Author: Texas OP Nuns

A Rose from St. Therese

You may be familiar with the pious concept of praying to St. Therese for something and asking her to send a rose as confirmation that God has heard your prayer and will hopefully grant what you are asking for in the way you ask for it! (Because God doesn\’t necessarily answer our prayers the way we expect Him to.) We have a sister in our community who once made this request in a halfhearted way, not really expecting anything to happen…and then she received a dozen roses! She\’s a believer now!
 
In honor of St. Therese, a website called Imagine Sisters is proposing that you should offer a rose today to a young woman you think might have a call to the religious life. We think that\’s a great idea–we need more sisters in the world! And very often a woman interested in religious life is waiting for a \”sign\” of some kind–a word of encouragement from a friend, from a priest, a special passage of Scripture that suddenly speaks to her heart, circumstances mysteriously arranging themselves to make religious life possible. Even if you don\’t want to offer a rose, you can still encourage a young woman to consider religious life–maybe direct her toward a website like the Imagine Sisters project website, which has some nice information on vocation discernment, or maybe direct her to OUR website! 
May St. Therese intercede for all of us to find our vocation in life as she found hers at the heart of the Church!

Congratulations, Sr. Mary Rose!

Our sisters are home from the Assembly, and we are delighted to announce that our own Sr. Mary Rose was elected to the Association Council!
 Sr. Mary Rose serves as bursar (treasurer) of our community, and includes playing the organ for the Liturgy and Mass among her many other talents.

The entire new council, from left to right: Sr. Mary Catharine from Summit, NJ  (Councilor), Sr. Mary Thomas from Farmington Hills, MI  (Councilor), Sr. Mary Rose from Lufkin, TX (Councilor), Sr. Anna Marie from Elmira, NY (Vice-President) and Sr. Maria Christine from Menlo Park, CA (President)
Congratulations to all the newly elected officers and many thanks to all who made the Assembly so successful. You all are in our prayers!

Monastery Bells

It\’s that time again! Our latest issue of \”Monastery Bells\” went out in the mail this morning. If you want to get a sneak peek at the contents, or just read it on line, you can do it HERE. Just choose the link for \”Fall 2012\”. If you are living in the United States and wish to receive \”Monastery Bells\” in your mailbox–and this free subscription includes extras like our novena slips and other things–you can give us your address HERE. We never sell or distribute our mailing list to anyone! Sorry, we can\’t send to foreign addresses because of the expense. However you decide to read it, we hope you enjoy \”Monastery Bells\”!

What do nuns do at recreation?

People ask us this question all the time. We pray a lot, we work a lot, and yes, we do have time for what we call \”recreation\”–basically the chance to talk freely to each other and have a good time for about an hour twice a day. But what exactly do you do? Well, it all depends! We play games on Sunday nights. Sometimes we sit in a big circle and discuss things as a community–usually this happens when we have a guest or a new postulant and we all want to ask questions, or when the prioress or another sister has news she wants to share with the entire community. Mostly we sit around at tables in the community room and talk–that\’s a lot of fun for us, since we spend so much of the day in silence! Several of the sisters like to do handwork while they are talking…

…like Sr. Mary Jeremiah who recently completed this lovely macrame owl! We also enjoy crocheting, knitting, cross-stitch, quilling, and almost any other kind of handwork you can think of! Some sisters like to go to a corner of our community room and listen to music, and sometimes we work on puzzles. Occasionally we all go to the parlor for a visit with someone (or some people) who come to visit us, whether friends, relatives, or groups who would just like to meet the nuns! We laugh a lot, and always have a good time. It is truly \”re-creation\”–a chance to deepen our relationships with our sisters and relax after an intense day of prayer and work. We always end recreation with a special prayer to our provident God, Who has brought us all together and sustains us in our Dominican way of life. We  have much to be thankful for, and we are thankful!

Growing on Lotus Lane

Our monastery is located on Lotus Lane in Lufkin, TX (hence the name of this blog). However, there are no lotus plants on Lotus Lane that we know of. Recently this changed when Sr. Mary Christine brought us some lotus plants. Many of us were excited and expected them to look something like this: 

    
But they don\’t. They actually look like this right now: 

Yes, you can see pine needles floating in the water along with the lotus plants–that\’s how you know we\’re located in East Texas!

Still, we are not disappointed, because this whole situation can be seen as an example of God\’s working in us. From small and humble beginnings, God creates something great and beautiful in each of us–so long as we cooperate with Him in His work. Just as the lotus plants need mud and water to grow, we need humility and sometimes tears in order to flower in God\’s eyes. And we need the light of His grace to grow in holiness every day! We pray that the lotus plants will achieve their full beauty someday, but most of all we pray that each sister in our monastery–and each of the readers of this blog–will also develop and bloom with God\’s help!

Our Lady of La Salette

Today is the memorial of Our Lady of La Salette, the anniversary of the apparitions in France in 1846. We always celebrate this memorial for two reasons: first, the congregation of the Missionaries of La Salette were an important part of the missionary activity in Lufkin for many years, and second, Sr. Mary Veronica celebrates this day as her feast day! We are so grateful to all the La Salettes who served in Lufkin when they had a parish here, and grateful also to the La Salettes who still come to say Mass or hear confessions, particularly Fr. Maurice Linehan, MS and Fr. Ron Foshage, MS. You all have been faithful for many years, and we thank you for it! It is impossible to name here all the many wonderful La Salettes who have helped us over the years, but we remember you all in our prayers. Thank you, thank you all, and may God grant you many more years of missionary work and abundant vocations to your congregation!