. Stella-Maris as inspired and guided by our Lord Jesus Christ.
We labour that others may have, working
very hard morning
noon
and night to raise funds through our products efforts not
for ourselves rather to give it out again to those who do not have.
PRO
LABORE DEI CHILDREN AT WORK AND PLAY
Over and above all we have the joy of living in His presence as His bride
rejoicing always at the marvel of being specially called and chosen into such a
wonderful vocation. We own nothing, but we have everything because we have Jesus
the King of the universe as Spouse. It is to Him who made the heaven and the
earth that we are espouse.
Oh what a joy! As we live out the evangelical council of Chastity, Poverty
and Absolute obedience to God, our actions stems from a life deeply rooted in
prayer and total abandonment to the will of God. Our spouse leads the way and we
follow. It is Him we imitate in all we do – we are a Christocentric
community.
Through the highway and the byways, down the alley and the ghettos we seek
His Face in the poorest of the poor, the homeless, the abandoned, the orphans,
the rejected, the oppressed and the marginalized. To find them is our joy. To
share with them all that we have is our mission.
For their sake we have given up everything so that we can have Christ and
be given a place in Him and so they form our community. Yes indeed to be a
Consecrated virgin in Pro Labore Dei means to live with the poor and the
orphans, pray with them, work with them and share all we have with them as a
family.
Amazing that one can be a virgin and a mother for consecrated to our
eternal spouse, we are virgin for life and at the same time as His bride, ours
is the role of housewife and a mother to all His children in whatsoever form He
sends them to us.
Loving Him in the orphans and abandoned baby is a joy. Feeding Him and
touching Him in the hungry, homeless whom we pick up on the street is such a
blessing.
Sometimes we have to bury the dead –
sad to say naturally but there is joy of knowing that they did not die on the
road side. And when we are able to have them baptise before they die, who must
die according to God’s will, there is the peace of knowing that they died in
Christ. (That is not to say that the tears do not role down our cheeks
sometimes)
CROSS
SECTION OF SISTERS OF PRO LABORE DEI AT WORK IN PICTURE
SOAP FACTORY
CREAM FACTORY GINGER
FACTORY
PIGGERY
FARM
We give ourselves as broken bread that others may taste
and see that the Lord is good.
Over and above all we have the joy of living in His presence as His bride
rejoicing always at the marvel of being specially called and chosen into such a
wonderful vocation. We own nothing, but we have everything because we have Jesus
the King of the universe as Spouse. It is to Him who made the heaven and the
earth that we are espouse.
BRIDE
OF CHRIST
Oh what a joy! As we live out the evangelical council of Chastity, Poverty and
Absolute obedience to God, our actions stems from a life deeply rooted in prayer
and total abandonment to the will of God. Our spouse leads the way and we
follow. It is Him we imitate in all we do – we are a Christocentric
community.
Through the highway and the byways, down the alley and the ghettos we seek His
Face in the poorest of the poor, the homeless, the abandoned, the orphans, the
rejected, the oppressed and the marginalized. To find them is our joy. To share
with them all that we have is our mission.
For their sake we have given up everything so that we can have Christ and be
given a place in Him and so they form our community. Yes indeed to be a
Consecrated virgin in Pro Labore Dei means to live with the poor and the
orphans, pray with them, work with them and share all we have with them as a
family.
Amazing that one can be a virgin and a mother for consecrated to our eternal
spouse, we are virgin for life and at the same time as His bride, ours is the
role of housewife and a mother to all His children in whatsoever form He sends
them to us.
Loving Him in the orphans and abandoned baby is a joy. Feeding Him and touching
Him in the hungry, homeless whom we pick up on the street is such a blessing.
Sometimes we have to bury the dead –
sad to say naturally but there is joy of knowing that they did not die on the
road side. And when we are able to have them baptise before they die, who must
die according to God’s will, there is the peace of knowing that they died in
Christ. (That is not to say that the tears do not role down our cheeks
sometimes)
CROSS
SECTION OF PRO LABORE DEI SISTERS, STAGES 2,3 AND 4
SO COME JOIN US
AND
SHARE GOD’S LOVE WITH OTHERS –PRO
LABORE DEI ‘Bringing God’s loving kindness to others’.
Will you serve? …….. “WE SHALL SERVE” is our motto.
More Information about Consecrated
Virgin
