Texas OP Nuns

Tet 2024

Happy Lunar New Year! We celebrated this festive holiday on February 11 with dancing, games, lucky money, and of course delicious Vietnamese treats!

To begin, the novitiate sisters (and some friends) did a beautiful dance for us.

Sr. Carmen Gloria, Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Giuse, Sr. Marie Augustine, and Michelle

Since this is the Year of the Dragon, we honored our three “dragon” sisters in the community. You can see our “Tet tree” with its lucky money envelopes in the background. Naturally, we turned the money in to the Bursar and got tickets for playing the games in its place.

Sr. Bernadette Marie, Sr. Mary Dominic, and Sr. Maria Cabrini

One of the sisters read the personality characteristics of people born during the Dragon year, but we have to say most of them didn’t seem to correspond with what we know of our sisters! That’s why we rely on real life experiences, not horoscopes. But it was fun, anyway!

We played some games, too. One game involved trying to hit a tennis ball into a hole. Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Marie Augustine, and Michelle did very well with this! Some of the rest of us also managed to get the ball in the hole, but for many it could only be called “a good try”.

The final game was our Vietnamese lottery game. It used to be a little complicated, but one year Sr. Mary Christine just put all the different animals (and the squash) used in the game on a large homemade die, and so we just throw the die and see what comes out on top.

Sr. Mary Margaret prepares to throw the die as all look on expectantly. You can see the tennis ball game in the background.

Each sister received a Mass intention slip, to be filled in with the name of the person she would like Mass to be offered for, and each sister also received a prize. It was a delightful evening, and now we are all ready to begin the discipline of Lent on Ash Wednesday. May God grant you all the blessings He has in store for you, and know we keep you in our prayers!

Sr. Mary Ann’s 60th Jubilee

Recently, we were delighted to welcome Sr. Mary Ann from our monastery in Trinidad for a short visit. During her stay with us, we celebrated her 60th jubilee–again! She had a big celebration in Trinidad this past fall, but a 60th jubilee is worth celebrating more than once.

Sr. Mary Ann renewing her vows.

Taking the gifts up to Fr. R.B.Williams, O.P., our chaplain.

Big smile for the camera!

Fr. R.B. celebrating Mass, assisted by Deacon Jesus Reyes. Check out our beautiful tree and creche!

Receiving a blessing from Fr. R.B. at the end of Mass.

Posing in the hallway after Mass.

We have had a long and beautiful relationship with the Dominican monastery in Trinidad, which has only become closer as the two nuns left there have “joined” our monastery. They will remain in their own country, but we will be giving our assistance and help as needed. We thank God for His ever-providential care of us!

Christ is in our midst

In the Eastern Orthodox church, the phrase, “Christ is in our midst” is used as part of the dismissal in Ordinary Time. As we finally post our Christmas season blog, we rejoice that although Ordinary Time has begun, we still live in the radiant light of Christ’s birth–Emmanuel, “God-with-us”.

Our Christmas season this year seemed extraordinarily busy. Maybe it was because of the short Advent season! But in fact a lot has happened. We have had many guests, many community celebrations, and a visit from one of our sisters in Trinidad. We’ll post more about her soon.

On St. Nicholas Day (we celebrated on December 7) St. Nicholas himself came bearing gifts for all the good nuns. Here we have the four sisters who met St. Nicholas for the first time, proudly wearing their hand crocheted scarves.

The aunt of one of our sisters sent an Advent calendar! Although it was not religious in any way, we enjoyed seeing each door open, marking the days from December 1 to December 24.

One of our traditions is to have creches set up in the various departments where sisters work. Although we try to preserve the memory of Christ always, and we have crucifixes up everywhere, the creche scenes are a reminder of Christ’s humble birth in Bethlehem, and encouragement for us to be more simple, humble, and childlike.

The Guild department, where we send letters and make enrollments

The library

The community room. Sister’s theme this year was light and darkness.

The infirmary

The kitchen.

The refectory. Thanks to our hardworking novitiate–they clean the refectory, and so they get to decorate it, too!

They also decorated the walls and tables. The novitiate had an angel theme this year, with angels on the walls and angels on the tables. All handmade!

Even the copy machine room had a little creche!

The statue of Our Lady in the hallway

We hope to bring you some pictures of the chapel soon too–it looked amazing!

On December 28, Holy Innocents Day, we celebrated the novitiate (and our two newer sisters, Sr. Carmen Gloria and Sr. Maria). We played fun games and our four newest sisters each got prizes. We are so happy they are with us!

We played “Pin the Star on Dominic’s Forehead”

We also played a fun cup and ball game. Our postulant Michelle was the clear winner of this game!

Sr. Maria, Sr. Mary Pauline, and Michelle with their prizes

Then came Epiphany on January 6! The novitiate hosted the professed in the novitiate building. In the morning, we played a lot of fun games. In the afternoon, we had a tea party and Christmas karaoke.

Popping balloons for prizes in the novitiate courtyard.

One of our games! We had to wear this basket and try to put bows into it with a spatula–harder than it sounds!

Enjoying afternoon tea and cookies.

“Glooooooooooooooria!”

In the evening, the novitiate sisters put on a delightful play for us–“The Fourth Wise Man”. They all did a great job with their parts and the scenery and stage props were very imaginative.

And, we had guests and free days and all kinds of other things! Thank you to all our benefactors who helped to make our Christmas season so beautiful, especially our faithful Knights of Columbus who always cook Christmas dinner for us. May all of you be blessed most abundantly in this New Year 2024!

Sr. Mary Christine’s Feast Day!

Although we always celebrate feast days here at the Monastery, there are only two days that get an extra special celebration–the feast days of the prioress and the novice directress. And Sr. Mary Christine celebrated her feast day on November 26. The novitiate invited the prioress, the vocation directress, Sr. Maria (our transfer, recently of the novitiate), and the sisters who teach in the novitiate to this fun celebration.

The whole group! Back row: Sr. Mary Margaret, Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Christine, Michelle. Front row: Sr. Mary Rose, Sr. Mary Jeremiah, Sr. Mary Thomas, Sr. Marie Augustine, and Sr. Maria.

The novitiate put on a charming play about their life, and then we played some fun games. We ate dinner in the novitiate community room–a festive meal with talking and Cokes.

Sr. Mary Christine demonstrating one of her many talents.

After dinner, we all watched joyfully as Sr. Mary Christine opened her many gifts.

A lovely scarf hand-knitted by Sr. Mary Therese.

New book for the novitiate!

Possibly Sr. Mary Christine’s favorite gifts–a persimmon tree and an Asian pear tree! Sister is very good with plants, as you can see in these pictures!

In the afternoon we enjoyed a fun, family-friendly movie and then had a special supper in the novitiate. After supper, we played some more games.

Tossing beanbags–always harder than it looks. And check out the great decorations! We especially liked the disco ball!

As the bell rang for Compline, we had to end our party. What a beautiful day of sisterly sharing it was! Thanks to all the novitiate sisters who did such a wonderful job making the day awesome.

Sr. Mary Christine and her companions with gifts.

What is it like to enter the Monastery?

It’s not easy to answer this question, because it’s different for each young woman who enters! But we can give you a glimpse inside the entrance of our new postulant, Michelle.

Michelle arrived with several members of her family, who came to see her enter!

Michelle giving her mother a goodbye hug at the entrance door.

Michelle’s family doesn’t live too far from us, so they are able to come to visit once a month (with permission, of course). Here, we see Michelle and Sr. Mary Christine with some gifts her family brought on a recent visit.

A welcoming party in the novitiate! From left: Sr. Mary Christine, Michelle, Sr. Mary Margaret, Sr. Marie Augustine, and Sr. Mary Pauline.

Michelle has many talents–including playing the clarinet!

Once you have entered, and the farewells and greetings and blessings and parties are over, life settles into a daily regimen of prayer, study, and work. Postulants also have recreation both in the novitiate and with the professed community in the evening. We would love to bring you a story on what it’s like to be a novice…so keep praying for Michelle and for us over this next year!

So Thankful and Blessed

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday! Although the weather was cold and damp, our spirits were bright and cheerful. It was so good to be together with our sisters sharing a Thanksgiving meal–and almost all prepared by the sisters, too!

The day before–Hard at work preparing various dishes!

Sr. Mary Giuse made a delicious Vietnamese noodle dish while our kitchen helper Diana sliced pineapple.

Sr. Mary Thomas and Sr. Marie Augustine with dressing and dirty rice

Michelle chopping carrots in the bakery. (More on Michelle to come!)

Thanksgiving Day! Sr. Miriam checks out the dessert table.

Fruits and salads!

Sr. Mary Veronica gets some ice for her drink.

Looking over our groaning table.

Some sides and bread–as well as the gravy and cranberry sauce.

The community room was beautifully decorated by the novitiate.

Although we cooked and prepared almost all the food, most of it was given to us by our very generous benefactors. We are truly thankful and blessed to have so many wonderful people who support our life. We are praying hard for all of you!

Going Nuts

The novitiate is cracking up!

For many years, we’ve had a pecan tree on our property. Unfortunately, we never get to enjoy any of the pecans it produces because the squirrels get them all. But this year, Sr. Mary Christine and the novitiate sisters were determined things would be different.

At the tree, ready to pick pecans.

Sr, Mary Christine, Sr. Marie Augustine, Sr. Mary Pauline and Sarah.

The branches of the tree were heavy with ripe pecans.

Plus, you can work in the shade!

Some of the fruits (or should that be nuts?) of our labor.

After the fun of picking pecans came the job of shelling them. We usually call this a “pecan party”.

Sr. Mary Christine shows off her celery plant. She’s growing ginger, too!

As you can see, in addition to cracking nuts, there was also a lot of laughter. They really did crack up!

If you’re wondering where Sr. Maria is–she’s still with us! It’s a long story, but to make it quick we’ll just say that she is living over in the professed dormitory now. The professed sisters are delighted to have her. We are hoping for a new novitiate sister soon, so please keep praying!