Father is a member of our Southern Province of Dominican friars. He hails from Nachitoches, LA, which is interestingly enough not all that far from Lufkin. (Nacogodoches, TX, its twin city, is only about a half hour drive from us.) So Father would often stop by the monastery for a fraternal visit on his way to or from home. He has also given us classes and conducted a retreat for us.
Father has had many jobs in the province, including novice master, prior, pastor, and chaplain at college Newman Centers. In fact, his previous assignment was with the campus ministry at Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX.
Father is a true Dominican–very itinerant, traveling around giving retreats and classes and preaching and visiting his many friends throughout the country. He also publishes online reflections called “RBWords”, which can be found at rbwords.com. We encourage you to check them out!
We feel truly blessed to have Father R.B. with us. We hope you’ll stay a while, Father!
Fr. Reginald Baconin had something else on his Texas bucket list…he wanted the chance to ride a horse! He already had two cowboy hats (no boots, yet) so he was raring to go. Our workman David has a lot of horse connections and one warm Sunday evening in August, a horse appeared at the monastery!
David Bomer, our workman, with his daughter Rebecca, and her husband Jaime and their horse.
Fr. Reginald was thrilled! He mounted, and rode around the front driveway of our monastery.
Ride em, cowboy!
Most of us looked on with delighted enjoyment as Father put the horse through its paces.
Gradually, we lost our shyness and began to make friends with the horse.
He was just a big sweetheart really.
And some sisters decided to try riding the horse themselves!
Sr. Mary Giuse
Sr. Mary Rose
Sr. Mary Christine, our novice mistress, rounds up the novitiate sisters.
Sr. Mary Rose, Sr. Mary Jeremiah, Fr. Reginald, and Sr. Mary Margaret
In case you’re wondering–yes, David brought the horse inside the enclosure so we could visit with it. Who would have ever thought a horse would visit us, and even give rides!
Just a couple of days after this momentous event, Fr. Reginald had to leave us and return to his home province of Toulouse in France. But before he left, we gave him a Texas-sized sendoff–including his own honorary Texas citizenship and a Texas passport so he can return someday.
Don’t leave home without them!
In fact, Fr. Reginald is already planning to return to East Texas next summer, when he will preach a mission at one of our local parishes. We look forward to seeing him again. His father will retire in about five years, and Fr. Reginald hopes to bring him to East Texas to experience all the wonders of the Piney Woods. (They’re also planning to see the Alamo and some other Texas sites, naturally.)
We are always happy to welcome Dominican visitors–indeed all visitors–to our monastery for prayer, for Mass, and for silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We cannot guarantee a horseback ride, however!
On July 29–the feast of St. Martha–Sr. Maria Goretti began her novitiate with our community. Some of you may be aware that Sister had been a member of our community many years before, and left to join a Franciscan order. We’re happy that she came back! Everyone assumed she would keep the name “Sister Maria Goretti” since she has had it for so long (both here and elsewhere). To our surprise, a box and slips of paper were set out with it a sign: “Guess Sister’s New Name”. What?? Sr. Mary Margaret only smiled mysteriously.
The clothing was held in the morning, in our chapter hall. Since Sister was changing into our Dominican habit from her Franciscan habit, we did the full ceremony.
Sister Maria Goretti answers the questions put to her.
After being vested in the habit, the new veil is deftly slipped on to replace the old one.
Just a little adjustment needed…Perfect!
Sister is vested in the cappa, which we wear during the Triduum and for certain ceremonies (like this one–but today only Sr. Mary Christine and Sr. Mary Margaret are wearing it)..
Finally, after greeting the community, the great moment came.
“In the Order of Preachers, your name will be: Sr. Maria of Jesus.”
We all cheered with relief and joy and a little confusion. The new Sr. Maria quickly explained that she plans to keep St. Maria Goretti as her patroness, but decided to drop the “Goretti” because people often assume it’s her last name. Sr. Maria’s last name is Italian but it is nothing like Goretti! Following this, we read the guesses the Sisters had submitted, and had a good laugh to get ready for dinner.
Yummy Louisiana style shrimp gumbo for dinner!
After dinner we had our traditional party in the novitiate. Sr. Marie Augustine made an assortment of delicious cookies, and tea was served as well. We all enjoyed recreating together, and watching Sr. Maria open her many gifts.
Can I wear these socks with my habit?
We are blessed to have Sr. Maria back with us as a member of our community. Please continue to keep Sister–and all our novitiate sisters–in your prayers as they progress through their time of formation!
Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Maria, and Sr. Mary Margaret
Hey, all y’all! It’s been a long time since we’ve had a chance to catch our breath and write something for this blog! Today we have some time so we’re bringing you a good old Texas roundup of some of the various events that have made our summer exciting (and busy).
Not long after Sr. Mary Veronica’s jubilee celebration, we welcomed Fr. Reginald Baconin, O.P. to our monastery for a couple of months.
Fr. Reginald comes from the province of Toulouse in France, but has been studying in Rome at the Angelicum. He is working on two licentiates at the same time–one on Trinitarian theology and one on Islamology. He speaks English beautifully, with almost no accent, and we were delighted to have him celebrate Mass for us–and give us some classes.
At the end of June, we had a farewell recreation with Fr. Ian.
Sr. Martin Marie crocheted this classic-looking scarf for him, which he was happy to receive.
We also gave him a Dominican coffee mug:
We are sad to see Fr. Ian leave, but know he is needed at his new assignment, which is much more challenging than the one he had here. We are proud of Father for finishing his doctorate and getting his degree. Hopefully he will come back someday, to give classes or even a retreat!
On June 30, Sarah Larmore entered as a postulant.
Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Marie Augustine, Sarah, Michelle, and Sr. Maria Goretti
Sarah could hardly wait to begin her life as a cloistered contemplative nun!
On July 1, we had our 4th of July picnic. We like to have our picnic celebration on Satursdays if possible.
Here we are, all decked out for the traditional flag raising after Midmorning Prayer.
We had a joyful day of food, fun, games, conversation, and patriotic fervor.
As is our custom on the Fourth of July, we sang “My Country ’tis of Thee” from the Summit Choirbook at Vespers. While we were all filled with love for our nation, Fr, Reginald (joining us for Vespers in the outside chapel) was perplexed. He asked us later, “Why did you sing ‘God Save The King’ to celebrate July 4?”
And as it happens, July 4 is Fr. Reginald’s birthday! We had a special recreation with him that night.
Fr. Reginald has been a big Texas fan for many years, thanks to his father’s love for John Wayne movies (especially “The Alamo”), and various people in our community took him on many Texas adventures, including visits to a Native American reservation, Nacogdoches TX (the oldest town in Texas), the San Jacinto battlefield, and, yes, the Alamo! He bought this hat for himself soon after his arrival, but we had some gifts for him, too–especially this one:
A T-shirt that proudly proclaims, “Texas–Bigger than France”! He loves it!
A few days later we had a visit from our Southern Province novices. We’re happy to say all five of them made profession! Please pray for them, and for the upcoming novitiate class.
We have even more news to share with you, but this is enough for now. We plan to post the rest of the recent news soon. For now, we hope you enjoy this glimpse inside the boring and monotonous life of the cloister! (And yes, we always keep our prayer schedule–even on holidays.)
We recently got s new phone and internet system! The good news: The reception is crystal clear and our internet is much faster. The bad news: We’re still working all the bugs out of the phones.
The old phone.
The new phone.
As you can see, in many ways the phones are similar. But you will also notice how many more buttons the new phone has, giving us more opportunities to be in contact with people–and also, more ways to drop calls! We hope you will be patient with us while we continue to work on learning how to use the new phones and also get all the technical issues worked out. We’re really very excited about this–our first new phones in about 20 years–and we are so grateful to Javier and his team at Innovative Office Systems, all of whom have been so kind about coming out to help and give tutorials and fix problems.
Please note that we only have one phone number now–the one listed here on our blog and on our website.
Thank you for your patience! We hope these upgrades will make it easier for all of us to stay in contact!
Sr. Mary Veronica of the Holy Face, O.P., recently celebrated 75 years of profession as a cloistered Dominican nun!
Sister Mary Veronica, herself
The celebration was so big it stretched over several days. Everything began on the evening of June 18, when we had a gift table for Sister.
Sister has always had a strong devotion to Our Lady of La Salette.
She received all kinds of unique and creative gifts, most handmade by the sisters.
Many of these she was able to give as gifts to her friends and relatives who attended the jubilee Mass the next day. Which was just perfect!
June 19 was the Mass itself, celebrated by Bishop Eduardo Nevares, auxiliary bishop of Phoenix AZ and a good friend of the community for many years. His concelebrants were Fr. Ian Bordenave, O.P., our chaplain, Fr. Denzil Vithanage, pastor of St Patrick’s parish here in Lufkin, and Fr. Ron Foshage, M.S., one of our confessors.
You can see a video Fr. Denzil made of the Jubilee Mass here!
Sr. Mary Veronica and Sr. Mary Margaret bringing up the gifts
Most of the community (with the priests and bishop) following Mass
On Saturday, June 24, we had our day of community celebration in honor of Sister’s jubilee.
Sister Mary Veronica greeted with her jubilee song, “Jubilate Deo”
The novitiate band: Sr. Maria Goretti on accordion, Sr. Mary Pauline on guitar, Sr. Marie Augustine playing the drums, MIchelle playing the cymbal, and Sr. Mary Christine on xylophone and bamboo.
It’s a soup pot! The novitiate also sang and danced to a fun song called, “We’re Swimming In The Same Soup” about getting along harmoniously–very appropriate for our multicultural and multiracial community!
Sr. Maria Cabrini shared some puns and jokes.
We never get tired of hearing Sr. Maria Goretti play the accordion!
After a talking meal and some time to rest, we returned in the afternoon for a treat and games.
Sr. Mary Jeremiah tries her luck!
To finish the day, we watched the movie “Hidden Figures” during evening recreation. This true story of Black women at NASA during the 1960s was inspiring and enjoyable. We finished it on Sunday evening. Then, we showed some old home movies on Monday night!
Whew! It’s been quite a time! But after all…how often does one celebrate her 75th jubilee? Here’s hoping you make it to your 80th–and even beyond!
We came out of retreat this morning! Out of the woods, and back into the clearings of civilization (or something).
We had a fantastic retreat preached by Fr. James M. Sullivan, O.P., currently stationed at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI. Father jokingly said the theme of the retreat would be, “All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned in the Novitiate”, and it truly was a most excellent review of the basic principles and foundations of Dominican life. There were conferences on the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity, and obedience), the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) and trust in God. Father also gave wonderful homilies every morning. We’re so glad we recorded everything and can listen again some time!
Father giving a conference in our chapel
Father is very animated, so it was a challenge to get pictures during his conferences. So…
…he allowed one of the sisters to snap his picture during a session of private direction.
Thank you for everything, Father Sullivan! We hope to see you again some day!
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 