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We\’ve had an exceptionally busy May, with lots of people coming to visit us! Here\’s a roundup of some of the friars and priests who have come to see us recently. 

Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ came by on his way to a liturgical convention in Houston. Father resides in the Chicago area so we don\’t see him too often, but he is always in our prayers! Sr. Mary Margaret is standing with him in the parlor. 

Father Art Kirwin, OP (on the right) brought our two Southern Province novices to visit us on their way back from the Provincial Assembly to the novitiate in Irving, TX. We are always so glad to see our former chaplain, Fr. Art, and we were delighted to meet the two novices! We are praying for your perseverance!

Fr. Thomas Condon, OP, Provincial of the Southern Province (St. Martin de Porres Province USA, to give the official name) also stopped by for the weekend. We are so glad to have him here! This is his first visit to us as Provincial (you may recall he visited us as one of our temporary chaplains in the summer of 2013) and we were interested to hear the news of the province and things he has been doing.

We have also had family visits and others \”just stopping by to say hello\”. It is a great opportunity to meet the people we pray for every day and it encourages us to keep those prayers going! So if you are in the area and want to stop by and pray or say hello, please do so!

We just enjoyed several days of conferences on canon law and other things with Fr. Juan-Diego Brunetta, OP, from the province of St. Joseph (also known as the Eastern Province). It was a wonderful experience!

Father in the parlor, telling his story. Father is from New Jersey and had to try to slow down his normally rapid speech in order to communicate with East Texans!

 Father seated during a conference. For some of the sisters, Father\’s talks were an introduction to canon law and we were pleasantly surprised to find that it is not quite as mysterious and forbidding as one might imagine. Note that we brought our statue of St. Juan Diego over to the table in his honor!

As mentioned above, Fr. Brunetta discussed a wide variety of topics with us, ranging from canon law to Pope Francis to the Dominican Order and the Dominican Family (these two are not exactly the same, as we learned!).  He allowed us to \”interrupt\” his lectures with our questions, too, which he was always able to answer. It was a fantastic series of conferences and we were reluctant to bring it to a close. We really enjoyed our time with Fr. Brunetta, and hope he will be able to stop by again someday.

Fr. Cesar Valero Bajo, OP, who is the Promoter of the Nuns for the Dominican Order, came to visit our monastery! We had a wonderful time meeting with him and listening to what he had to say. 

Fr. Cesar is from Spain, and his English is really good!

Sr. Maria Guadalupe and Fr. Cesar

Fr. Cesar exhorts the community to love all our Dominican sisters. We do, Father!

On Wednesday evening after the meetings, we had a grand Texas-style program for Father. Note his hat!

 Fr. Cesar and Sr. Mary Thomas, editor of \”Monialibus\” (a Dominican nuns\’ publication)

Fr. Cesar with Sr. Mary Margaret (our sub-prioress, left) and Sr. Maria Guadalupe (prioress, right)

Almost the entire community with Fr. Cesar!

We were so enriched by Father Cesar\’s visit and hope he will be able to come to Texas again someday!

Our novitiate is always busy doing something fun! Today our two postulants, with Sr. Mary Rose (our novice directress) made a scrumptious two-layer chocolate cake, decorated with chocolate chips and Peeps.

 The cake was baked this morning, and during noon recreation we decorated it.

Icing it carefully…

More icing? Definitely!

Setting the Peeps on the top…the trick is to leave them stuck together.

Each chocolate chip was placed in just the right spot! You can see our inspiration in the lower left hand corner–Sr. Mary Rose found this great idea in the April 2015 issue of Guideposts magazine!

 And the finished product–a lovely sunflower Peeps cake! It\’s almost too pretty to eat, but after all, we have these pictures to remember it by! Yum!

From left to right: Sr. Mary Gabriel, Cloe, Sr. Mary Rose, and Lesley

It\’s been a busy week! There\’s always a lot of extra liturgy during the Easter Octave and we\’ve been trying to fit in our daily work and activities around it! But we love it! Finally we have a chance today to share some of our Easter decor.

One side of the refectory (the other side is the same, only there are windows on that side). All the decorations were donated over the years by generous benefactors and we thank them! (We made the banners, though!) 

The center of the refectory! The novitiate constructed an \”Easter mountain\” somehow and highlighted it with Easter flowers and a spotlight (you can see the shadow on the wall!). They also used this classic banner made some years ago but still a favorite. In case you can\’t read it, it says \”Worthy is the Lamb\”. Amen! Alleluia!

We hope you are enjoying a blessed Easter season and remember, it lasts until May 24th, Pentecost! So celebrate! Christ is risen!!