St. Lucy

There are many saints with the name Lucy–there\’s even a Dominican Lucy, Blessed Lucy of Narni (we\’re not making this up!), but the Lucy we remember today is a virgin martyr from the early days of Christianity. She is the patroness of people who are blind, because according to legend, her eyes were put out. Today we pray especially for all who are blind or having trouble with their vision–physical or spiritual. May St. Lucy enlighten these days of Advent for us all!

Welcome, Sor Irma!

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!

A Lot to be Thankful For…

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday and hope you did too! 
Sr. Bernadette Marie and Sr. Mary Gabriel make a wish!
 Sr. Mary Veronica and one of the turkeys she prepared…
We always eat in the community room on Thanksgiving…which gives us an opportunity to talk while we eat (a rare privilege!)
Sr. Maria Rosario and Sr. Mary Catherine enjoying the delicious meal
Many thanks to our friends who helped make our Thanksgiving dinner possible! We are so grateful to all of you! May God bless you abundantly!

Retreat with Fr. Gabriel O\’Donnell, OP

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!

Presentation of Mary / Pro Orantibus Day

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! 

Christ the King

\”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