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Mission and  Ministry
The fundamental mission of our congregation is to evangelize. This has been elaborated by the founder in many ways. Initially, when she had entered the practice of De Montfortian spirituality, she had little understanding that it was a spirituality directed towards the creation of apostles of what de Montfort called “ the end times”, that is, women and men whose spiritual consciousness was illuminated by an inner knowledge of God.
Such men and women, De Montfort believed, would be agents of the Spirit in building up the “New Jerusalem” Their task was to kindle the fire of divine love throughout the world, to renew the face of the earth and reform the church
As Mary Potter grew into a spiritual consciousness, the same missionary zeal that had fired De Montfort, began to burn within her own life. Identifying with the "mother love of the Good Shepherd" i.e. with the maternal role of Jesus, meant that she - and other women - were to participate in the missionary activity of the church. They were to
tell the tale of Jesus’ pity to save souls... [to] rise up in power and preach the wonders of the pity of the Sacred Heart... [and] draw to this source of strength, the weak, the sinful.
By virtue of their likeness to Jesus, women were called by the gospel to lay down their lives to bring to birth spiritual children. “You must be true mothers”, Mary Potter wrote to her first companions in 1877, “mothers by suffering, even unto death. Offer your life to give birth to children in the spirit of the Mother-like Shepherd who tells us “I lay down my life for my sheep” “
Whether spiritual or physical, motherhood was, in Potter’s eyes, a “grand office.. [an] exemplification of God himself and the highest form of love known among men ”
So, the mission of the congregation is to preach the good news of Jesus in all possible ways, and our ministries, with all their variety underscore this, as does our fundamental ministry of prayer for the dying of the world.
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