Catherine of Siena gives us a helpful analogy of an overflowing fountain: each of us is a fountain, receiving the water which is Christ through contemplation, and then letting the water overflow onto others through our apostolate. Our prayer and contemplation comes first in our lives because it is only through these that we will have anything to give those we serve.

"We are consecrated women first, and so our foremost model is Mary, the Mother of God. Inspired by the charism of St. Dominic, our prayer life comes first so that our apostolate overflows from a contemplation nourished before the Eucharist." (Mother Assumpta Long, O.P.)

A Sister of Mary looks to Our Lady, whose “yes” to the Word was but a response to His yearning to be received and pondered in her heart. Through union with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament she claims as her own the desire of her Spouse: that all people may “behold his glory” and know the Father’s infinite love for them. She understands that the Truth she is called to preach is the One who is jealous for her heart and longs to fill it with Himself. Only after encountering him in the intimacy of the sanctuary and the cloister does she, like St. Mary Magdalene, go out and proclaim to the world, “I have seen the Lord!”