St. Thomas Aquinas, The Angelic Doctor

And you thought we were just being metaphorical!
We published a post on St. Thomas Aquinas last year (see HERE) but what can we say, we love St. Thomas so we decided to share a few more images and reflections!

St. Thomas looks kind of serious in this painting–even dour–but his writings are shining radiantly.
When St. Thomas was a young friar, his mother and brothers kidnapped him and forced him to live away from his Dominican brothers while they tried to convince him to choose another vocation. When his brothers sent in a woman of questionable virtue to tempt him, Thomas drove her out, and then, according to legend, he was girded with a special cord by the angels. This helped him live a life of perfect chastity. He never mentioned this episode himself but he is still a good one to pray for if you have trouble with chastity! (And it makes a great scene for artists to depict…)
Another representation of the episode in which St. Thomas heard the voice of Christ coming from the crucifix, \”You have written well of me, Thomas. What do you ask?\” And Thomas replied, \”Only Yourself, Lord.\” 
To sum up: \”The new law of Christ is nothing other than the Holy Spirit working in our hearts through faith in Christ.\” (St. Thomas Aquinas, ST I-II, q.106)

God\’s Bountiful Gifts

Our monastery has a driveway around the side with a porch and a window where mail, deliveries, and large donations of food or other items can be made. We call it the dock area (it\’s kind of an updating of the monastic \”turn\”). When you receive a page calling you to the dock, you never know what might be waiting for you, and yesterday this proved true again as a dear friend brought us a large supply of fresh cauliflower, cabbage, and bread!
Sr. Mary Veronica with an extra-large head of cauliflower!
We are always so grateful for anything that comes to the dock. We can use almost anything and everything we receive–and the very few things we can\’t actually use ourselves, we can distribute to other people in need. Your generous help and support, material, financial or spiritual, helps us to live our life of prayer and sacrifice for the whole world. Thanks so much to all the many people who remember us in our times of need! You are in our prayers every day!

Tet 2012–The Year of the Dragon

Today is the official beginning of Tet, the Lunar New Year, but we started a little early with a celebration last night in our community room!

We began our celebration with our traditional New Year dance. This year was rather challenging as we danced with lighted candles! Our music was a lovely Vietnamese-English version of the song \”Christ Be Our Light\”. We would like to share a few highlights:

We also played several fun games, including this one where you had to roll or throw a \”pearl\” into the dragon! As you can see, some of our sisters were able to wear traditional Vietnamese dresses over their habits (donated by a friend of the community).

A wonderful time was had by all! Thanks so much to the kind and generous benefactors who helped make our Tet celebration possible with snacks, treats and lucky money! We are so grateful to you!

Think about it…

If you are a single woman, maybe God is calling you to be a cloistered Dominican nun! You may ask, \”Me?\” But consider the number of seemingly unlikely people down through the centuries who have heard the call of Christ and followed that call joyfully. We know many of them are saints. You could be one of them! Please check out our website for more information–just click HERE.
You can contact us by email, phone or snail mail if you have any questions! In the meantime, consider this prayer for vocations by Blessed John Paul II: 

We turn to you, Mother of the Church. Through your \”fiat\” you have opened the door which makes Christ present to the world, in history and in individual lives. In humble silence and in total availability you welcomed the call of the Most High. May there be many men and women who come to know, in our day, the invitation of your Son, \”Follow Me!\” May they find the courage to leave family, work and earthly hopes, and follow Christ along the road that He trod. Stretch out your motherly hand over missionaries everywhere in the world, over the men and women religious who assist the aged, the sick, the disabled, the orphaned; over those engaged in teaching; over those who live lives of faith and love within the cloister, pleading for the salvation of the world. Amen. (1988)

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!