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May Novena 2013

It\’s May, and that means it\’s time again for our May novena! If you receive \”Monastery Bells\” via snail mail, you got a novena slip which you can mail back to us with your prayer intentions, but if not, we still encourage you to send us your intentions here. We always remember the intentions of our blog readers in a general way, but perhaps you have some special prayer intention you would like us to keep in mind in a particular way this May. A big part of our novena is our procession out to the statue of Our Lady of the Pines each night, singing the Litany of Loreto as we go. We pray especially for the intercession of Our Lady, Queen of the most holy rosary, for you and all your intentions during this beautiful month of May.

Joseph and Jeremiah

Today is the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. In addition to his many other patronal duties, St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus, is the patron saint of workers. This memorial was established to counter the Communist celebration of work on May Day (May 1), and it\’s a good opportunity to meditate on the ways we can sanctify our work and also allow work to lead us to holiness.

In the Orthodox Christian calendar, it\’s the feast of Jeremiah the prophet.

\”Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, 
whose hope is in the Lord!
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the streams; 
It fears not the hear when it comes, 
its leaves stay green. 
In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.\” 
Jeremiah 17:7-8

May you be blessed today in your labors and always keep your trust fixed on the Lord! 

Spaghetti Dinner Report!

As you may be aware, some good friends of the Monastery held a chicken spaghetti dinner for the benefit of the Monastery and particularly to raise money for our much-needed generator about two weeks ago. We\’re delighted to report that it was a huge success! In fact, although the dinner was supposed to last until 7:30 PM, they ran out of food long before then! We are so grateful to all the many good people who organized this dinner and made sure everything involved (food, supplies, etc.) was donated–we never could have done this! And we are also grateful for all who came and ate and participated in the raffle and donated to our cause. We are still in need of some funds to get our generator all paid for, but this event certainly helped tremendously! We are really overwhelmed by all the generosity and kindness the community of Lufkin (and the wider community outside our town, who have sent donations and prayers) has shown us. May God bless you all and reward you abundantly! We are keeping you all in our prayers, too!

Praying for Boston and West, TX

 

This has been a difficult week for us in many ways, especially as we have said our final (in this life) goodbyes to our Sr. Mary Agnes. But we have been keeping the situations in Boston and West, TX in our hearts and minds and prayers. We have family members and friends who live in Boston and friends and former students who live in West, TX. We keep all these in our special prayers as we pray constantly to God for peace for our troubled world and an end to violence of any kind.

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

 
This Sunday in the season of Easter is traditionally known as \”Good Shepherd Sunday\” because of the Gospel readings, but it also happens to be the World Day of Prayers for Vocations! You can see the connection! 
Now, if you are considering a religious vocation–we hope you might consider the Dominicans! Our Order is composed of nuns, friars, active sisters, and laity. If you\’re a young woman interested in the contemplative life we hope you will check out the nuns–hopefully our monastery! We are a vibrant community who pray the entire Liturgy of the Hours every day, have daily Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We wear the habit and are joyfully faithful to the Church. And we have a good time doing all this! For more information about our community, we encourage you to check out our website. Or send us an email and we\’d be delighted to send you some information via snail mail, too. 
Now, if you\’re a man interested in religious life–or a young woman interested in active religious life–we still encourage you to check out the Dominicans! There are four provinces of Dominican friars in the United States and numerous congregations of active sisters who follow the Dominican charism. Maybe God is calling you to one of these!
Today is a great day to start discerning whether you might have a religious vocation and maybe begin actively looking into where God might be calling you. We have a group of young women from our diocese who are coming to our monastery to do just that today! Wherever God is calling you, know that you are in our prayers!

Remembering Sister Mary Agnes

Today is the feast of St. Agnes of Montepulciano–which was Sr. Mary Agnes\’ feast day–so it seems an appropriate day to remember her!

Sister Mary Agnes began her religious life in St. Catharine, Kentucky with the Dominican sisters there (now the Dominican Sisters of Peace). She entered in September 1943 and made her first profession on August 15, 1945. On June 17, 1955, Sister Mary Agnes transferred to our monastery.

Sister held many positions in our monastery, including bursar (treasurer), sub-prioress, and prioress. For many years she also worked in the Infant Jesus Guild office, answering mail and creating beautiful enrollments.

Sister loved writing letters to her family and friends–whether on a typewriter or (later) on the computer!

She came from Nebraska and always followed the Nebraska sports teams carefully.
 Sr. Mary Agnes was a true community person. Here we see her pulling a raffle ticket from our large dryer in April 2012.
She had a great sense of humor and a wonderful smile!
Sister Mary Agnes on her 90th birthday
Sister Mary Agnes spent countless hours at prayer, interceding for the world. She was a lot of fun to be around, too. We miss her, but we know she has gone to God and we live in the hope that one day we will see her again!

Rosary and Funeral Mass Times for Sister Mary Agnes

The Rosary for Sister Mary Agnes will be on Monday, April 15 at 7:00 PM in the Monastery chapel.

Sister Mary Agnes\’ funeral Mass will be on Tuesday, April 16 at 2:00 PM in the Monastery chapel, procession to the cemetery and burial following (weather permitting).

For more information on funerals at the Monastery, we encourage you to check out our Spring 2012 issue of \”Monastery Bells\”, here.