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.

MTS 2017 Conclusion

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.

MTS 2017 Second Week

 

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

At evening recreation the Sisters enjoy sharing their talents, and learning how to things a bit differently. The Sisters here are working on making rosaries (left to right: Sr. Francisca, Sr. Mary Magdalene, and Sr. Mary Isabel)