The Institute of Our Lady of the Annunciation is a secular institute for single Catholic women founded in 1960 in Italy. The nature and purpose of the Institute is: “To confer on everyone the maximum good, to help everyone with prayer, advice, word, ministry and example.” ” I resolve not to miss any opportunity offered me by the Lord for the practice of Charity.” – Blessed James Alberione
This secular institute is a work of the Society of St. Paul and is associated to it. The Society of St Paul is the “altrice” Congregation (The source of Spiritual Guidance) of The Pauline Family which is composed of five religious congregations, four secular institutes, and one lay collaborators association, founded by Blessed James Alberione, in which the Institute of Our Lady of the Annunciation is a part of.
The Pauline Family mission is to spread the Gospel and love of Jesus using all the means of modern media technology (Social Communications), and to address the spiritual needs of the world in a modern way.
The Institute has the characteristic of “secularity.” The members while living within their own home and parish and working in their own places of employment, publicly profess the Evangelical Counsels: the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience recognised by the Church. The members have no outward sign of belonging to the institute. In their secular situation and in the context of their lives the members devote themselves, “for an effective evangelisation” to the spread of the message of salvation principally through the apostolate and the spirit of the Society of St Paul and of the Pauline Family, thus bringing to bear on many and various sectors the action and influence of the Pauline Family’s specific mission.
Members of the Institute are called to “develop all their Christian and evangelical abilities, so that the divine message of salvation may become known and accepted by all humankind.”
The Institute has as its “patrons” Jesus the Divine Master, St Paul the Apostle and Mary of the Annunciation.
In the KK Archdiocese while it is still in a nascent stage, there are already one perpetual professed member, one junior member, one postulant, and one aspirant.