Our Lady of the Orient Monastery in Laval Roquecezière

Our Lady of the Orient Monastery is a very ancient Marian sanctuary whose origins date back to around the year 1000, located in the Rance valley, on the borders of Rouergue and Albigeois, in the department of Aveyron. It is situated between Albi and Millau, 7 km from St-Sernin sur Rance, in a splendid natural setting of wooded hills and rivers where silence fosters recollection and prayer.
A place of pilgrimage, first under the protection of hermits and patronized by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (today the Order of Malta), it was later animated by a community of Capuchins who built the monastery and church in the 17th century, whose magnificent baroque altarpiece is a listed monument. The Capuchins were expelled during the Revolution, and Benedictine nuns of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament succeeded them in 1825. Today, the nuns continue this mission of welcoming pilgrims who still come in great numbers to honor and pray to Our Lady of the Orient, or "Auriens" (the original spelling), the Virgin who listens.

Our Lady of the Orient Monastery in Laval Roquecezière offers pilgrims daily Mass and the Divine Office, a prayer of praise sung in Gregorian chant and in French, following the Benedictine rhythm that divides the day between work and prayer. In keeping with the charism of their Foundress, Mother Mectilde de Bar, the nuns take turns each day with the faithful who wish to join them in adoring the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar.
Two larger pilgrimages take place each year: on the 5th Sunday of Easter (that is, the 4th Sunday after Easter) and on Pentecost Monday, when a statue of Our Lady of the Orient is carried in procession along a 2 km walk. The feasts of the Virgin Mary are honored with Marian celebrations including meditation on the rosary, hymns, and adoration.
Accommodation for personal retreat stays or retreats led by a preacher is offered in a recently renovated guest house.

"It is through the ministry of Mary that we enter into the holiness of the interior life. For just as Jesus gives us to his Father, so Mary gives us to Jesus. 'No one can come to my Father except through me,' says Our Lord in the Gospel. And no one can go to Jesus unless his most holy Mother leads him there. Renew your devotions, your homage, and your reverence toward this adorable Virgin.
You have seen her star and you have come to adore her. But how long and how far-reaching must this adoration be? In every moment of our life and with the full extent of our being... Our adoration must be perpetual, since the same God whom we adore in the Blessed Sacrament is continually present to us in all places. We must adore him in spirit and in truth: in spirit through a holy interior recollection, in truth by making all our exercises a continual adoration through our faithfulness.
Draw from God a deep well of trust and ask his forgiveness for the offense you do him by doubting his goodness. He is less offended by a sin than by distrust of his mercy.
Always see yourself as a small ball of wax in the hand of God, to be shaped according to his good pleasure. A child need fear nothing when held in the arms of his Father: your soul and your whole being are surrounded by God. You rest in his immensity as in a place of safety, and his gentle and loving Providence anticipates your needs, his grace strengthens you, and his love draws you entirely to himself."

Monastère des Bénédictines
Notre-Dame d'Orient
12 380 LAVAL-ROQUECEZIERE