Category: Visiting Friars

Ridin’ the (Monastic) Range

Fr. Reginald Baconin had something else on his Texas bucket list…he wanted the chance to ride a horse! He already had two cowboy hats (no boots, yet) so he was raring to go. Our workman David has a lot of horse connections and one warm Sunday evening in August, a horse appeared at the monastery!

David Bomer, our workman, with his daughter Rebecca, and her husband Jaime and their horse.

Fr. Reginald was thrilled! He mounted, and rode around the front driveway of our monastery.

Ride em, cowboy!

Most of us looked on with delighted enjoyment as Father put the horse through its paces.

Gradually, we lost our shyness and began to make friends with the horse.

He was just a big sweetheart really.

And some sisters decided to try riding the horse themselves!

Sr. Mary Giuse

Sr. Mary Rose

Sr. Mary Christine, our novice mistress, rounds up the novitiate sisters.

Sr. Mary Rose, Sr. Mary Jeremiah, Fr. Reginald, and Sr. Mary Margaret

In case you’re wondering–yes, David brought the horse inside the enclosure so we could visit with it. Who would have ever thought a horse would visit us, and even give rides!

Just a couple of days after this momentous event, Fr. Reginald had to leave us and return to his home province of Toulouse in France. But before he left, we gave him a Texas-sized sendoff–including his own honorary Texas citizenship and a Texas passport so he can return someday.

Don’t leave home without them!

In fact, Fr. Reginald is already planning to return to East Texas next summer, when he will preach a mission at one of our local parishes. We look forward to seeing him again. His father will retire in about five years, and Fr. Reginald hopes to bring him to East Texas to experience all the wonders of the Piney Woods. (They’re also planning to see the Alamo and some other Texas sites, naturally.)

We are always happy to welcome Dominican visitors–indeed all visitors–to our monastery for prayer, for Mass, and for silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We cannot guarantee a horseback ride, however!

Summer Roundup

Hey, all y’all! It’s been a long time since we’ve had a chance to catch our breath and write something for this blog! Today we have some time so we’re bringing you a good old Texas roundup of some of the various events that have made our summer exciting (and busy).

Not long after Sr. Mary Veronica’s jubilee celebration, we welcomed Fr. Reginald Baconin, O.P. to our monastery for a couple of months.

Fr. Reginald comes from the province of Toulouse in France, but has been studying in Rome at the Angelicum. He is working on two licentiates at the same time–one on Trinitarian theology and one on Islamology. He speaks English beautifully, with almost no accent, and we were delighted to have him celebrate Mass for us–and give us some classes.

At the end of June, we had a farewell recreation with Fr. Ian.

Sr. Martin Marie crocheted this classic-looking scarf for him, which he was happy to receive.

We also gave him a Dominican coffee mug:

We are sad to see Fr. Ian leave, but know he is needed at his new assignment, which is much more challenging than the one he had here. We are proud of Father for finishing his doctorate and getting his degree. Hopefully he will come back someday, to give classes or even a retreat!

On June 30, Sarah Larmore entered as a postulant.

Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Marie Augustine, Sarah, Michelle, and Sr. Maria Goretti

Sarah could hardly wait to begin her life as a cloistered contemplative nun!

On July 1, we had our 4th of July picnic. We like to have our picnic celebration on Satursdays if possible.

Here we are, all decked out for the traditional flag raising after Midmorning Prayer.

We had a joyful day of food, fun, games, conversation, and patriotic fervor.

As is our custom on the Fourth of July, we sang “My Country ’tis of Thee” from the Summit Choirbook at Vespers. While we were all filled with love for our nation, Fr, Reginald (joining us for Vespers in the outside chapel) was perplexed. He asked us later, “Why did you sing ‘God Save The King’ to celebrate July 4?”

And as it happens, July 4 is Fr. Reginald’s birthday! We had a special recreation with him that night.

Fr. Reginald has been a big Texas fan for many years, thanks to his father’s love for John Wayne movies (especially “The Alamo”), and various people in our community took him on many Texas adventures, including visits to a Native American reservation, Nacogdoches TX (the oldest town in Texas), the San Jacinto battlefield, and, yes, the Alamo! He bought this hat for himself soon after his arrival, but we had some gifts for him, too–especially this one:

A T-shirt that proudly proclaims, “Texas–Bigger than France”! He loves it!

A few days later we had a visit from our Southern Province novices. We’re happy to say all five of them made profession! Please pray for them, and for the upcoming novitiate class.

We have even more news to share with you, but this is enough for now. We plan to post the rest of the recent news soon. For now, we hope you enjoy this glimpse inside the boring and monotonous life of the cloister! (And yes, we always keep our prayer schedule–even on holidays.)

A Triple Blessing

We were so blessed (in many ways) to have a visit from three newly ordained Dominican priests–Father Gregory Dunn, O.P. from our own province of St. Martin de Porres and Father Jordan Joseph DeGuire, O.P. and Father Peter Martyr Lewitzke, O.P. from the province of St. Albert the Great. Father Greg was ordained on June 10, and Father Jordan and Father Peter Martyr were ordained on May 20. The two Central Province priests came to Houston to see their classmate Fr. Greg ordained, and then they made a little “tour” of Texas, which happily included our monastery.

Fr. Peter Martyr, O.P., Father Gregory, O.P., and Father Jordan, O.P.

We had a lovely parlor visit with them on the feast of the Sacred Heart (June 16) and then Father Greg celebrated Mass for us on the memorial of the Immaculate Heart, with Fr. Peter Martyr, Fr. Jordan, and our chaplain Fr. Ian concelebrating.

After Mass, each priest gave us a “first blessing”! What a joy!

Everyone who came to Mass had a blessing, too!

As we said above–we are blessed in so many ways by these new young priests in our midst. We are sure that many people will be uplifted and inspired by their gift of self to God through their vocations, by their desire to serve the people of God, and their love for preaching the truth! We are praying for you, Fathers! Please keep us in prayer, too!

Annual Retreat 2023

We came out of retreat this morning! Out of the woods, and back into the clearings of civilization (or something).

We had a fantastic retreat preached by Fr. James M. Sullivan, O.P., currently stationed at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI. Father jokingly said the theme of the retreat would be, “All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned in the Novitiate”, and it truly was a most excellent review of the basic principles and foundations of Dominican life. There were conferences on the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity, and obedience), the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) and trust in God. Father also gave wonderful homilies every morning. We’re so glad we recorded everything and can listen again some time!

Father giving a conference in our chapel

Father is very animated, so it was a challenge to get pictures during his conferences. So…

…he allowed one of the sisters to snap his picture during a session of private direction.

Thank you for everything, Father Sullivan! We hope to see you again some day!

Into the Woods

It’s that time of year again! Today we’re beginning our annual community retreat, and we’ll be in retreat until June 14. We’re delighted to have Fr. James Sullivan, O.P. as our retreat master, and we look forward to everything he will say to help us grow in our spiritual lives!

You may be wondering–why “into the woods”? Don’t we usually describe retreats as a desert experience? This is much more common, but here in East Texas we’re short on deserts and long (or tall) on pine trees, so we decided to embrace our situation. And after all, the woods can be every bit as wild–if not more so–than the desert. We have all kinds of critters roaming our property, raccoons, opossums, foxes, snakes, bobcats–not to mention the numerous species of birds and some bats! So do keep us in prayer as we go out into the wilderness of the retreat woods, and know that we are all praying for you, too!

A Visit from Fr. Vincent Davila, O.P.

Readers of this blog may remember that Fr. Vincent gave us our annual retreat back in June 2021. We had not seen him since (due to COVID and such), so we were all happy when we learned Fr. Ian asked Fr. Vincent to be our “replacement chaplain” while he was on vacation. Father arrived during our Pentecost retreat and will stay with us until Monday, June 5–that’s when our 2023 retreat master, Fr. James Sullivan, O.P., arrives! We’ll just let you know right now–we have a very busy month coming up!

We enjoyed some recreation with Father in the parlor on Pentecost Sunday. Father told us about the progress he has made on his dissertation. Our monastery seems to be a good place for friars to work on dissertations, articles, and the like–must be the peaceful, quiet atmosphere! The discussion took an unexpected but welcome turn onto the topic of the particular judgment (which happens when you die) and the Last Judgment (which comes at the end of time). We also joked with him, laughing a great deal. A most enjoyable evening!

Thank you so much for spending this time with us, Father Vincent! We enjoy your homilies, and look forward to hopefully reading your dissertation one day if/when you turn it into a book. We keep you in our prayers!

Classes with Fr. Raphael Mary, O.P.

We were happy to welcome Fr. Raphael Mary Salzillo, O.P. to our monastery last week. Father is a Dominican friar belonging to the Western Province (or Holy Name Province) but has been teaching at the University of St. Thomas in Houston for the past four years. We’ve been trying to get him to come for a while, but COVID kept getting in the way.

He gave a fascinating series of classes on Form of the Person and Soul in St. Thomas Aquinas–intense stuff, but Father made it fun with his silly examples (like “Sammy the Squirrel”). We all learned a lot and enjoyed his presentation and style immensely.

Father illustrates the concept of form in Thomas Aquinas using an orange

Father listening intently to one of the many questions we posed to him

Father Raphael Mary also led a small discussion group on the book The Women Are Up To Something, an intriguing study of four women philosophers at Oxford around the time of the second World War: Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgely, Phillipa Foot, and Iris Murdoch. Those who participated enjoyed it very much!

For his last session, Father explained his work with Courage International and Eden Invitation, and asked out prayers for these two groups. We didn’t know too much about these ministries, so we were glad to know about them and will keep their intentions in our prayers.

Thank you so much, Father Raphael Mary, for a fun and educational time! We wish you well in your new assignment in California, and hope we will meet up with you again some day!