Called To Serve: Life Behind The Veil Of The Daughters Of Mary & The Journey To Becoming A Nun

In this week’s Team Never Quit podcast, Marcus and Melanie host Sister Madeleine Marie and other representatives from The Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior, a congregation of traditional Catholic Sisters devoted to a life of prayer, service, and religious formation. Founded in the summer of 1984, the Congregation’s motherhouse, St. Joseph’s Novitiate, is located in upstate New York, where young women discerning religious life are formed spiritually and practically as they prepare to become Daughters of Mary.

Life at St. Joseph’s Novitiate follows a semi-contemplative rhythm centered on both prayer and work. Candidates begin their journey as postulants, living within the community for nine months while learning its daily routine, expectations, and spiritual life. Those who are received into the Novitiate are given the religious habit and white veil of a novice and begin two years of deeper formation, studying the rules, constitutions, and spirit of the Congregation. At the conclusion of that period, those who are called to continue may make their first profession of vows.

Today, however, the Congregation is facing an encouraging challenge: growth.

Over the past fifteen years, the Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior has nearly doubled in size. New vocations continue to come, but the Sisters have now reached the limits of their present convent. Without additional space, the Congregation may soon be unable to welcome new postulants who feel called to religious life.

That need has led to an important building project now underway—a new convent designed to provide room for the growing community and for future generations of Sisters.

The project is being completed in several major phases.

The first phase focuses on bringing the new building from the ground up and enclosing it to the roof. This includes planning, excavation, foundation walls, steel framing, floors, and completion of the exterior shell.

The next phase involves installing the essential mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems required to make the convent functional and safe. HVAC, plumbing, electrical service, fire protection, testing, and inspections will all be critical parts of this stage.

The final phase will transform the structure into a true home for the Sisters. Interior framing, drywall, painting, flooring, fixtures, and final finishes will complete the living and formation spaces where future postulants, novices, and professed Sisters will pray, work, learn, and live together.