Summmmer time

Summer time in Texas is watermelon time. And someone recently gave us a very large watermelon. We like watermelon, and have several being chilled right now.

We want to thank all our friends who have shared with us the produce of their gardens, or sent over fruits and vegetables.
We remember you in our prayers as we consume these delicious gifts of God\’s creation. 

A Monastic Funeral

With the recent funeral of Sister Mary John, we thought we would describe how we have our funerals.

Almost all of our Sisters have died here at the Monastery surrounded by the other Nuns, singing the Salve Regina and offering various prayers. Once a Sister dies, we accompany her body until burial. This is a custom which goes back centuries to the original Dominican Monastery in Prouille, France.

As is the custom here in the USA, the remains are taken to the funeral home for preparation for burial. When the body of our deceased Sister is returned to the Monastery the casket is placed in our choir at the gate where we receive Holy Communion. A Sister remains in prayer \”with her\” until the funeral. Although the Blessed Sacrament is not exposed until after the funeral, we still keep our times of adoration in the chapel and pray the Psalms for the deceased Sister. In this way, the entire Psalter is usually prayed 2 or 3 times.

Since the establishment of our Tyler Diocese, it has been the practice of our local Bishop to officiate at the services if he is in the diocese. Bishop Joseph Strickland was here for the occasion. Because Sister Mary John had been our prioress for a number of years, a large number of local friends of the community came, as well as some of her relatives.

While we walk to the cemetery with the hearse, the laity go to the cemetery from the outside. 
They can enter through a special gate, which is only opened for those who take part in the services. We keep our enclosure by standing on one side of the casket and the laity on the other. In the photo below you can see the laity have already taken their places before we arrive.
After the Mass and Committal in our cemetery, we provide a lunch for all those who come. Then we all meet in a parlor to visit and share stories about the deceased Sister.

 If possible, that evening the nuns gather in our Community Room to share about the \”big event\”.

Rest in God\’s Peace

Our Sister Mary John passed into eternity in the early morning hours of Friday, July 14.
Sister was almost 77 years of age. She had been our prioress for 4 terms, equaling 12 years in all. From the time our current buildings went up in the late 1960s, she oversaw maintenance of them. Sister filled many other assignments as well. She was cook, assistant bursar, responsible for our embroidery department in the Cloistered Workshop when we were sewing vestments. Sister learned to play the violin from one of the other nuns (Sr. Mary Lucy, who died July 3, 2014), and did it well. She not only contributed to our monastery, but also to the Association of Monasteries in North America as Councillor and President for 3 terms.
As you can tell from the photo above Sister had a good sense of humor and was even our local \”Monastic Sheriff\”!
Sister\’s funeral will be held this morning at 10:00 am in our Chapel and cemetery. We will be reporting on it in a day or so. Please remember her and her family in your prayers. God bless you.

North American Nuns on "pins and needles"

The Nuns of North America have been on \”pins and needles\” waiting to find out who the new representative to the International Commission of Dominican Nuns will be for the next six years.

There were three nominations given to the Dominican Master General, Fr. Bruno Cadoré (photo above). Then, it was his task to choose one of them to be the representative. Finally, after months of anxiously waiting and wondering, our Sister Mary Rose, received an email that she had been chosen as the representative. Her first duty was to send in some information about herself and a photo, which we want to share with you below! The next task will be to attend a meeting of the Commission in Bologna, Italy in October 2017. It will be her first trip to Europe.

Sister Mary Rose of Joy Carlin, O.P., was born in 1978 here in Lufkin TX. She is our only “native-born” vocation. The third of ten children, her first introduction to our Monastery was when her mother brought her to meet the nuns at just a few days old. She was subsequently baptized in our chapel–a very unique achievement! She earned a BA degree at Magdalen College, now Northeast Catholic, in Warner NH. It was during the year working after graduation that a longing for the cloister, which she had felt in childhood, returned. She entered the Monastery on June 11, 2000 and made her solemn profession on February 25, 2006.
In 2008, Sister Mary Rose helped to edit Vocation in Black and White: Dominican Contemplative Nuns tell how God called them, a collection of vocation stories from Dominican nuns throughout the USA. Our Association of Dominican Monasteries sponsored this project in honor of the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Dominican nuns. Sister is currently our Novice Mistress and an organist.


We are all very happy and excited for Sister.
Please join us in praying for this new way of preaching
God\’s glory and the salvation of souls.

A Peaceful July 4

We hope all our readers from the USA had a pleasant Independence Day celebration. Our day was one of relaxation and enjoying the company of one another. As is our tradition, we officially began to day with raising our flags, patriotic songs, prayers and the pledge of allegiance.

The picnic day is one of our few \”talking\” days, which usually engenders much gratitude for the other days of Silence.

Besides our normal hamburgers,some friends gave us fried chicken. Here, one of the Sisters settles for just A PIECE of watermelon!

A Golden Jubileeeeeeeeeeee

Our prioress, Sister Maria Guadalupe, recently celebrated her Golden Jubilee (50 years) of professed life as a Dominican Nun. The reason for all the \”e-s\” above in the title is because we spread it over three days, instead of one. We celebrated liturgically with the celebration of Holy Mass for her on the actual date in early June. Then, because one of our Sisters was away at the Monastic Theological Studies Program, we waited until her return to have our community day of joyful sharing.

 

Sister especially wanted a day in which everyone could relax and enjoy themselves as on a Picnic Day. We began with a beautiful song written by our two Sisters from Mexico. Then they danced to the lovely lyrics. The two Sisters wearing the salmon colored vests were the composers and choreographers.

In the morning a 30 minute documentary was available about the Apparitions at Fatima in honor of 2017 being the hundredth anniversary. Games were available for those who wished. Treats and time to talk were the norm. We also had our meals in the community room so we could chat as we ate.

In the evening, we opened the gifts the Sisters had made for the occasion. These gifts are usually specialty items that the prioress can offer to friends and benefactors, or put out in our Gift Shop. Sometimes, these treasures are even used in our annual Easter raffle.

We concluded the festivities on Sunday by viewing the old black and white classic, The Miracle Worker, about Anne Sullivan teaching Helen Keller to communicate.