New International Website for the Dominican Nuns!

We\’re super excited to announce the launch of this website! And many, many thanks to our fellow American Sr. Mary Magdalene, OP who put it all together! Please continue to read the official press release, which has all the details:

Dominican Nuns Launch First International Website


Summit, New Jersey–The Nuns of the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Nuns, launch their first international website, www.monialesop.org, in order to make their mission of prayer within the heart of the Order of Preachers better known.

St. Dominic de Guzman founded the Nuns of the Order in 1206, ten years before the friars were founded in 1216, when we gathered together nine women who were converts from the Cathar sect to the Catholic Faith at the Monastery of Notre Dame de Prouilhe in Southern France. From the very beginning St. Dominic associated the contemplative nuns to the mission of the Order to preach the Gospel for the salvation of souls through their lives of prayer and penance. 

According to tradition it was at this monastery that St. Dominic received the Rosary from Our Lady in 1208, although there are no historical documents to prove this oral tradition. 

Although each Dominican monastery is autonomous, the Dominican nuns are bound together by a common Rule and Constitutions and their profession of obedience to the Master of the Order of Preachers, which is unique among the contemplative orders of nuns.

The new website www.monialesop.org is in the three official languages of the Order of Preachers: English, French and Spanish. Readers can learn about the different elements that make up the contemplative life of the Nuns and the particular way the contemplative nuns participate in the preaching mission of the Order. 

There is an interactive map where one can any monastery in the world. Links to individual monastery websites as well as contact information can easily be found.

There is a resource page featuring various articles about the nuns’ charism as well as back issues of Monialibus, the international bulletin of the nuns. 

Although the Nuns of the Order were always listed on the main website of the Order of Preachers, the information was very difficult to find. Sr. Lioba Hill, OP, of the Monastery of Our Lady of Prouilhe, France, representative of the French monasteries on the International Commission of Nuns, proposed the idea of a website totally dedicated to the nuns. 

Sr. Mary Magdalene, OP, Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, Summit, NJ was commissioned to create the website. Despite the challenges of language, nuns from all over the world collaborated with Sr. Mary Magdalene making the website a fruit of sisterly communion on an international level.

There are approximately 2500 nuns in 190 monasteries in five continents of the world. 

Happy 80th Birthday, Sr. Maria Cabrini!

Sr. Maria Cabrini with her special “80” cake

We wish Sr. Maria Cabrini a very happy 80th birthday, and may she live many years to come!

Readers of this blog may recall that we only begin to celebrate birthdays when a sister turns 80 (we usually celebrate feast days instead). We have a party on a sister\’s 80th birthday, and cake and ice cream for dessert on subsequent birthdays–unless the sister is lucky enough to turn 90, or 100, and then we have another party!

Although this may seem unfair, it really does work out well for everyone–because we all get to eat cake and ice cream along with the birthday sister!

The birthday girl with Sr. Mary Margaret, our prioress. Note the happy sisters picking up their cake and ice cream in the background!

Everything Appropriate To Its Time

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In today’s reading from Ecclesiates, Qoholeth (or Solomon) says, “I have considered the task that God has appointed for the sons of men to be busied about. He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without man\’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.” In other words, our job is to concentrate on the work we have to do int he present moment, without being concerned for the future known only to God. It’s hard to live this concept, though! Especially right now, when our society is turned upside-down by worries of all kinds, particularly the coming national elections and the pandemic.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis\’ famous epistolary novel composed of letters from an experienced tempter to his young nephew trying to steal a soul from God for the first time, this crisis of the future is  neatly summed up:

Your patient will, of course, have picked up the notion that he must submit with patience to the Enemy’s will. What the Enemy means by this is primarily that he should accept with patience the tribulation which has actually been dealt out to him–the present anxiety and suspense. It is about this that he is to say, “Thy will be done,” and for the daily task of bearing this that the daily bread will be provided. It is your business to see that the patient never thinks of the present fear as his appointed cross, but only of the things he is afraid of. Let him regard them as his crosses: let him forget that, since they are incompatible, they cannot all happen to him. (from Letter VI)

C.S. Lewis goes to on explain the state Screwtape hopes to see his nephew’s “patient” in: a fog of confusion wherein he is constantly thinking, “If A happens, I can do B; if B happens (and I hope not!), I can do C; if A and B both happen (unlikely, but who knows?) I could always do D, and if everything else fails there is always E or F.” While this may sound like common prudence, it isn’t. The best thing we can do is simply place our lives, our very selves into God\’s hands, and let Him be about His business day by day.

Screwtape continues to his nephew Wormwood:

To be sure, the Enemy wants men to think of the Future too–just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning the morrow’s work is today’s duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the present….He does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. We do….We want a man hag-ridden by the Future–haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth–ready to break the Enemy’s commands in the Present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other. (from Letter XVI)

We all fall prey to this temptation to one degree or another. We avoid it by placing our trust in God and His perfect timing day by day, moment by moment. Our Lord told us, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” We have enough to occupy ourselves in the present without worrying about the future. Let us take concrete action at the appropriate time: voting in the election, wearing a mask and taking other precautions when we go out, whatever is needed in the moment. God will give us the grace we need in every trial, but He will only give it when the trial comes.

The White Scapular

During our retreat, Fr. John Sica, OP reminded us of a few things characteristic of Dominicans that we thought might be interesting to highlight here on the blog. One of these is the Dominican “white scapular”.

People sometimes ask us, anxiously, if we are wearing a brown scapular. This refers to the Carmelite brown scapular and its famous promise that those who wear it will be delivered from Purgatory by our Blessed Mother after they die.We usually smile and say, “No, but I am wearing a white scapular.”

“It’s not the same,” they insist. “The brown scapular is the only one that can save you.”

There\’s nothing wrong with wearing the brown scapular if it inspires you to lead a better life, go to Confession regularly, and have a devotion to Mary. But no mere scapular, white, brown, green, or any other color, is a Get Out Of Purgatory Free ticket.

That being said, why do Dominicans wear a white scapular?

A scapular was originally a kind of work-apron, meant to guard the habit from wear and tear and stains. So when St. Dominic began founding the Order, he had his new followers wear a habit like his, which happened to be the habit of the Augustinian canons: a white habit with a white hood (capuce) and a belt, and shoes (sandals are permitted today). There was no scapular, because they weren’t planning to do a lot of manual work. Their work would be intellectual.

And then Blessed Reginald of Orleans came on the scene.

Reginald was a priest and a canon lawyer before he met Dominic in Rome, in about 1218. He was dissatisfied with his somewhat worldly life and wanted something more, and had long conversations with Dominic about the new Order of Preachers. Still, he remained undecided until he fell extremely ill. One evening, as he lay on his sickbed, he had a dream in which the Blessed Virgin Mary came to him and anointed him. Holding out a Dominican habit, she also told him that if he put on this garment he would be saved. Our Lady’s version of the habit included a white scapular. When Reginald awoke, he was completely cured. He entered the Order and received the habit–with the white scapular added. And Dominicans have worn this white scapular ever since. (Usually with hands neatly tucked under.)

So, Our Lady plays a big part in the Dominican devotion to the white scapular, which (unlike most work aprons) is formally blessed when a brother or sister makes profession. Sometimes Dominicans even say (modestly) that the Dominican habit is special because it was a particular gift from Mary.

But why don’t Dominicans go around promoting the white scapular? Well, as we mentioned above–it\’s a part of the habit. It is also given to members of the Dominican Laity when they make profession as a sign of their part in the Order. It doesn’t carry any universal promises of blessings for the general public.There are other white scapular out there in Christendom that may carry such promises with them, but not the Dominican scapular.

If you are interested in a Dominican devotion that does carry promises, we highly recommend the Rosary. But that’s a huge topic! Maybe we\’ll look at that another time…

Annual Retreat

We\’ve been on retreat the last week or so!

Father John Sica, O.P., gave us a retreat on the theme of the Image of God. He used many examples taken from the lives of our own Dominican saints, which we found especially fruitful for meditation. In a nod to our prioress, Sr. Mary Margaret, he gave one conference using St. Margaret of Hungary as an exemplar for the Dominican nuns to follow. Of course, one would need to be prudent in this regard, because while Margaret was generous, self-sacrificing, humble, joyful, pious–all things a good Dominican nun should be–she also tended to disdain things like baths and clean habits. Obviously the source must be considered when imitating most saints of centuries past!

In addition to Father\’s conferences, we enjoyed a few days of “silent” retreat, which has become a feature many of us enjoy. Since the schedule is more free, we are able to spend our time in prayer, lectio, and other activities for a much longer period than usual.

Father John is a Dominican friar from St. Joseph\’s province (or, the eastern province). He has been living at Holy Rosary Priory in Houston the last two years attending classes at the University of St. Thomas. He has come before to give classes and to make his own personal retreat, so he was not entirely a stranger. We were especially lucky to get him for our retreat in these times of pandemic. He drove straight from Houston to Lufkin and always practiced social distancing when he was around us. It is always such a joy to get to know another of our Dominican friars!

We emerged from our retreat spiritually refreshed and ready to return to our daily work and routine. So far none of us has contracted COVID-19, although our chances are probably smaller because we don\’t get out much. Still, we continue to pray for a speedy end to the pandemic–with a vaccine, or some other help–and we pray for all of you in the world who are struggling so much more than we are. This was an important intention during our retreat.

It is our privilege to pray for you, always and at all times!

The Great Raffle Drawing

August 15 was the auspicious day chosen for our raffle drawing, and so in the afternoon after Rosary and prayers, we gathered in the community room to see who would win our 2020 Raffle prizes.

It\’s not exactly the Academy Awards, or the accounting firm of Price – Waterhouse, but our Guild sisters did their best to keep track of the many, MANY tickets that were sent in.
Our prioress, Sr. Mary Margaret, gave the tickets a first shuffle as subprioress Sr. Mary Rose looks on.
OK — let’s start drawing!!
Several sisters took turns drawing.
Sr. Mary Jeremiah graciously modeled the prizes for us (or held them up for viewing, as the case may be)
And we had some “surprise” prizes as well, modeled above by our sisters. Sr. May Annunciata, in the middle, is holding a regular prize. It’s yellow, a color she loves, and August 15 is her birthday, so we wanted to give her a chance to be seen here on our blog.

We are just immensely grateful to all of you who entered, and for all your kind donations, whether monetary or spiritual!

Are you wondering whether you won a prize? We\’ll be calling to let you know over the next few days. Stay alert!

St. Dominic’s Day 2020

Although we’re a bit late, we wanted to share some of our St. Dominic\’s Day festivities with you.

We began the day with the most important matters: the Liturgy of the Hours and a wonderful Mass in honor of our Holy Father Saint Dominic.

Father John Lydon, OP, our chaplain, with some of the members of our Dominican Laity and two religious from the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima. We promise, after this picture everyone put their masks back on and started practicing good social distancing!
Our two Dominican sisters were able to spend most of the day at our monastery. Several sisters from their community, which has its motherhouse in Puerto Rico, serve in our diocese of Tyler.
Meanwhile, the cloistered sisters helped in the kitchen, mindful of the decorum due on such a special day and being appropriately subdued. Well, maybe not so much!
When the kitchen was in good order, we all gathered in the community room to sing a feast day song–“Dominique”. We sang it in English since none of us speaks French. (Now, if it had been in Spanish…)
We spent the rest of the morning playing “Domingo”, which is, of course, “Bingo” with a Dominican theme. Instead of numbers, we have names of saints, important places, writings, things like that.
The sisters who organized the feast day this year thought up a unique–and welcome–prize. Instead of more “things”, we got the gift of time! Every winner (and fortunately, we all won in the end) received a Golden Ticket. This provides her with one full day of freedom to do whatever she wants to (within reason). The other sisters will even take her duties for her! No wonder Sister looks pleased in this picture.
We all had a long siesta time, and came back in the afternoon for a milkshake treat. Finally, we ended our great day with a movie, enjoyed by all.
Truly, how good and how pleasant it is when sisters live in unity!