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Annual Retreat 2013

Most people who go on retreat like to go somewhere beautiful…and who can blame them, since the beauty of God\’s creation often brings us closer to Him? But we are fortunate in that we have a lot of natural beauty without having to travel outside our cloister walls.

The monastery lake and surrounding forest
Some of the monastery buildings. The main building is on the left (you can\’t see it) and the professed dormitories and Chapter Hall are on the right.
Of course, being on retreat also means cultivating the inner life…

…through the gift of extra time for prayer, reading, and lectio divina. But many sisters enjoy a walk outside, especially since the weather is starting to be a little bit cool. (For Texas, of course!)

Fr. Gerard Austin, OP will be our retreat master this year and we are looking forward to hearing his conferences!

Please keep us in your prayers and know that we will be praying for you as well. We will be checking in on emails, etc. but not too often so please be patient if you need to contact us during retreat time!

St. Therese and her Roses from Heaven

On this feast of St. Therese of Lisieux we invite you again this year to encourage anyone you know who might have a vocation to the religious life to consider his or her call. There are many ways to do this…the classic way for devotees of St. Therese is to give the person in question a rose. This is because people who pray to St. Therese for a favor usually request that she send a rose as confirmation that she got the message, so to speak, and is passing it on to God.

It doesn\’t have to be an actual rose…it could be a picture, a symbol, even someone\’s name. (Did we mention our novice directress is named Sr. Mary Rose?)

Anyway, if you know someone who\’s considering religious life, maybe God (through St. Therese) is giving you a nudge today to help that person in his or her discernment. Or maybe you\’re discerning yourself and have been waiting to see if any roses unexpectedly show up. If so–maybe this is your sign!

Stuffing, Sealing, Labeling, Mailing

Yes, it\’s that time of the year again–time to get the latest issue of \”Monastery Bells\” ready for mailing! If you\’re one of our snail mail subscribers, we\’ll be mailing them out probably around October 7–and if you prefer to view the Bells online, we hope to post it around the same time. We\’ll let you know when this most recent Bells goes out to the world! 
Meanwhile, we\’ve been busy–not only composing the Bells but trying to get them stuffed into envelopes, then sealing the envelopes, and finally labeling the envelopes for mailing. It\’s quite a job!
Sr. Mary Annunciata, Sr. Mary Regina and Sr. Mary Sybillina hard at work, with Sr. Mary Dominic and Sr. Mary Gabriel in the background
Sr. Mary Veronica and Sr. Miriam labelling
Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Magdalene, Sr. Bernadette Marie, and Sr. Marie Augustine all sealing envelopes
Sr. Mary Regina, Sr. Mary Sybillina, Sr. Mary John and Sr. Mary Annunciata
Why are we working on the Bells now since we\’re not sending them until October 7? Well, our annual retreat begins next week–and we want to be able to spend our extra time praying, et cetera! We\’ll have more to say about this in a few days. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for the Bells! If you would like to receive the Bells via snail mail–it\’s absolutely free!–just send us your name and address and we\’ll put you on the list for our Christmas mailing. This will include our beautiful Christmas card and pocket calendar designed by the nuns! Of course, we don\’t sell or share our mailing lists with anyone. Sorry, we can\’t mail the Bells outside the United States.

Exaltation of the Cross, 2013

\”Those who believe in Jesus, crucified and risen, carry the cross in triumph as an indisputable proof that God is love. With the total gift of himself on the cross, our Savior decisively conquered sin and death.\” –Blessed Pope John Paul II
 
We all carry our crosses in life, as individuals, as communities. But this heavy, sometimes almost unbearable burden becomes easier to shoulder when we remember that we always have the help of Jesus as we go on our way. Jesus understands our sorrows, our pain, our hurts, our utter anguish better than anyone. He knows what we are going through and how much we can bear, and he does not ask more of us than he knows we can do. Sometimes–often–this seems impossible to understand. But we are asked to trust in Jesus, and keep walking on, carrying our cross with his help. God gave his only Son because he loved the world and wanted to redeem it. Can we accept that he loves us enough to ask us to share in our own small way in this work?

St. John Chrysostom

All the sisters here at the Monastery have been praying for peace in Syria and the world, but some have been praying for this peace particularly through the intercession of St. John Chrysostom, who has a Syrian background. In the homily we read at Office of Readings today, he says: \”If Christ is with me, whom shall I fear? Though the waves and the sea and the anger of princes are roused against me, they are less to me than a spider\’s web…I always say: Lord, your will be done; not what this fellow or that would have me do, but what you want me to do.\” Truly God is our ultimate refuge and our strong support in this world of conflict and violence. May peace come to Syria and all the Middle East and the world!
We continue to pray for peace, through the intercession of all the saints of Syria, including Afraate, Ephraim, Simon the Stylite, Isaac of Nineveh, John Chrysostom and John Damascene, not to mention our Lady, Queen of Peace.

Holy Hour for Peace

Responding to Pope Francis\’ call for a day of fasting and prayers for peace, we will be having a Holy Hour at our monastery on September 7, 2013. It will begin with silent prayer in common at 7 PM, and conclude with Compline and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. If you are in the Lufkin area, please consider joining us as we pray for peace in Syria and the world! Even if you cannot come please say a prayer and fast in some way for this important cause and this difficult situation. As Tennyson once wrote, \”More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of\”!

Questions Answered: August Edition

In this occasional series, we answer questions that come up. If you have a question you\’d like to ask, feel free!

Q: I notice you added a contact form to the blog. Why is that?
A: For people to make contact! If you would like us to pray for you, or if you are discerning a vocation and would like to speak to our vocation directress, you can leave a message either on the blog, or on our website here. We added the form to the blog so there are more options available. We try to respond to everyone who contacts us.

Q: Did some of the sisters change jobs? I noticed some changes on the website community page.
A: Yes! As readers of this blog probably know, we elected a new prioress, Sr. Maria Guadalupe, in July and when a prioress is elected (or re-elected) all the other jobs are subject to change as well. We have a new novice directress, Sr. Mary Rose, and a new vocation directress, Sr. Mary Jeremiah, in addition to many other changes. We will have some more on this in the next issue of our newsletter, \”Monastery Bells\”, which is available either by snail mail or on our website.

You can leave a question for us in the comments box, or use either contact form (website or blog), or just email us. Our email address is on our website.