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!

Matachines 2011

Last night we were delighted to welcome the matachines from St. Andrew\’s parish here in Lufkin.

They wore exceptionally beautiful costumes, as you can see…
and danced in the traditional style. Note the very young matachine at the end of the line!
It was a privilege and a delight to see them honor Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lord in our chapel! Thank you so much!
You can see last year\’s visit from the matachines from St. Patrick\’s parish (with more information about matachines in general) HERE.

Christmas Novena

It\’s time again for our Christmas novena, which starts today and runs through December 24. This includes all our prayers and sung Masses, as well as our special novena prayer. We will be remembering you all, the readers of this blog, in a special way this year! May God bless you all and give you a joyful and blessed Christmas!

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!