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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
Sr. Mary Margaret’s actual feast day is January 18–but that is so close to Christmas and Epiphany that we usually celebrate either around the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (her mystery) or St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. This year were celebrated on October 14 and 15. It was grand!
Sr. Mary Margaret in front of her groaning feast day table
We started the day with a traditional feast day song. This is usually a melody we all know with new lyrics written by one of the sisters.
Singing the song…
…and still singing (it was long!).
After the song, each of us came to greet Sister and wish her a happy and blessed feast day.
Following all this, we began playing games. We had a number of games involving plastic cups, dice, and playing cards. It may sound funny but they were games everyone could participate in, no matter what their age or condition.
Picking up a die…harder than it looks!
Concentrating…
If you managed to pick up a die, you had to stack it on top of another! Only two teams managed this.
We also had a game where we had to flip the cups upside down. They had to land standing up, which was quite a trick. On the right you can see the cups in mid-flip.
Sister Miriam (on the right) did really well as usual!
After the games, it was time for prayers and our noon meal. Sister Cook made all Sr. Mary Margaret’s favorites, including homemade lemon meringue pie…yum!
We enjoyed our festive meal in the community room. Since we were not in the refectory, we were allowed to talk–and talk we did!
Dinner was followed by the inevitable dishes and a nap for many. In the afternoon, following prayers, we returned to the community room for a sweet treat from Dairy Queen.
Finally, it was time for the opening of the gifts. Sr. Mary Margaret received a lot of homemade gifts–maybe some will be featured in our next raffle.
Baby blanket
Cat
Shawls and a bag
Man’s vest–started by Sr. Miriam and finished by Sr. Carmen Gloria
Hair accessories
A new way to wear your veil, modeled by Dominic’s Angels
Painting
Embroidered tablecloth
Cross-stitched cross
Sister also received a book version of this blog–handy for the sisters who don’t use the Internet and also good for the archives.
The decorations in the community room made us feel like we were on vacation!
In the evening, the novitiate performed an aerobic dance routine for us–made us tired just watching them! Then Sr. Mary Therese organized karaoke! Most of us had never done it before but we had a great time. Several sisters were put into teams of two, and three sisters were judges. The songs were all family friendly and ones we knew, although if you didn’t feel you knew a song you were allowed to choose another.
Sr. Mary Therese demonstrates karaoke.
Sr. Maria and Sr. Mary Thomas attempted to sing “The Rainbow Connection” from “The Muppet Movie”
We finished the celebration on Sunday with a screening of the movie “Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris”. This was the more recent version–not the TV movie (for those who remember it!). It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed seeing how the characters changed over the course of the story. We had a little free time after the movie, so we watched some Hungarian folk dances in honor of our Hungarian prioress. All together, a lovely weekend. We are so grateful for everything Sr. Mary Margaret does for us!
We had our annual Fall Picnic this weekend! When we have a picnic, we still sing the entire Divine Office and pray the Rosary and keep our times of Eucharistic adoration–we just don’t work (except for doing some dishes). But that makes for a great holiday!
We always begin the picnic with an official flag raising. Sr. Mary Pauline thought she might try to pose as Lady Liberty!
It was such a beautiful, cool fall day, some of us decided to go for a long walk. On picnic days we are allowed to go outside the main part of the enclosure and wander through the wild woods. This year, things looked a little different! We recently had a company harvest some of our trees. We do this about every 15-20 years, and the company returns in the spring after they harvest to plant new trees. This was all good and necessary, but as we walked, parts of the forest now resembled a desert wasteland.
You can still see the tire marks from the machines that harvested the trees!
Some of the younger trees remained untouched.
Ah…this is more like it!
Postulant Sarah reclining on some rejected trees
And we joined her for this photo op!
Beyond the stack of downed trees, the woods appeared, wild and beautiful again
It was a fun and relaxing day for everyone, and so delightfully cool! We started this tradition of a fall picnic when we realized our summer picnic (held around the 4th of July) comes at a time when it is too hot to go outside and walk around or play games. Sometimes it’s still hot even in October, but this year the weather cooperated!
May you be blessed with abundant peace, this fall and always.
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 