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Celebrating the Epiphany

With the birth of Jesus a star has been lit up in the sky. It is a most luminous vocation. It inspires caravans of people to take to the road. New paths have been opened up for mankind, paths which lead to Christ. Christ has become the heart for a new system of circulation which will last forever. By merit of being our Redeemer, Christ has become indispensable to us…Christ wants to be announced to the world…\”
Pope Paul VI (Homily, January 6, 1973)

We enjoyed a wonderful solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord yesterday–hope you did, too! We spent the day adoring the Lord who has appeared to us…
…and also in recreation. Both were great!

As is our tradition, the professed sisters entertained the community in the morning. We played several fun games!
 It may look easy, but have you ever tried to unwrap a gift while wearing oven mitts? 
In the evening, the novitiate sisters entertained us with a lovely musical program. 
 Sor Irma plays and sings a Christmas carol in Spanish with a little help from Sr. Bernadette Marie and Sr. Mary Jeremiah 
Our Tanzanian sisters, Sr. Marie Augustine and Sr. Marie Tersidis, performed a beautiful dance and sang in Swahili.
Thuy, our postulant, played the cello!
Everyone was surprised and delighted to receive a gift of cookies! Delicious!

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year to all! Today is the solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God–a holy day of obligation in the United States! We are having our New Year ceremony in the chapter hall today, probably very similar to last year, so check it out HERE.

May the Lord bless you and keep you during this New Year and always! Thanks to all our very generous benefactors and friends and family who support us and make our life possible. We are praying for you always!

It\’s Still Christmas!

While the world is packing away the Christmas decorations and looking forward to New Year\’s Day, the monastery is still celebrating the Christmas season with Christmas prayers, songs, carols, decorations, and cheer! We didn\’t start decorating until about the 21st of December so we want to enjoy our Nativity scenes for a while longer.
This outdoor Nativity scene is usually on display in the monastery front yard, but this year for a change we set it up inside the cloister so the sisters could enjoy it!
The Holy Family gets a little decoration, too!
Our Nativity scenes range from the small and simple, like this cornhusk version in the kitchen (we thought it was kind of appropriate!)…
…to the more elaborate scene in our community room (complete with Christmas tree).
We wish you a joyous Christmas season, and pray the Holy Infant, our patron,  will bless you in the coming year!

Matachines 2011

Last night we were delighted to welcome the matachines from St. Andrew\’s parish here in Lufkin.

They wore exceptionally beautiful costumes, as you can see…
and danced in the traditional style. Note the very young matachine at the end of the line!
It was a privilege and a delight to see them honor Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lord in our chapel! Thank you so much!
You can see last year\’s visit from the matachines from St. Patrick\’s parish (with more information about matachines in general) HERE.

Christmas Novena

It\’s time again for our Christmas novena, which starts today and runs through December 24. This includes all our prayers and sung Masses, as well as our special novena prayer. We will be remembering you all, the readers of this blog, in a special way this year! May God bless you all and give you a joyful and blessed Christmas!

St. Lucy

There are many saints with the name Lucy–there\’s even a Dominican Lucy, Blessed Lucy of Narni (we\’re not making this up!), but the Lucy we remember today is a virgin martyr from the early days of Christianity. She is the patroness of people who are blind, because according to legend, her eyes were put out. Today we pray especially for all who are blind or having trouble with their vision–physical or spiritual. May St. Lucy enlighten these days of Advent for us all!