Columbus Day Picnic

On Saturday, October 12, the community celebrated our annual Columbus Day picnic. It’s always a day of outdoor exploration, community games, feasting, and fun.

We began the day with our traditional flag raising of the United States and Texas flags. We sang some patriotic songs, then our prioress Sr. Mary Margaret led us in a prayer thanking God for the freedoms and liberties we enjoy as citizens of this country.

After the flag raising, we went to the refectory to look over the treats our cook had put out for us. Special snacks fortify us for a day full of community adventure, games, and fun.

The nuns sample special picnic day treats.

Several nuns decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and made a trek around the back path, the part of our land that we own but is outside the cloister. It’s a great wooded area, and halfway through we came across a huge tree that had fallen over the path. Some of us were able to climb over it and continue walking, and we found a beautiful area with wildflowers such as goldenrods and baby’s breath. We never know what we’re going to find when we go exploring!

When we returned to the monastery, we decided to pick some of the persimmons that were growing behind the professed dorm.

Sr. Mary Christine holds the ladder while Sr. Mary Therese cuts down a branch full of ripe persimmons.

We were able to harvest quite a bunch that the squirrels hadn’t gotten to yet, and then took them to the novitiate courtyard to finish ripening. We were able to enjoy the fresh persimmons a few days later. Delicious!

We spent the rest of the day feasting and playing games in the community room.

Sr. Mary Jeremiah, Sr. Mary Christine, Sophia, and Sr. Miriam enjoy playing Uno.

Running a monastery can be hard work, and with our usual days filled with prayers and our own work we don’t have a lot of time to spend together as a family. Our picnic days provide welcome time for us just to relax and have fun with each other. Laughing and playing together bond us as sisters and strengthen us for our important work of praising God as a community.

The Novitiate Celebrates St. Louis Bertrand!

The novitiate recently celebrated the feast day of St. Louis Bertrand, the Dominican patron saint of novices. On his official feast day, October 9, our novice mistress, Sr. Mary Christine, led the prayers during the Liturgy of the Hours throughout the day. Then the novitiate had special activities on Friday and Saturday to celebrate their small community within our monastery and to thank God for the gift of our novices who are in formation to join our order.

The novitiate opens gifts from the community.

They spent much of the day playing outdoor games such as tennis, and then came inside to play table games like the monastery favorite, Sequence.

For supper, the novitiate had a special meal of barbecue. Then they played instruments and sang songs.

Our novitiate is forming quite a band!

The community was happy to let the novices have some free time to celebrate their special day. We’re very excited when new women want to join our community, and we look forward to see what God has planned for them!

Sr. Mary Margaret’s Triumphant Feast Day

On September 14, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, the community celebrated the feast day of our prioress, Sr. Mary Margaret of the Cross. Since this will be her last feast day during her term as our prioress, we wanted to make the day particularly special.

We began the celebrations by gathering in the community room and singing a special song that Sr. Mary Jeremiah and Sr. Mary Gabriel had written to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. Then Sr. Mary Margaret opened all of the gifts the community gave her.

Sr. Mary Margaret’s Feast Day table

We’ve been working hard hand-making such gifts as knitted and crocheted items, stuffed animals, cross stich pieces, and diamond art pictures. We have plenty of beautiful items to go in next year’s raffle!

Sr. Marie Augustine and Sr. Mary Christine have a special gift for Sr. Mary Margaret–the novitiate bearing gifts!

Then we gathered in the community room for a special steak dinner.

Tables decorated for the feast day

In the afternoon, we watched the movie The Chosen, based on the Chaim Potok novel. It’s about two Jewish boys growing up in 1940s New York, and explores ideas of friendship and family.

The evening’s program was a variety show, in which various sisters showed off their performing talents.

The novitiate performed several songs.

Sr. Maria played a couple of pieces on her accordion.

In between acts, Sr. Mary Rose shared fun facts about Illinois, Sr. Mary Margaret’s home state.

It was a fun, relaxing community day for the sisters, and a wonderful way to celebrate our love and appreciation for our prioress!

St. Martha–and a Visit from the Polkers

The feast of St. Martha (which is now the feast of Martha, Mary and Lazarus) is a traditional day in our monastery to honor the sisters who do the cooking. In times past, the novitiate would take over the kitchen and give the cooks a day off. But, as our cook Sr. Marie Augustine reminded us, “Martha never took a day off!” So the novitiate came and helped Sister get ready for a delicious meal.

Diana, our kitchen assistant, and Sr. Marie Augustine, adorned in chef’s hats for this special day.

Sr. Marie Augustine prepares to slice a pineapple, but don’t worry. She’s wearing an apron–it’s white and blends in with her habit!

The other thing that happened on July 29 was that our good friends the Polkers came up from La Porte, TX–quite a drive, especially in the heat. The Polkers come about three times a year, bringing loads of food. This includes things we need, like flour, meat, sugar, juice and cereal, and things that are just treats, such as mini cream puffs and ice cream! Because there is a lot of food and most of it needs to be refrigerated or frozen–and all of it needs to be put away somewhere–it’s all hands on desk when they come.

Sr. Mary Christine and Michelle looking for places to put things!

Working together to get the job done.

Sr. Mary Giuse pushes a cart holding margarine and ice cream into the kitchen.

The Polkers always bring a lot of fresh fruit! The novitiate sisters–Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Christine, and Michelle–carefully washed and dried everything so it would be ready to be eaten.

Did we mention the meals were delicious? Sr. Marie Augustine is a wonderful cook! We appreciate her very much. And we are so grateful to the Polkers and all their friends, who keep us supplied with groceries! Thank you both!

St. Martha, patroness of hard-working people, pray for us!

Sr. Mary Magdalene’s Silver Jubilee!

Sr. Mary Magdalene recently celebrated her silver jubilee–25 years a cloistered nun!

Sr. Mary Magdalene with Sr. Mary Margaret, our prioress, before Mass

Our chaplain, Fr. R.B. Williams, celebrated a festive jubilee Mass for Sister. Sr. Carmen Gloria, our sacristan, did the flower arrangement in front of the altar–as usual it was stunning.

Sister renewed her vows in the hands of Sr. Mary Margaret, as is traditional in the Dominican Order.

After Mass, we had a community day to celebrate Sister, with games, gifts, and delicious food–including Sister’s favorite, hamburgers!

Sr. Mary Magdalene enters the community room to begin the festivities.

Sr. Mary Jeremiah was in charge of games. Here she shows us how it’s done! You can also get a glimpse of Sr. Mary Magdalene’s gift table.

Sr. Mary Giuse takes a shot while the community watches.

In the afternoon, we watched Sr. Mary Magdalene open her many gifts, and enjoyed seeing the creativity our sisters possess.

A lovely card.

An afghan crocheted by Sr. Martin Marie

A paint by numbers kit! Sister is very artistic and loves to do cross stitch, crocheting, and other crafts.

This might have been her favorite gift! Sister really wanted a German shepherd for her jubilee–a live one, that is–but she got the next best thing instead. We don’t encourage pets, and when animals venture into the cloister, we try to find them good homes. Just not with us!

We all had a wonderful time celebrating Sr. Mary Magdalene’s jubilee! Although we will have to wait another 25 years for her golden jubilee, we have several sisters who will also celebrate silver jubilees just a few years from now. In the meantime, the prioress’ feast day is coming up in September–stay tuned!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

St. Catherine of Siena once said that the Dominican Order was like a “broad, fragrant garden”. And to make this figure of speech a reality, we have been fixing up our gardens–one new and one old!

We’ll begin with the infirmary garden. The plants we had in this area were frozen during the winter storm of 2021, and we are finally able to put new plants in, as the weather has been cooperating–lots of sun and rain!

Several views of the infirmary garden, from all angles

We gave up on ground cover, and are trying pine straw instead (which we have a lot of!). You can see several new plants here, including two dogwood trees.

We also planted a lot of caladiums–some of them are starting to poke a few leaves out!

Some dear friends of ours wanted us to put in a butterfly garden–and they generously provided the means for us to do this. In order that our many guests could enjoy it, we planted it out front.

Our workmen, David and Pete, look on as the special soil for the garden is delivered.

They really dumped it!

David filling in the beds

Pete smoothing them out

The new beds–ready for planting!

All planted! Now we wait for it to grow a little, and hopefully, the butterflies will come! Many thanks to our dear friend Carmen who helped so much with both of these gardens!

We also got some large rocks for landscaping around the front of the monastery. Thank goodness another friend of ours was able to find some men to help us place them!

These men ROCK!

Thanks to everyone who helped make these gardens grow! We appreciate all your time and hard work. Thanks to our sisters who worked very hard planting and designing and organizing the gardens. Please pray with us that these gardens will do well, and that we will hopefully avoid any more freezes like 2021!