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In October they truly went beyond the call of duty by presenting us with another very large check to help complete our Air Conditioning Project.

Prioress Sister Mary Margaret happily holds a check for $25,000 from our Local Knights of Columbus. We are more than half-way finished with the Project. All the nuns have the individual units in their cells (private rooms). Now the workmen are replacing general units in the hall, plus a large one for our Chapter Hall (large meeting room for official ceremonies).

The rogue’s gallery of our Masters General who have visited our Monastery. The smaller picture to the right of the large one is our current Provincial.

Now that we have a new prioress, that means we will be celebrating a big feast on a different date. Sister Mary Margaret has usually celebrated her Feast Day on January 18 – the feast of St. Margaret of Hungary. St. Margaret was a Dominican Nun  in Hungary not long after the life of St. Dominic, our founder. But January is too close to all the festivities of Christmas and Epiphany, so we have chosen to celebrate her feast on October 16, the Memorial of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, whose feast she celebrated when she was a Springfield IL Dominican Sister.

We had a wonderful and joyous day, enjoying the company and talents of one another. In the morning we had various games and funny stories. One of the games was “Pictionary” as you can see below!

Anyone can play this game, even from a wheelchair.

We ate our festive dinner in the Community Room in order to talk and laugh. In the afternoon, we enjoyed “Punch & Presents”.  Here you can see some of her handmade gifts.

The gift table after everything was opened.

Sister Mary Giuse and one of the stuffed butterflies she made.

Sister Mary Christine holding an exquisite butterfly she “etched” out of styrofoam.

Sister Mary Margaret holding some animal and dogs made by Sister Irma Marie.

Sister showing off her new yarn. Sister Mary Margaret is a great crocheter!

Some of the Sisters learned that the prioress\’ favorite color is purple, so it was everywhere …  as well as butterflies!

Then, in the evening some of our Sisters shared with us brand-new talents we had never seen before-Swimming, Tai-Chi, Linguistics, Tae-Kwan-Do, Jokes. We hope to see them again

As Linda makes her Promises to the former president, the incoming president looks on.

In the photo below we have the “officials” of the Chapter with their Religious Assistant and our Chaplain.

Left to right: Maria Burt-Treasurer, Dr. Matt Rowley-Secretary; Virginia Carlin-Vice President; Jesus Reyes Jr-President; and Fr. John Lydon, OP.

Below is a photo of our lovely chapel this morning just after the celebration of the Mass. We had the entire Dominican Family present. Of chaplain, Fr. John Lydon represented the Friars, we were the Nuns, the Sisters were represented by the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima from Puerto Rico who have been in our diocese for about five years, and also several members of the Dominican Laity were also present.