Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

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.

 

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.

On Wednesday, June 7, at 7:30 pm a solemn disputatio was held in the Community Room of the Dominican Monastery in Summit, NJ,in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas.
There were two designated judges: Sister Mary Martin, prioress of the Monastery, representing the civil authorities by her gold sash; and Sister Mary Jeremiah of the Lufkin Monastery, representing the academic authorities by her red sash.

The Quaestio Disputatio of the evening was: Whether it is fitting to pursue AI (artificial intelligence) as far as possible?

 We had two teams evenly divided with four on each team. The tram presenting objections (about 15) to the disputed question were, below left to right: Sr. Mary Veronica, Sr. Isabel, Sr. Francisca, Sr. Mary Jacinta.

The team responding with their determinatio were, below: left to right: Sr. Mary of the Angels, Sr. Maria of Jesus, Sr. Mary Magdalene, Sr. Dominic Marie.

After each group gave their finest polished arguments, they were allowed time to prepare a rebuttal. The team of the objections were very conversant in the topic and supplied Dilbert cartoons for each objection.

Our Monastic Theological Studies Program concluded on Friday, June 19, 2017. In the afternoon we had a round table discussion of the topics that Fr. Allan White presented in his classes. In the evening we had presentations of various certifications.

The students presented the co-ordinators with expressions of gratitude. The students received a lovely laminated card of St. Thomas with his prayer for study on the back, a pocket calendar with a quotation from St. Catherine of Siena: If you will be what you are, you will set fire to the whole world\”, and finally their award for completing the entire course.

We will take a year break before beginning our next four-year cycle. This will give time for more young professed Sisters to take advantage of this Program, taught, in most part by our Dominican Friars.

During the second week of our Monastic Theological Studies Program we had as our guest speaker, Fr. Allan White, OP. He is originally from the English Province, but is currently working in El Centro, California.  He tells us he works in the desert and the photo above certainly gives that impression.

From left to right: Sr. Isabel; Sr. Mary Magdalene; Sr. Mary Veronica; Sr. Maria of Jesus; Fr. Allan White; Sr. Mary Martin; Sr. Mary Jeremiah; Sr. Mary Jacinta; Sr. Francisca; Sr. Dominic Marie; Sr. Mary of the Angels

 

The Dominican temporary professed Nuns have been meeting for two weeks during the past four summers at the Monastery in Summit NJ. We have not had a student in this cycle of studies, but we hope to have one or two in the next four-year cycle that will begin in the summer of 2019.

On their first evening together one of the Sisters shared photos with us of her recent Solemn profession.

Last week the Sisters came from four different monasteries to learn about the Church Fathers from Father Andrew Hofer, OP. He is currently the Student Master for the Dominican Friars in Washington DC.

 From left to right: Sr. Mary Magdalene (Summit NJ): Sr. Mary Jeremiah (Lufkin-Coordinator); Sr. Mary Martin (Summit NJ Prioress & Assistant Coordinator); Sr. Maria of Jesus (Farmington Hills MI/Nigeria); Fr. Andrew Hofer; Sr. Mary Veronica (Summit NJ); Sr. Dominic Marie (Farmington Hills MI); Sr. Francisca (Kenya); Sr. Mary Jacinta (Summit NJ); Sr. Isabel (Menlo Park CA); Sr. Mary of the Angels (Los Angeles CA)

The Sisters cannot study all the time, so they could sometimes be found outside after meals. However, they did work very hard. One group even gathered on Sunday afternoon to prepare for their Disputatio which will take place the evening of June 7.

 

A week or so ago we had a somewhat spontaneous Dominican Family meeting. There were us, the nuns, our laity, and a friar, our chaplain. The directors of the RCIA programs in our two Lufkin parishes (St. Patrick and St. Andrew) had gone on a special pilgrimage to the Holy Land and wanted to share about their trip.

 

The event was opened up to our Dominican Laity group, and in addition to them, our chaplain stopped by as well. The meeting was held in our Large Parlor. We simply turned our chairs around and they projected the slides on a large screen attached to the wall.

A Dominican friend of the Monastery of many years, Father R. B. Williams, OP, filled in for our chaplain, Fr. Marcos Ramos, OP, for a few days last week. He took the opportunity to give the community two lectures: the first, on itinerant preaching, and the second, on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Father is a full-time itinerant preacher, giving parish missions and retreats throughout the United States. He also works in campus ministry at Texas Tech University in Lubbock TX, where the Dominican Friars have charge of St. Elizabeth University Parish.

For Father R.B.\’s visit this time, he sported a TT beanie that he wore most of the time. For some reason we did not get a photo of it, but it looks more or less like the one below. Father\’s wasn\’t red, but a green-gray color, and he liked to fold up the back so it looked like a cap.

Six months after the official approbation of the Order in 1217, St. Dominic dispersed the original 16 brethren to the university centers of Europe. After 800 years, the Dominican connection to the university remains strong. Besides Texas Tech, the Southern Province Friars serve as professors, chaplains, campus ministers or in research at:

• Barry University in Florida
• Emory University in Georgia
• Xavier University in Louisiana
• Tulane University In New Orleans
• Christian Brothers University in Tennessee
• Rice University in Texas
• University of Dallas in Texas
• A&M – Kingsville University in Texas 
• Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome
• Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City

We are a day late wishing all our women readers a Happy Mother\’s Day – physical, spiritual, potential. All of you were in our prayers. We had a special day, filled with flowers and joy. Below you can see our original Infant Jesus statue brought down from Detroit on the foundation in 1945. Notice all the \”Easter Lilies\”.

You, too, can have a yard full of lilies. It\’s very simple. Just save your Easter lilies, or those from your church. After they have bloomed, plant them outside in the flower bed or at the base of a tree. They will grow, reproduce and bloom–all on their own–for years to come!

We even had flowers we could eat. Some of the nuns made strawberries covered with white chocolate. They were decorated to look like roses. We had enough for both dinner and supper. Delicious!