Category: Uncategorized

We Need A Little Christmas

 This song is so appropriate this year! It made its debut in Jerry Herman’s Broadway musical Mame in 1966, when Mame sang it to cheer up her nephew and servants after losing everything in the 1929 stock market crash. We’ve heard stories that many people are buying real Christmas trees and putting up extra lights and decorations as a way of cheering themselves up during this crazy year. And although we don\’t usually decorate until about right now, our workmen felt we needed a little Christmas and put up some lights both inside and outside the monastery this year!

Front of monastery
Infirmary yard with Infant Jesus
Our Lady of Fatima
The hedge by the carport
Our bell tower

We also have some decorating going on right now, as you can see…

My, what big poinsettias you have!
Our Lady with Jesus and their decorator, Sr. Mary Giuse

We\’re still decorating, and we plan to bring you more pictures when we\’re finished! These may come after the actual date of Christmas (that is, December 25) but remember, the Christmas season lasts until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which is on January 10th this year. So during this year when we “need a little Christmas” in a particular way, remember you can celebrate for much longer than the secular world would have you believe! (In the old days, the Christmas season lasted until February 2, but even we think that’s a little long.)

Christmas is always a special time for us here at the Monastery, since it is also “our” feast day. We are, after all, the Monastery of the Infant Jesus. We hope you will have a happy and blessed Christmas, and know that we are praying for all of you!

Another Visit from St. Nicholas

Wow! Not one, but two visits from St. Nicholas this year! The good saint must be making extra rounds to cheer people up during this pandemic.

One evening, as we were gathered at recreation, we heard sleigh bells down the hall! One of the sisters opened the door and in drove St. Nicholas on his motorized chair. (Too much walking, no doubt.) After regaling us with riddles and bad puns, St. Nick and his elfin helper distributed a stocking to each sister. Sorry we didn’t get a picture this time!

Among other useful gifts, each sister received a little stuffed toy–a toucan–and a hand-knitted washcloth.

We had such a good time, groaning at the puns and sharing each other’s company and opening our stockings. This is a good example of what Jesus meant when He said we should become like little children. Not childish, not naive, but women (and men) mature enough to enjoy the little surprises and joys of life with honest wonder and delight. If we have to remain bored sophisticates all our lives, how will we react to the wonders of Heaven? How will we react to the wonders God does in our fellow men and women every day, even in ourselves? Joy is not dependent on circumstance. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit that God gives to each one of us day by day. It\’s up to us to enter into it!

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

 Yesterday, on the memorial of St. Nicholas (December 6), the saint paid us an unexpected visit. We must have been good girls this year!

Note that St. Nicholas is observing medical protocol by wearing a mask!

St. Nicholas came to visit the children at one of our local parishes, and stopped by after Mass to give us his greetings, too–as well as gifts of booklets about his life and times and (chocolate) gold coins. He also left a special treat for breakfast–fresh doughnuts!

Our prioress, Sr. Mary Margaret, with St. Nicholas’ presents

The story of how St. Nicholas helped three penniless sisters get married by dropping bags of gold coins down the chimney and into their stockings, hung by the fire to dry, is more or less well known. Interestingly, there is another popular story associated with St. Nicholas and his attendance at the Council of Nicaea. There’s only one questionable account of this episode, but it’s the kind of thing you almost wish was true because it’s just so…well, read on!

According to the legend, St. Nicholas was attending the Council of Nicaea and got a little testy when he heard the heretic Arius expounding the idea that Jesus was not truly God and man, but only man–created by God, not one being with Him. As he put it, “There was a time when the Son was not.” Arius, who must have been a charismatic speaker and who definitely had an idea people liked (the Arian heresy was a big problem in the early church) seemed to be winning the day when:

“After the king seated himself on the throne, one hundred and fifty nine fathers seated themselves at either side of him, both they and Arius arguing with much unease.  Saint Nicholas, noticing that Arius was about to quash all the archpriests and moved by divine zeal, rose up and gave him a slap that shook all his members.“

This is recounted The Life of St. Nicholas composed by Damascenos the Monk in the 16th century. Since the Council of Nicaea took place in the 4th century (325 AD, to be exact) it’s certainly possible that some things got exaggerated or even just made up. Still, it gives us some fun Catholic memes to celebrate the memorial, such as this one: 

See, you can combine sound theology with popular culture!

A Mass for the Dead

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Fr. Denzil Vithanage came to our monastery to celebrate a Mass for all the deceased religious of the Tyler diocese. We found out after Mass that he videoed the whole thing, and posted it on YouTube! While you can\’t see us (except maybe briefly at the end) you can hear us singing, and Father’s Mass was quite lovely. Our chaplain, Fr. John Lydon, concelebrated the Mass. Please consider checking it out!

So Thankful and Blessed

This Thanksgiving weekend has been kind of busy–you\’ll see what happened in a later post! But we wanted to share some of our Thanksgiving preparations with you. We had a lot of fun setting up the community room for our traditional “talking” Thanksgiving meal.

Setting out the tablecloths
Admiring our Thanksgiving-themed paper plates
Bengal Spice herbal tea–a gift from a Sister’s family!
The finished room
Last minute cooking and prep
Off to set the table!
Singing our Thanksgiving grace
Another view of the grace
The inevitable clean up–it wasn’t too bad
We are so thankful for the many blessings God has given us this past year, even in the midst of COVID-19 and other disasters. We had food to eat and good company, and we\’re well aware of the many people who had to sacrifice one or both of those things this year. We thank God for bringing us together as a monastic family, where we strive to love one another and build each other up in charity and peace.
May this coming Advent be a time of joyful expectation as we await the coming of our Savior!

Celebrating Our 75th Jubilee!

Today marks the 75th anniversary of our monastery\’s establishment here in Lufkin! We had big plans for today: a Mass with numerous concelebrants, a reception, visits, souvenirs…but all that went by the wayside when COVID-19 came along. We hope to reschedule these events later, but for now our celebration has been scaled back a lot. Nevertheless, we are still celebrating!

We published a long and informative article on the history of our monastery in the latest issue of our newsletter, “Monastery Bells”. If you don\’t receive the Bells, you can read it here.

 (By the way, if you\’re interested in receiving our newsletter in your snail mailbox, please go to the email address on our website and send us your name and address! It\’s free!)

We also want to share just a few pictures that didn’t appear in the Bells:

This is another view of the first incarnation of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus. Note the statue of the Infant Jesus in front! We still have this statue in our infirmary yard. In 1945, the Monastery was right on Lotus Lane, instead of up the hill as it is today.

This photo was actually taken in the late 1940s, but it shows the growth the Monastery experienced in a short amount of time.

The sign on Lotus Lane directing visitors where to turn onto the access road to reach our Monastery today.

Part of the front of the Monastery today.

And finally–another version of our latest community picture!

We give joyful thanks to God for the past 75 years, and pray we will be here for many years to come!

Celebrating Martin the Charitable

Today is the feast of St. Martin de Porres, a Dominican saint from Peru. Here in Texas we give this day special importance because our state is in the Southern Dominican Province of the United States, which is dedicated to St. Martin de Porres. So this is our patronal feast day–and we are blessed to be a part of this missionary province.

St. Martin was particularly known for his charity. He was always caring for the sick and unwanted, even bringing them into the Dominican priory where he lived as a cooperator brother. The prior was not too happy about this (and probably not some of the brothers either), but Martin\’s goodness won the day and he continued his ministry of mercy until his death.

St. Martin also had a special relationship with animals. As you can see in the drawing above, he is frequently pictured with various animals–cats, mice, rats, dogs, birds–all co-existing in harmony with each other–even, in this case, sharing the same bowl of food! Martin achieved this by speaking gently with these creatures, and through the grace of God miracles abounded. Martin is perhaps best known for ending a plague of mice in the priory by simply asking the mice to stay outside. Which they did. To this day, popular legend suggests that if you pray to St. Martin and later see a mouse (alive or a representation thereof) your prayer will be answered.

St. Martin, who was the son of a free Black woman and a Spanish noble, is also the patron of social justice, as one of our sisters illustrated during the 1960s.

He is an excellent patron for our country–and our world–today, which is why we wanted to dedicate this post to him today.

As our chaplain pointed out in his homily this morning, St. Martin was able to bring enemies together and encourage them to be friends–as seen by the animals peacefully gathered around the food. Today in the United States we go to the polls to elect a President and members of the House and Senate. While the secular world encourages us to believe that all that we hold dear hangs on the outcome of this election, we should also keep in mind that political solutions will never have the power to save us. Only God can do that! So, we encourage all our fellow Americans to vote–but remember, whatever happens, God is still Lord of Heaven and earth. No election result can change that! And God is able to bring good out of any circumstance. Let us view these coming days (and possibly weeks) with serenity, knowing that God is in control of everything. And let us, like St. Martin de Porres’ animal friends, learn to live together in peace and harmony, regardless of race, color, class or religion–because we are all, in the end, God\’s children.