A Fairy Tale Feast Day for the Prioress

We celebrated the feast day of our prioress, Sr. Mary Rose, with a fairy tale theme this year.

The decorated community room windows

The day began with the sisters singing a feast day song, written by Sr. Mary Margaret.

Sr. Mary Rose greets Sr. Miriam

The day began with a “Fairy Quest”, fairy tale-themed games played in teams.

Sr. Mary Rose’s team do a picture find.

Another team does a word find.

A third team puts together a puzzle.

“Fairy food”–special fairy tale cookies

At the end of the games the nuns were given treats–fairy tale cookies, wand pens, and lollipop rings.

In the afternoon, we gathered in the community room and Sr. Mary Rose opened her many gifts.

The gift table, full of presents the nuns have made over the year

Sr. Marie Augustine embroidered a beautiful pillow

Sr. Mary Christine cross-stitched a tablecloth

Sr. Irma Marie made many beautiful rosaries

In the evening, we had a fairy tale themed talent show, with songs and dances, jokes and skits.

Sr. Mary Therese gave “fairy tale facts” between the acts.

Sr. Mary Pauline and Sr. Mary Giuse performed a beautiful Vietnamese dance, complete with rose petals.

“Grandmother Goose” (Sr. Maria Cabrini) told funny stories about getting older.

Since it wasn’t just Sr. Mary Rose’s feast day but also her birthday, we gave her a “fairy” special birthday cake.

At the end of the day, we all sang happy birthday to Sr. Mary Rose.

The festivities continued the next day when we watched the movie Disenchanted, a fairy tale movie we all enjoyed.

Prioress feast days are always special days for the community to get together and enjoy each other having fun. This year’s day was full of laughter and special surprises for Sr. Mary Rose, and we were able to show her how much we appreciate all she does for us as our prioress.

A Festive Columbus Day

Every year we celebrate Columbus Day with a big picnic day, full of games, food, and community fun.

We began the day gathered around the flagpole to pledge allegiance and sing patriotic songs.

Some of us wore patriotic hats and leis to begin the celebration.

Sr. Mary Veronica and Sr. Marie Augustine pose with some pumpkins a benefactor kindly donated to us.

We put some of the pumpkins outside to decorate the monastery.

Since the weather was so nice, some of us decided to explore our grounds (which encompass 80 acres, only some of which are actually within our enclosure). We’re putting up a new fence around our perimeter, so it was fun to see the progress the workers are making.

We encountered some workers putting up the new fence.

Sr. Mary Margaret drove around to inspect the part of the fence that had already been put up. It looks great!

Afterwards, we gathered in the community room to play games. We have our regular favorites, and this year some of the sisters tried their luck at Jenga.

Sr. Mary Magdalene considers her next move while Sr. Mary Rose watches.

Sr. Mary Margaret very carefully makes her next move.

Sr. Mary Margaret very carefully tries to remove a piece.

As usual, we had a lot of fun (and ate a lot of great food!) as we celebrated our country and our community, for both of which we’re very thankful.

A Retreat with St. Catherine of Siena

We recently welcomed Fr. Thomas McDermott, O.P., to the monastery to give us a week of talks on St. Catherine of Siena.

Fr. Thomas McDermott

St. Catherine of Siena was an Italian mystic who lived in the 1300s. Although not a nun, she lived as a Dominican mantellate, a lay woman who embraced Dominican spirituality.

Fr. McDermott is a Dominican priest with the Central Province, who did his doctorate and wrote several books about St. Catherine. He taught us all about her life, spirituality, and visions, and the things she did to try to make herself more in conformity with Jesus Christ.

We enjoyed the talks and meeting with Fr. McDermott. We love learning more about our Dominican heritage, and St. Catherine of Siena is a model to us all in how to live our Dominican life.

We Have a New Prioress!

Sr. Mary Margaret and Sr. Mary Rose

The Monastery of the Infant Jesus is pleased to announce the election of our new prioress, Sr. Mary Rose. For the last six years she has served the community as our sub-prioress (in addition to many other duties) and we are confident she is well-prepared to be our new leader.

Our outgoing prioress is Sr. Mary Margaret, who served for six years and six years before that as sub-prioress. Throughout her six years as prioress, she saw the community through many changes and challenges, including COVID, big maintenance projects, and the addition of three new nuns to our monastery. We thank her for all that she has done for the community.

Pentecost Celebration in the Monastery

Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and others followers of Jesus, signifies the end of the Easter season and is always a special celebration in the Monastery.

The chapel altar decorated for Pentecost

Every year on this solemnity, every sister is given a special card during midmorning prayer.

2025 Pentecost card

On the back of each card is a different gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit.

At evening recreation, we share with each other what the Holy Spirit has specially given us.

Throughout the next year, we reflect on the special way that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives to help us in our monastic community and to strengthen our relationship with God.

Mother’s Day in the Monastery

This was Sr. Mary Margaret’s last Mother’s Day as prioress, so we wanted to make it a special day for her.

Sr. Mary Margaret enjoys some Mother’s Day gifts.

We love watching movies together, so we saw Saving Mr. Banks, a moving story about the making of the film Mary Poppins. (The community’s response: “Now we want to see Mary Poppins!”)

Sr. Marie Augustine cooks a special Mother’s Day dinner.

At noon, we gathered in the community room to eat a delicious dinner. We enjoyed talking and laughing together.

In the evening, we had games: The Mother’s Day Olympics! We divided into two teams–the Immas (Aramaic for “mother”, as we’ve learned from the TV show The Chosen) and the Miteras (Greek for “mother”)–and played a variety of “sports”.

Sr. Carmen Gloria and Sr. Mary Gabriel invented the games.

First, the team members bounced ping pong balls on a table to try to get them to land in an egg carton.

Sr. Mary Therese explains the chicken game to the teams. How many eggs can they get the chicken to lay?

Then the teams competed to see who could do best at the bean bag toss.

Sr. Maria Rosario tosses the bean bags into the “corn hole”.

Next, we played a version of miniature golf, in which the teams swept ping pong balls into a box with tiny doors. (Mothers do a lot of sweeping, don’t they?)

Sr. Mary Pauline sweeps a ball into the box. The sisters did very well with this game!

Next was the blind toss. One sister would sit in a chair and throw ping pong balls behind her without looking, while a teammate would try to catch it with a hat. Luckily, our nuns are spry and caught almost every ball!

We brought out some fun music for our final games. First, in a version of musical chairs, three nuns from each team stood around a table with five little duckies on it. When the music (“Baby Elephant Walk”) stopped, they each had to grab a duck. The one left without a toy was out, and we kept reducing the ducks until there was only one winner. Play nice, sisters!

Sr. Mary Gabriel, Sr. Mary Margaret, and Sr. Carmen Gloria pose with the rubber duckies.

Finally, we played “hot duckie” (like “hot potato”) with the sisters sitting in a circle passing around the duckie. When the “Pink Panther Theme” stopped, the one with the duckie was out until there was only one winner.

In the end, Sr. Mary Margaret’s team, the Immas, won, but at the Mother’s Day Olympics everyone is a winner and we all got prizes. We all had fun and enjoyed spending the day together.

Sr. Mary Rose and Sr. Mary Margaret enjoyed our Mother’s Day celebration.

Easter Celebrations and a Visit with Our Sisters

This year’s Easter celebration was beautiful, as always.

The chapel, decorated beautifully by our sacristan, Sr. Carmen Gloria.

After the solemnity of the Triduum, we celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass and concluded with our traditional midnight breakfast.

Sr. Miriam, Sr. Maria Rosario, and Sr. Maria Cabrini enjoy the Easter meal.

Sr. Bernadette Marie and Sr. Mary Giuse prepare the Easter dinner for us.

The novitiate worked very hard to decorate the refectory for Easter. This year, they made special mini Easter baskets woven out of various colors of yarn, and when the week was over we were allowed to keep them or send them to family or friends.

At the head of the refectory, the novitiate put up an elaborate display with an Easter cross surrounded by flowers.

Sr. Mary Christine designed the refectory decorations.

At the end of Easter week, we received special visitors: the Puerto Rican active Dominican sisters who live in Paris, TX. They brought a discernment group with them.

The group poses outside out monastery.

We enjoyed talking to the young women in the parlor. They were lovely and seemed very interested in religious life.

After our meeting, they joined us for midday prayer in the chapel.

The Dominican sisters brought an early Mother’s Day gift for our prioress, Sr. Mary Margaret.

Easter week was a time of celebration, relaxation, and visiting, in which we were reminded of our love for Jesus and why He has brought us all together in community here.