Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah. In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot; he will do what is right and  just in the land. In those days Judah shall be safe and Israel shall dwell secure; this is what they shall call her: \”The Lord our justice.\” 

— Jeremiah 33:14-16

Happy New Year! These words of the prophet Jeremiah are a hopeful beginning for our new liturgical year. Today is like a new school year in which we will be educated and formed by the mysteries of Christ\’s life proclaimed every time the Liturgy is celebrated.  

The Lord is coming, and every year we have a time to prepare our hearts and minds to be more aware of this and to welcome his coming to us. We are preparing for Christ\’s coming at Bethlehem and at the end of time. But He also comes to us every moment of every day. Let us ask Him for the grace to welcome Him every day: in the joyful and difficult moments, in temptations and in prayer, in small and great events, in our neighbors and friends, and in each stranger we encounter. An Advent well spent will bring forth God\’s special blessings and make us stronger in Faith, Hope and Charity.

One of our sisters (now deceased), Sr. Mary of the Trinity, once wrote a beautiful song called \”My Thanksgiving\”. It has the refrain, \”I could never end, I would never end, my thanksgiving, Lord…\” and this is the way we feel today as we begin to distribute pumpkin bread to our many local friends and benefactors! While the Thanksgiving holiday may be over, our thanksgiving both to God and to all our friends and benefactors goes on endlessly. And so this past weekend we baked up many, many loaves of pumpkin bread to offer a small token of our gratitude and appreciation for all the help we receive to live our contemplative monastic life! Here are some scenes from the baking: 

 Sr. Mary Dominic mixes the dry ingredients

 Meanwhile, Sr. Maria Cabrini prepares the pumpkin!

Sr. Bernadette Marie and Sr. Mary Rose mix it all together

Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Gabriel and Sr. Mary Jeremiah fill the loaf pans

More loaf pans! Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Gabriel, and Veronique work together

 Sr. Mary Giuse fills a loaf pan by herself

Ready to be baked!

The delicious finished product

We hope all those who receive our pumpkin bread will enjoy it! We wish we could send some to everyone around the country but this is impossible…still, we keep you all in our prayers each and every day! Thank you for all your generous support and love!

Christ the King! A difficult concept for us to understand here in the United States, where we have a President and Congress, elected by the people. But Christ\’s kingship is of a different order. We are citizens of our respective countries, but also followers of this divine King, who told Pontius Pilate in the Gospel of the solemnity, \”My kingdom does not belong to this world…my kingdom is not here.\” (John 18:36) But He adds, when Pilate presses him, \”Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.\” (John 18:37) The kingdom of Christ is founded on truth, and those who hear His voice, belong to his kingdom, invisible though it may be at the present time. Daniel prophesied,\”…all peoples, nations, and languages serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.\” (Daniel 7:14) And in Revelation John writes again, \”Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.\” (Revelation 1:5) He is true and faithful in all things. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. With such a King, we do not need to fear any earthly power. We know Christ has won the final victory! In the image above, we see St. Michael the Archangel standing behind Christ, sword in hand. It is fitting, because he is the angel whose name means, \”Who is like God?\” God is, God alone, the eternal King and ruler of all peoples, nations, times, and seasons. To him be glory forever!

Sr. Bernadette Marie and Sr. Mary Thomas attempting to carve a turkey

Sr. Maria Cabrini tosses the salad while Veronique washes apples

We pray you will have a joyful and blessed Thanksgiving day–wherever you may be in the world, it is a good thing to stop and give thanks to God!

This is a celebration of the hidden life of Mary. There isn\’t too much known about her life–even this memorial, which recalls her presentation in the Temple to serve the Lord, comes from an apocryphal source. But we do know that whatever Mary did before she became the Mother of Jesus and also afterwards, she was always the perfect handmaiden of the Lord, and the exemplar for all disciples of Jesus. She listened to the word of God and acted on it faithfully. She always said Yes to God! No matter how much we might like to know the details of Mary\’s life, that is the most important one and the one we can all follow in our own lives. 

Today is also Pro Orantibus Day, a day designated by the Church for prayers for those living the cloistered contemplative life–a day \”for those who pray\”. Like Mary\’s life, ours too is a hidden life, sometimes seemingly without much effect in the larger scheme of things, but we have faith that our prayers, praise, adoration and sacrifices have an effect that will only be truly known in eternity. Please pray for all cloistered contemplative communities today, that we will all grow in holiness and receive good vocations who will continue this great work of God. May we all strive to be like Mary, who kept all the words of God and \”pondered them in her heart\”.

Tonight we begin our community retreat with a day or so of silence and prayer. Then our retreat master, Fr. Bob Perry, OP will arrive from his usual post at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX to give our retreat conferences. Things will be a little quiet due to retreat silence but there will be a post or two over the next ten days. We\’ll be emerging from retreat, all renewed in our love for God and His creation, on Thanksgiving morning (November 22). We keep you in our prayers during this sacred time and hope you will be praying for us, too!

We just finished another enjoyable and helpful week of lessons on singing, musical technique and the theology of liturgy with Sr. Kathleen Harmon, SNDdN! She worked with us both individually and as a group, providing us with all kinds of suggestions on how to improve the quality of our liturgy. Because, after all, liturgy is one of the most important things we do!

Sr. Kathleen instructs the Mass chantresses, Sr. Mary Gabriel and Sr. Mary Thomas

 Yes…that\’s what the music says!

Explaining the importance of the Responsorial Psalm at Mass to the community…

…and the community is hanging on every word!

As a result of Sr. Kathleen\’s expert help, we are gradually implementing changes in the way we sing the Responsorial Psalm at Mass, making it a true proclamation of the Word of God. And of course we are always trying to improve the quality of our musical sound overall.  If you are ever in the Lufkin area, perhaps you might like to stop by some day for Mass and see (and hear) for yourself! We are so grateful to Sr. Kathleen, who is definitely an active sister but has a great understanding of the cloistered monastic vocation and is such a help to us in developing a musical style which fits our life and also helps us to praise God from the heart of the Church. Thank you, Sr. Kathleen, and we look forward to seeing you next year!