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Gift of Mary

Missionary Program

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Our 2024-2025 Missionary Class

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Hope Graham

Missionary

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Sharyl Stommes

Missionary

Program Goal

At Gift of Mary, our goal is to cultivate a community of missionaries, dedicated to serving homeless women with compassion and competence. Embracing the teachings of the Catholic Church, our mission is to accompany young women, through a transformative journey, nurturing their spiritual, emotional, professional, and social development, equipping them for their future Vocation.

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Our missionary program is built upon three pillars: prayer, service, and community life. Through prayer, we encounter the person of Christ, who we then meet face to face in the women we serve. Through service, missionaries become the hands and feet of Christ, supporting women experiencing abuse and homelessness with compassion, to accompany them on their journey to healing. In our community life, we embrace a familial relationship, where missionaries learn to support one another and push each other to grow in virtue.

 

We surrender ourselves to the Lord, allowing Him to use us as an instrument, to fulfill His mission in us. By serving the most vulnerable with humility, integrity, and love, we strive to fulfill the call of our Lord, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).

Program Pillars

We are dedicating ourselves to a year of PRAYER, SERVICE, and COMMUNITY

Prayer

  • “Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man” (Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 2564).

  • “Without me, you can do nothing” (John 15:15). Daily prayer is the foundation of the missionary program. It serves as spiritual nourishment for the missionaries, enabling them to guide vulnerable women.

Service

  • At the core of what Gift of Mary missionaries do is service. Giving of themselves in such a selfless way, to serve vulnerable women, they are able to be the hands and feet of Christ, embodying His teachings of compassion and love.

Community Life

  • We strive to foster a family-style community life, where missionaries support each other and strengthen each other in both prayer and virtue. This allows them to grow in holiness as a community.

  • Weekly Formation, led by Mission Integration Coordinator

  • Regular Team Bonding

Rule of Life

  1. Daily Holy Hour

  2. Daily Mass

  3. Daily Rosary

  4. Liturgy of the Hours (Night Prayer)

  5. Monthly Confession

  6. Monthly Spiritual Direction

  7. Weekly Formation

Missionary Testimonials

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Clara Stephenson

Missionary, '23-'24

My time as a missionary has been a profound journey of growth through self-giving. I've learned that we truly find ourselves when we give of ourselves. My mission year has been a continuous surrender to the Lord, allowing Him to shape me into the person He created me to be. Serving the women at Gift of Mary has been both humbling and inspiring, and it's in this service that I've felt most at home. 

“For it is in giving that we receive.”
— Saint Francis of Assisi

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