New Things Afoot

Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.com

We have some minor changes here at the Monastery…and on our website! We’ve uploaded the Fall issue of “Monastery Bells”, our newsletter, and you can view it as a PDF by going to https://lufkintxnuns.org/monastery-bells-newsletter. While there, you can also check out some of our back issues, which include news about our Jubilee, the infamous “snowpocalypse” of February 2021, and other things. As always, if you’d like to receive “Monastery Bells” via snail mail, just send us an email with your address and we’ll send it to you! No charge, and we never sell our address list.

The other change involves time–that is, the schedule. We’re trying something new to see how it works out. Most of the day–including Mass times–won’t be affected at all, but we will now have Compline followed by Benediction at 8 PM every night. This is just a trial, so we’ll let you know if it becomes permanent. If you’d like to check out the rest of our schedule, please visit our website. We’re always happy for people to come and join us for prayers, or adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or just some quiet time in chapel. God bless you!

Prioral Feast Day

We’ve been meaning to post this for a while…things have been a little busy! It all happened back in September, on the feast of the Holy Cross, to be exact. Sr. Mary Margaret’s actual feast day (for St. Margaret of Hungary) falls on January 18, which is too close to Christmas and Epiphany for a big day, so we celebrate it on her “mystery” day — she is Sr. Mary Margaret of the Cross. We had a fun-filled two days of games, refreshments, and a movie! Our theme for the feast was “Monastic Olympics”–but instead of doing the usual kinds of Olympic feats, our sisters competed in various monastic fields such as sweeping floors, bowing in choir, and other events.

For the Olympics, you’ve got to have medals!
Singing the feast day song to start everything off

As you can see, Sister received lots of homemade gifts to give away–just what she asked for!

Ice cream floats in the afternoon

We all had a great time, and we enjoyed the movie the next day, too!

75th Jubilee Mass!

We’re celebrating our 75th Jubilee! Finally…after postponing it a year (thank you COVID) we’re having our Mass of thanksgiving for 75th years in the Piney Woods of East Texas, praying, praising and interceding. If you’re in the Lufkin area on November 9 at 10:00 AM, you’re welcome to join us! We do ask that you wear a mask. If you can’t be with us in person, please join us in prayer!

It’s Here!

The Catholic East Texas Video we told you about!

A while back, we mentioned that the St. Philip Institute here in our diocese of Tyler, TX came out to interview two of our sisters for a feature called “East Texas Catholics”. Well, the video is up and we hope you’ll check it out! You can see it here on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFLErzBQdn8 or watch it on our website. Enjoy!

Vocations in Black and White

St. Augustine

The Lord grant that you may observe all these precepts in a spirit of charity as lovers of spiritual beauty, giving forth the good odor of Christ in the holiness of your lives; not as slaves living under the law but as women living in freedom under grace.

The Rule of St. Augustine (followed by the Dominican nuns)

Raffle!

Drawing for prizes!

It’s that time of year again! We had our raffle drawing on August 22, and we’re so grateful to all the people who entered. As usual, it was so much fun we drew a few extra tickets for “surprise prizes”.

Sr. Mary Margaret shaking the tickets up really well
Who will it be?
Picking and grinning!
One of Sr. Mary Therese’s beautiful knitted creations
A surprise kittycat for one lucky winner

And people seemed delighted to receive their prizes, too, which made us happy.

Winner of a “Precious Moments” cross-stitch
His wife won it–but maybe they can share?

If you’d like a chance to win one of our great prizes next year, please send us an email with your name and mailing address, and we’ll put you on our newsletter list! Our newsletter, “Monastery Bells”, comes out twice a year, and we also send a Christmas card (with pocket calendar) and the raffle tickets. We won’t bother you too much, and we never sell our list!

Thanks again to everyone who made our 2021 Raffle so successful! We are deeply grateful for all your support, spiritual and temporal.

Happy Birthday, Sr. Maria Rosario!

We’ve got a lot of birthdays in August, and since this one was an important milestone, we had homemade cake and ice cream!

Our span is seventy years, and eighty for those who are strong! (Ps 90:10)

Sister Maria Rosario comes from Cuba, where she still has some family. Most of them, however, live in the States, and some were able to join her for this special occasion.

Sr. Maria Rosario has held many jobs in our monastery, working especially in the infirmary and diet kitchen (where special meals are prepared for those who need them). Her loving and nurturing ways make her a natural when it comes to health care!

These jobs are challenging ones, and Sister does them with her usual grace and good-natured style. We pray that she will keep active for many more years to come!