Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

People often ask us, \”Do you ever get to visit your family and friends?\” Well, we don\’t leave the enclosure to visit them, but they can come to us! We have several parlors–that is, rooms where nuns can visit with people who come to see them. 

 Sr. Mary Lucy and family

Sr. Mary Thomas and family

Sr. Miriam and family

We do have a fixed counter or other separation to maintain enclosure, but this is simply a reminder that we are cloistered nuns, separated from the world. It doesn\’t prevent us from enjoying time with our families! Usually, a family is allowed to visit for a few hours each month. If a nun\’s family does not live close enough for a monthly visit, she may be allowed to spend longer periods with her family over a couple of days–especially if they don\’t come very often. We encourage our family and friends to come join us in the chapel (on the extern side, of course) when we pray together or have daily Mass, and many of them do this.

But our visitors aren\’t limited to family! Sometimes we get some surprises, like a recent visit from our dear friend Fr. Ron Foshage, MS. He came up from Jasper, TX to hear our confessions and brought along a marvelous Protestant family of talented musicians who played for us.  It was a wonderful ecumenical encounter. And to our delight, Fr. Ron joined in and played the violin!

That\’s right! Just as we have a Dominican All Saints day to remember in a special way all our Dominican saints, we also have a Dominican All Souls day to remember all our deceased brothers and sisters of the Order. It\’s sometimes said that it\’s good to live as a _____(fill in the blank with a religious order you choose!) but die as a Dominican. Why? Probably because of all the prayers, Masses and general suffrages for the dead that we have as an Order. We have no less than three special days for praying for our dead (our parents, our friends and benefactors, and today\’s remembrance). Mechthild of Magdeburg once had a vision of a deceased Dominican friar suffering in Purgatory. He explained that because of the dignity of the Dominican Order, he did not go to hell, but he would be in Purgatory for some time! He asked her for some help (prayers and Masses offered for his soul). It\’s impossible to know the validity of such a vision, but it does make you think!  Incidentally, if you would like us to remember your beloved dead in prayer this month (and always) just send their names to us HERE and we will do it!

Today we celebrate all the Dominican saints–and there\’s a lot of them. In addition to the many Dominicans who lived holy lives and died more or less peacefully, there are over 100 Vietnamese martyrs in the Dominican family, and quite a few newly beatified Dominicans from the Spanish Civil War, as well as all the Dominicans who were martyred in China and Japan and other places. And we\’d like to remember some of the Dominican saints who are patrons of sisters here at the Monastery: 

Blessed Sybillina 

St. Catherine de Ricci
St. Agnes of Montepulciano 

St. Margaret of Hungary

St. Dominic

St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Rose of Lima

Of course, we should also mention some \”honorary\” Dominicans who have namesakes in our community as well–St. Mary Magdalene (Apostle to the Apostles and the first preacher of Christ\’s resurrection!) and St. Augustine, who wrote the Rule that Dominican friars and nuns still follow today. May all the holy Dominican men and women intercede for us today and every day!

Today and all this month we remember our beloved dead–those that we know had faith and those whose faith is known only to God. Here at the Monastery of the Infant Jesus we always pray in a special way for the dead during November, and we\’ll be doing the same thing this year as well. We would be happy to pray for anyone you would like us to remember–just send us an email HERE and we\’ll include that person in our prayers. God bless you!

Today we celebrate all the holy men and women who have gone before us in faith–those canonized, those whom we remember as saints (even though the Church will probably never formally recognize them), and all those known only to God who intercede for us night and day before the  heavenly throne. We often sing the hymn, \”For All The Saints\” on this day, with its stirring melody by Ralph Vaughn Williams, but the words strike an odd note somehow–they speak of the saints \”who from their labors rest\”, when in fact we hope that, like St. Dominic and St. Therese and a host of other saints, they are still working hard from Heaven for us. This was St. Dominic\’s great promise on his deathbed–\”I will be of more help to you where I am going than I have been here\”. His words were echoed by countless other saintly Dominicans as they lay dying. And we are probably all familiar with St. Therese\’s promise to \”come down\” from Heaven after her death. Maybe Heaven is more of a dynamic state of union with God than a place of eternal rest, with our beloved dead interceding for us who remain on earth. Whatever Heaven is like, it\’s got to be better than the cartoon version that shows a man apparently recently arrived in Heaven (decked out in white robe, halo, etc) sitting on a cloud and saying wistfully, \”Wish I\’d brought a magazine!\” 

\”Luke promises peace to the whole human race, and traces human origins from Jesus to the first man, as though to declare that all have a right to the salvation Jesus came to bring if only they are willing to receive it. This is what is meant by Luke\’s universalism. If Luke sees any class as privileged, it is the sinners, so piercing is the appeal of mercy in his gospel. Like Matthew and Mark, Luke tells of the call of Levi, and of Jesus\’ kindness to tax collectors and sinners; but he goes further, to relate the pardon granted to the sinful woman, the parables of the lost coin and the prodigal son, the conversions of Zachaeus and the good thief and–more moving even than the tears of repentant sinners–the profound, exuberant joy of the One who forgives, that surge of fatherly tenderness, that astounding revelation from the heart of God, which has converted so many souls.\”
–Fr. Marie-Joseph Lagrange, O.P.