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Sor Irma, O.P. comes to us from the Dominican monastery of Santa Catalina de Siena in Puebla, Mexico. She will be staying with us here in Lufkin for about six months, learning English among other things, and we are delighted to have her! She is already praying the rosary with us (in English, that is) and singing a little at Mass, and she only arrived on Monday. We are so happy to renew and strengthen our ties to our Dominican nuns in Mexico, and pray Sor Irma will have a pleasant and helpful time here at our monastery. Please keep her in your prayers as well!

We should admit right now that this picture was NOT taken at our monastery…none of the pictures we took turned out, unfortunately. But we still want to show you Father Gabriel O\’Donnell, OP (if you don\’t know him already). He gave us a marvelous retreat on the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity) and the cardinal virtues (prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance), relating them to the monastic life–and he added a talk on humility as well, which was most welcome! Fr. Gabriel is the academic dean at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC and we are so grateful he was able to take some time out of his busy schedule to come and give us this retreat. We hope you will be able to return to see us again one day soon, Father!

Today we celebrate the memorial of the Presentation of Mary in the temple, an event not mentioned in the Gospels, but significant because it symbolizes Mary\’s complete dedication to God. Blessed Pope John Paul II said, \”Mary appears to us today as the temple in which God has placed his salvation and as the handmaid who was totally consecrated to the Lord.\” And Yves Congar, OP writes, \”As the type of all faithful souls and of the Church herself, Mary expressed spiritually and supremely in her life that \’presentation\’ which, for each one of us, is to begin by the service of faith and to be consummated in heaven.\”

Today is also Pro Orantibus Day, a day \”for those who pray\”, meaning for cloistered religious. We hope you will join us in praying for more vocations to the cloistered religious life and especially to our monastery! 

\”And now, Lord Jesus, come and remove the stumbling-blocks within the kingdom which is my soul, so that you who ought to may reign in it. Greed comes along and claims its throne in me; arrogance would dominate me; pride would be my king. Comfort and pleasure say: We shall reign! Ambition, detraction, envy, anger fight within me for supremacy, and seem to have me entirely in their power. But I resist insofar as I can; I struggle against them insofar as I receive your help. I protest that Jesus is my Lord. I keep myself for him since I acknowledge his rights over me. To me he is God; to me he is the Lord; and I declare: I will have no king but the Lord Jesus! Come then, Lord, rout them by your power and you will reign in me, for you are my king and my God, who grant victories to Jacob.\”

–St. Bernard of Clairvaux

People often ask us, \”Do you ever get to visit your family and friends?\” Well, we don\’t leave the enclosure to visit them, but they can come to us! We have several parlors–that is, rooms where nuns can visit with people who come to see them. 

 Sr. Mary Lucy and family

Sr. Mary Thomas and family

Sr. Miriam and family

We do have a fixed counter or other separation to maintain enclosure, but this is simply a reminder that we are cloistered nuns, separated from the world. It doesn\’t prevent us from enjoying time with our families! Usually, a family is allowed to visit for a few hours each month. If a nun\’s family does not live close enough for a monthly visit, she may be allowed to spend longer periods with her family over a couple of days–especially if they don\’t come very often. We encourage our family and friends to come join us in the chapel (on the extern side, of course) when we pray together or have daily Mass, and many of them do this.

But our visitors aren\’t limited to family! Sometimes we get some surprises, like a recent visit from our dear friend Fr. Ron Foshage, MS. He came up from Jasper, TX to hear our confessions and brought along a marvelous Protestant family of talented musicians who played for us.  It was a wonderful ecumenical encounter. And to our delight, Fr. Ron joined in and played the violin!