Easter Egg-citement

We have had some exciting times already this Easter season! First came our raffle…maybe you didn\’t hear about it? Well, the tickets were sent out with our winter issue of Monastery Bells. We only send Monastery Bells via snail mail at the current time…if you\’d like to receive it for free, please send us your name and address here. (We never sell our address lists!) Anyway, we got a huge response to our raffle…so huge that to make our drawing fair we used our big dryer to shuffle the tickets thoroughly!

It\’s like the lottery…sort of…
We had several winners from various places, including Texas, Connecticut, and Ohio, and they were all delighted to win their prizes, which included afghans made by the nuns and other special things!
Sr. Mary Agnes draws a winner!
We also had our annual Easter egg hunt, in which fun was had by all!
Sr. Mary Christine is a champion egg finder, but does she see the egg right behind her??
Our winners!! Sr. Mary Rose, Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Sybillina, and Sr. Mary Giuse

Who\’s Watching Who?

We\’ve written before about the variety of bird life here at the monastery. Birds seem to consider our monastic enclosure a sanctuary. Recently we became acquainted with a bird many of us had seen flying through the woods or perched on a tree, looking for bugs–a pileated woodpecker! Compared to the birds we usually see (mockingbirds, cardinals, etc) this bird is huge!

 Actual picture of our pileated woodpecker!

It\’s also very friendly…for a bird. It enjoys clawing its way along the windowsill, peering in the refectory at the nuns who are trying to eat their breakfast (or dinner, or supper) in peace. It has also been known to fly into the crepe myrtle tree outside the refectory window and swing upside-down from the branches, providing much entertainment! These woodpeckers are supposed to be common in east Texas. We kind of wish this one would go out in the woods and take care of some of the bugs in our trees! At the same time, though, we enjoy watching him watching us…or something like that. 
And yes, we are still visited by the cardinal. He taps on windows all over the monastery, but has a special affinity for the refectory window, too. (What is it about that refectory?) We looked up cardinals in the bird book and found they can live as long as 15 years…could this be the same bird, or is he passing his dubious talent down to his offspring?
A little blurry of the bird, but you get the idea…
Check out our previous posts on birds:
Bird Watching
More Bird Watching
Farewell to the Hummingbirds

May God be praised for all his wondrous creation!

Triduum Schedule 2012

 If you are in the Lufkin area, we would be happy for you to join us in celebrating the Triduum.

Holy Thursday: Mass at 7:15 PM
Good Friday: Liturgy at 3:00 PM
Holy Saturday: Easter Vigil begins at 9:00 PM
Easter Sunday: Mass at 10:15 AM

Wherever you are, we hope you will attend Mass and join in this most sacred time of the year!

Palm Sunday 2012

\”Most of Christ\’s earthly life was hidden. He was hidden in his mother\’s womb, he was hidden in Egypt and in Nazareth. During his public life he was hidden often, when he fled into a mountain to pray…Today he is hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, in Heaven, and in his Mystical Body on earth. But in his passion he was exposed, made public property to the whole of mankind….All his secrets were out. Every detail of his Passion revealed something more of his character as man–not only his heroism and his majesty but his human necessities, and the human limitations which he deliberately adopted as part of his plan of love in order to be able to indwell us as we are, with our limitations…He was not only simulating our humanness outwardly but feeling as we feel; not only feeling his own grief, fear, compassion, need of sympathy, and so on, as man, but ours; not only knowing every nerve and fiber of his own love for us, but that of each one of us for one another.\”
 –Caryll Houselander, The Way of the Cross

See our meditation on Palm Sunday from 2011 here.

A Time for Everything…

We\’ve been doing some spring cleaning around the grounds recently…clearing out a lot of old stuff from our storage barns, re-potting plants and the like.  Like most nuns (and most people, too!) we tend to collect things we might need \”someday\” and at times we need to assess the situation, sort through the items, and give away or throw away what we don\’t really need while learning to appreciate the treasures we already have. It\’s an especially good practice for Lent, a time when we try to discern what needs to go and what can stay, both in our physical and in our spiritual lives!

This vase looks like a keeper!
Sr. Mary Gabriel and Sr. Mary Margaret work to save a fern
Trimming and adding dirt…

 Sr. Mary Thomas and Sr. Mary Jeremiah admire the newly cleaned barn!

Solemnity of the Annunciation, 2012

For this beautiful feast, we would like to share a meditation written by Sr. Mary Dominic and given at our Solemn Chapter on March 24!

When we think of the Annunciation, perhaps most of us call to mind the delicate brush of Blessed Fra Angelico, the artist. The Angel with colorful wings…and the innocent Mary–meekness filling her eyes and arms crossed in the form of humility. She questions the angel who appears to her in radiant light, \”How can this be done since I have not known man?\” She knows that the Lord is all-powerful, that he is sovereign over creation, she does not question in the spirit of doubt. The question comes instead from the fullness of her faith. She seeks to understand God\’s meaning, to know how this will be possible. Perhaps she thinks of St. Joseph and their betrothal. The angel responds to Mary\’s question; he tells her that the birth will come through the Holy Spirit. \”The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.\” (Luke 1:35) But what does it mean to overshadow? It may remind us of the Holy Wind, the Ruah that swept over the face of the deep at the creation of the world. Or the breath that swept across the face of Adam: \”The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.\” (Genesis 2:7) St. Paul explicitly ascribes to the Spirit the power of resurrection (cf. Romans 8:11). And there is the story of the dry bones in Ezekiel\’s wasteland–also a prefigurement of the resurrection–written in spirals of dust and sand. (Ezekiel 37:3-5)

There are few words in the Scriptures regarding our Blessed Mother. She remains obscure and delicately veiled in the archives of her secret union with God. She all but disappears in the cast of characters that the New Testament brings forth. Yet that is the strength of the Blessed Mother. God finds her in her littleness, her smallness, in the pondering of her heart and in the quiet fervor of her love. Her power is made perfect in weakness.

 In considering the words of the Lord, did Mary perhaps look back on her people\’s history? Before her irrevocable \”Yes\”, did she remember Esther standing before King Ahasuerus, providing the means to save her people from annihilation through the strength of her words–her \”yes\” in obedience to God\’s grace?

And so, she consents…by faith offering her life to God by the words, \”Be it done unto me according to Thy will…\” (Luke 1:38) Like her, we are asked to say the same. To give our consent to the will of God even though we may not know every ramification that is asked of us.