Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary over the entire Order of Preachers

Today is a Sunday in the Easter season, so we will not commemorate this memorial today liturgically, but we will be renewing our consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary and honoring her Patronage of the Dominican Order in our hearts!

 According to the \”Miracles of St. Dominic\” narrated by Blessed Cecilia (who knew St. Dominic personally), St. Dominic had a vision of the Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary:
\”As Blessed Dominic looked around, he could see religious of all the orders but his own before the throne of God. He began to weep bitterly…The Lord asked him, \’Why are you weeping so?\’ \’I am weeping because I see all the other orders here but no sign of my own.\’ The Lord said to him, \’Do you wish to see your Order?\’ and he answered, \’Yes, Lord.\’ Then the Blessed Virgin opened the cloak she was wearing and spread it out before Blessed Dominic, to whom it seemed vast enough to cover the entire heaven, and under it he saw a large multitude of the brethren. Then prostrating himself, Blessed Dominic gave thanks to God and to Blessed Mary his mother.\”
We can only hope the sisters (as pictured above) were there, too! 
We wish all of you a joyous Mother\’s Day and give a special thanks to all our mothers, living and deceased!

May Novena Time

During this beautiful month of May, we make a pilgrimage every evening to this statue of Our Lady of the Pines, singing the Litany of Loreto as we go. We have other special devotions to Mary during May, including a May crowning (pictures will come!), hymns, and private devotions, such as extra Rosaries and prayers. Most of all, we have our May novena to Mary, in which we will include all of you! If you have special intentions you would like us to remember in our novena, please send them here and we will include them in a particular way. May Our Lady, Queen of the Holy Rosary, intercede for us all and especially for peace in our world!

Divine Mercy Sunday and John Paul II\’s Beatification

It seems most appropriate that a Pope so devoted to mercy should be beatified on this, the second Sunday after Easter (also known as Divine Mercy Sunday). We pray for the mercy of God on all people, those who know God and those who do not, those who are searching and those who have given up hope, those who remain faithful to Christ and those who have (for whatever reason) separated themselves from Him. This Sunday reminds us that there is always an opportunity to return to God, the God Who loves us so deeply and infinitely!
 John Paul II was a great Pope, no doubt about it. 
We are so happy he is being beatified today and know that he will be a powerful intercessor for us in heaven.

Easter at the Monastery, Continued

Easter is a solemn event…the resurrection of Christ from the dead after His passion…but we think it\’s OK to have a little fun during this Easter octave, too! After all, Easter is also about the joy of new life and new beginnings! So we continued our celebration with an Easter egg hunt in the community room.
Sr. Mary Rose finds an egg hidden in an unexpected place.
Sr. Mary Jeremiah makes a find!
Is there an egg in there, Sr. Bernadette Marie? (Yes, there was!)
Sr. Marie Augustine counts the eggs she found…
…Sr. Mary Giuse is still counting!
The winners, with 22 each, were our two bursars, Sr. Mary Rose (right) and Sr. Mary Christine (left).
Sr. Mary Margaret took special honors for finding the most \”shiny\” eggs.
It was a lot of fun and everyone found something! Many thanks to Sr. Mary Gabriel, Sr. Maria Guadalupe, and Sr. Maria Cabrini who hid all 201 eggs! (201?? Wow! But we have 26 sisters in the house right now, so it evens out really well.) Happy Easter to all and may you be blessed with Paschal joy this season!

Easter at the Monastery

We are having a beautiful Easter celebration at the monastery today, and it\’s only beginning! The entire Easter octave (that\’s from now until next Sunday, May 1) is one long celebration of this most glorious feast. Today, we\’d like to share some pictures with you:

Our monastery chapel, all decorated for Easter
The Paschal candle 
We were delighted to have our friend Father R.B. Williams, O.P.  (who gave our community retreat last year) come to spend the triduum with us. He concelebrated Mass and the Good Friday liturgy with our chaplain, Fr. J.D. Logan, O.P. and they both did a great job! Later, Fr. R.B. shared with us about his travels and adventures as an itinerant Dominican preacher. All too quickly he was back on the road, but not before we got this picture of him with some of the sisters. 

Sr. Maria Cabrini, Sr. Mary John, Fr. R.B., Sr. Mary Gabriel, Sr. Mary Dominic
We hope you are having a blessed celebration of Easter and will continue to celebrate during the octave and until the Easter season ends at Pentecost (June 12 this year)!

Triduum Schedule

 We invite you to join us for our celebrations of the Paschal Triduum, if you are in the Lufkin area. All our Masses and liturgies are open to the public.

Holy Thursday Mass will be on April 21 at 7:15 PM.

Good Friday Liturgy will be on April 22 at 3:00 PM.

The Easter Vigil will be on April 23 at 9:00 PM.

Easter Sunday Mass will be on April 24 at 10:15 AM.

We pray you will have a holy and blessed Triduum! We will be in retreat Thursday-Saturday, and we hope to post again on Easter Sunday. Pray for us — we\’ll be praying for you!