Visiting Friars: Fr. Bernard Mulcahy, OP and Fr. John Rooney

We were surprised and delighted to receive a visit on Tuesday from Fr. Bernard Mulcahy, OP, a friar from the province of St. Joseph (eastern province) who is teaching at St. Mary\’s Seminary in Houston. He came with a friend and colleague from St. Mary\’s, Fr. John Rooney, a diocesan priest who is an associate with the Dominican Sisters in Houston. 

Fr. Bernard and Fr. John

We had a fascinating, rather free-wheeling discussion with them about all manner of things in the parlor after lunch that lasted until time for Rosary (you can see the time on the clock in the picture!). Dominicans do love a good discussion! We are always happy to welcome visiting friars (and others!) who come to our door so if you\’re in the area, please give us a call and drop by!

Ongoing Formation with Fr. Marcos Ramos, OP

As you may know, Fr. Marcos Ramos, OP is our current monastery chaplain. This summer he has graciously taken some time to give classes to our novitiate sisters (and those in the professed community who are able to come). The classes are on patristics (the Fathers of the Church) and we are really enjoying them. Father is an excellent teacher!
Fr. Marcos lectures in the novitiate community room while Sr. Mary Giuse listens closely
So far, we\’ve discussed Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Clement, and the Protoevangelium of James. Father\’s lectures are very interesting, and we enjoy his use of various audio-visual helps too (that is to say, he sometimes shows videos–always welcome in class!). Father plans many fascinating topics to come, and he has suggested the class will last at least until Advent. We are fortunate to have this opportunity! Thank you, Fr. Marcos, for taking this time to instruct your sisters and helping them grow in their knowledge and love of God! 

Questions Answered: July Edition

Q: Y\’all haven\’t posted anything in quite a while. Is everything OK?
A: Yes, we\’re fine! We\’ve just been really, really busy. And the sister who generally oversees this blog had to get a new computer, so she\’s been trying to switch over from Mac to PC. It\’s a long story we\’re not going to go into, but actually things are going very smoothly there and everywhere else.
Q: Did you have a good 4th of July?
A: Yes. We had a delightful picnic along with our traditional flag raising. We played all kinds of games and had a wonderful free day. Some readers may recall that we didn\’t celebrate the 4th of July (which is Independence Day in the U.S. for those who may not know) last year due to the death of a sister on July 3. So this was an extra special time, not only of remembering the freedom we enjoy as a nation but also remembering this sister and the special gift she was to us.
Q: Anything interesting coming up that may appear on the blog?
A: Definitely! We hope you will keep checking back and we promise to be more timely about posting in the days and weeks to come! 

Fortnight for Freedom, 2015

Today begins the Fortnight for Freedom, a time set apart especially to pray for religious liberty. As we are all aware, there are many attempts to curtail religious freedom at this time, and it is important that we, as men and women of faith, continue to stand up for our rights which are protected by our Constitution. As Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, \”[A] healthy pluralism…does not entail privatizing religions in an attempt to reduce them to the quiet obscurity of the individual\’s conscience or to relegate them to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues, or mosques.\” (n.255) We belong to a great nation, a nation strong enough to hold within itself opinions and beliefs of all kinds. Religious liberty is a great blessing and one which no one should be deprived of!
Here in the United States today is also Father\’s Day! We want to give a big thank you to all our fathers, living and deceased, the fathers in our families and our spiritual fathers as well. May God bless you all!

Five Good Years

This is the fifth anniversary of our blog! Hard to believe but true. We didn\’t know exactly what we were getting into when we started (and sometimes we still don\’t know) but we\’re happy to be making this journey and sharing some of our cloistered Dominican life on Lotus Lane with you all!
Today is also the memorial of St. Peter of Verona, a Dominican martyr who died a rather gruesome death because he was boldly proclaiming the faith. May we also proclaim the faith with the same integrity and strength of conviction which comes from the power of the Holy Spirit working in us!

Spring Roundup

May was such a busy month for us…not only visitors but also lots of intense and stormy weather! We\’d like to bring you some glimpses of life at the Monastery during May and very early June that we didn\’t have a chance to post before!

We had a delightful visit with a transitional deacon from our Tyler diocese, Nelson Munoz. Deacon Nelson will be ordained this summer and we hope he will be able to return and celebrate a First Mass for us in our chapel!

All the rain has been good news for Sr. Marie Augustine\’s garden! We\’ve been eating lots of her delicious organic produce this past month and hope for more to come. 

Sr. Mary Veronica received this grapevine as a gift from a friend and it has really taken off!

Looking for grapes…they are still ripening (although some have turned to raisins in the now hot sun!). Since the squirrels and birds enjoy them too, we\’re not sure how many Sister will be able to harvest– but we hope for a few bunches at least!

This visitor has been enjoying the tall green grass around the laundry building. Hopefully he (or she) hasn\’t figured out where Sr. Marie Augustine\’s garden is! 
Blessed be God in all His many gifts to us! 

Welcoming the Religious of our Diocese!

As part of the Year for Consecrated Life, we had a kind of \”open house\” for the religious of the Tyler, TX diocese (our home diocese) on Pentecost Sunday. Turnout was a little smaller than we expected due to heavy rain in parts of the diocese which prevented safe travel, but we had a lovely visit with those who were able to come!
 About 15 people were able to come, which was great! This included of course our chaplain, Fr. Marcos Ramos, OP and the provincial of St. Martin de Porres province (who is still visiting us), Fr. Thomas Condon, OP
We are blessed to have a great variety of religious in our diocese, including the Franciscan Eucharistic Missionary Sisters, the Daughters of Divine Hope, and the Brigittines, as well as the Dominicans. Some of the groups unable to be present today include active Carmelite sisters, Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Fransalian fathers, and some Jesuits.
We had Midafternoon Prayer (also known as None) with the sisters, then a fraternal visit, and finished the celebration with solemn Vespers, officiated by Fr. Thomas Condon, OP. And the weather in Lufkin was cloudy but dry! We welcome these opportunities to meet with the religious of our diocese–they get together more regularly of course but being cloistered, we are usually unable to join them! We hope they will be able to meet with us again some time soon.