Mary and Elizabeth

Our Mission and Hope

We exist to serve to make Christ known and loved through direct, relational spiritual care and accompaniment. We have a house and offices in Memphis called the Mary and Elizabeth House of Prayer and Formation. The Most Rev. Bishop David Talley encouraged the work in July of 2022. We are staffed with full-time, trained missionaries with extensive experience in serving women through direction and accompaniment. 

The apostolate provides spiritual direction, formation, outreach (vocational formation), and retreats in order to foster opportunities for women to encounter Jesus and through that encounter come to better know themselves, Him, and their role in the Church and the world.

We partner with various organizations and ministries faithful to the Catholic Church to provide resources and spiritual care to women. It is our joy to also partner with the Office of Vocations of the Diocese of Memphis to serve women in education and promotion of female consecrated life. It is our hope that God will be glorified through the interior renewal of woman and thus the renewal of the world.

Partner with us in Mission

 Mary and Elizabeth is raising funds for programming to supplement our five outreach programs and to offer scholarships for women of all ages and states in life seeking to strengthen their relationship with the Lord. Your gift will enable us to provide presence, formation, fellowship, discernment opportunities, retreat scholarships and healing encounters to women in need.  

Your gift will help us provide

• Scholarships for women seeking spiritual direction or mentorship with a trained Mary and Elizabeth spiritual director or mentor regardless of age or state in life.
• Endow book studies and scholarships for retreats and other events for our Teresitas group of college and post-college young women. Working in the world as doctors, educators, scientists and engineers, these women need financial support and fellowship with other like-minded women seeking to put their faith first.
• Stipends to formators for our Stella Maris monthly presentations for the more than 150 trained spiritual directors and mentors we serve, providing ongoing educational opportunities and supervision for those who lead souls.  
• Stipends to formators for our Lilies group of consecrated women.  These monthly formations provide spiritual and intellectual formation and community discussion for women who have answered the call to live a life completely dedicated to our Lord. We serve religious sisters, Consecrated Virgins, members of Societies of Apostolic life, privately dedicated and those seriously discerning a divine call from the Lord.
•  Stipends and travel for 8 habited religious sisters to join in our vocational events within the Diocese of Memphis through our Fiat Initiative serving discerning women in our diocese.
• Funds to defray the costs of events like mornings of reflection, movie nights, pilgrimages and other opportunities to gather women together to grow in faith and fellowship.

We are blessed to be able to serve the beautiful women who come to us, inviting them to know and love Jesus Christ and to grow into the women the Lord has called them to become:  Sisters, Mothers, Brides and Daughters.

Please join with us in making these opportunities, services, and events accessible to all women. Thank you for helping promote the interior life of women!

We are launching a new program/outreach called Fiat Initiative, which provides awareness, encounter, and accompaniment to women discerning religious and consecrated life in the Catholic Church. Your gift will help us provide:

• A website to engage with women 16-35 who are searching for support/resources in their discernment
• Promotional materials which share the beauty of consecrated life with young women
• Accompaniment for over 50 women in various stages of vocational discernment
• Stipends and travel for 16 habited religious sisters to join in our vocational events within the Diocese of Memphis
• A monthly stipend for a habited, religious sister to join our vocational accompaniment team and other outreaches, to work directly one-on-one with women

Your gift will provide scholarship opportunities for young women to take part in some of the following....

• General and vocational accompaniment
• Retreats and Days of Reflection
• Pilgrimages and Nun-runs to "come and see" communities
• ENDOW book studies to learn more about the faith
  

We are blessed to be able to serve the beautiful women who come to us, inviting them to know and love Jesus Christ and to consider the possibility of a life lived in total dedication to Him.

Please join with us in making these opportunities, services, and events more accessible and in helping promote female vocations to consecrated life.