Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

Recently we were delighted to welcome Mother Susan Catherine, superior of the new community called the Daughters of Divine Hope, to our monastery. Mother Susan Catherine officially established this community in our home diocese of Tyler, TX in 2011 and is already preparing for the first vows of her novices! Mother Susan Catherine herself just made her final vows on September 14th of this year. We have known Mother Susan Catherine for many years and are so happy that she is following God\’s call in this way. We encourage women who may be interested in active religious life to check out her community\’s website: http://www.daughtersofdivinehope.org/mainpage.html. We wish Mother Susan Catherine and her novices all the best, and we hope they will flourish in our diocese and–who knows–elsewhere, too, as God wills! 

Mother Susan Catherine and Sr. Mary John in our large parlor. Sr. Mary John helped Mother Susan Catherine with advice on religious life in the early days of planning and establishing the Daughters of Divine Hope.

Our novitiate building is lovely…but the floor is not in good shape. This is hardly surprising, since it was installed over 40 years ago and many a novice has traversed the floor since then. As you can see…

…there are a lot of bad spots, not to mention places where tiles were replaced over the years.

But, as we read in Ecclesiastes, \”there is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens\” (3:1). We are about to replace the entire floor in the novitiate! Of course, to prepare for this great event, we had to clear out stuff. A lot of stuff! All the books in our substantial novitiate library were packed away neatly and stored; all the pictures and statues and crucifixes came down. And a lot of furniture had to be removed. Some of it we could do ourselves, some was moved by our trusty workmen, and the bulk of the furniture was moved this morning by our faithful Knights of Columbus!

Arriving in the novitiate

Shelves from the novice directress\’s office

It fit through the door…just barely!

Sr. Mary John watches carefully as the Knights move a filing cabinet

Much of the furniture was moved to our Chapter Hall for the time being. 

The Knights in the Chapter Hall

Sr. Mary John and the Knights of Columbus after finishing up!

We are so grateful to the Knights for their hard work and for taking time from a busy Saturday to help us. And they plan to return and help us move everything back in, too! What a great group of Catholic men! Thank you so much for everything! 

We will keep you posted on our novitiate renovations as they continue, so be sure to check back in for updates!

Last night we were all enjoying Sunday night recreation when suddenly guests arrived! It was Fr. Al Lopez, OP, in town to preach at St. Andrew\’s parish for Food for the Poor. He was accompanied by Fr. Joe, the pastor at St. Andrew\’s. They had just finished Mass and wanted to stop by and visit–of course we were happy to have them, although it was a little late for nuns!

Fr Al Lopez with Sr. Maria Cabrini, Sr. Mary Gabriel and Sr. Mary Margaret.

Fr. Al gave us a wonderful talk on St. Rose of Lima, the topic of his doctoral dissertation and a favorite saint of his. We learned many interesting things and numerous pious legends were put to rest! Fr. Al is a Dominican of the province of St. Albert the Great (the central province) and originally hails from Tuscon, Arizona. The relative lateness of the visit reminded us of St. Dominic\’s famous late-night visit to the nuns to preach and teach, and yes, occasionally bring friars to visit, too. So Fr. Al\’s visit was definitely in keeping with Dominican tradition!

A: Yes! We\’ve had a lot going on. Some things we\’ll feature in future posts. Some things we keep private. That\’s how it is.

A: We always have Mass–usually a votive Mass especially for this kind of celebration, such as the Mass for the Blessing of Human Labor–to celebrate the day, because Mass is the best way to celebrate! The Liturgy of the Hours follows the weekday, of course. We sometimes have a \”talking\” meal in the community room–a meal where instead of eating in silence in the refectory while the reader reads something to us, we are able to converse with each other while eating. It looks like we\’ll be doing that this year too. But for the most part we\’ll be celebrating Labor Day by, well, laboring as usual!

A: It is, at first. Most of us are used to meals with family and/or friends, with lots of conversation and laughter. But we keep silence throughout the day here at the monastery, so it naturally spills over into our mealtimes, as well. We do have a designated reader who reads from a book on the spiritual life while we eat, or sometimes we listen to CDs on similar spiritual topics. And this emphasis on silence at meals makes the occasional \”talking\” meal especially fun. We haven\’t forgotten how to talk, as anyone who comes to recreation can tell you! 

A: Yes. September 14 is the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and is traditionally the day when fasting season begins. It\’s coming up again soon! We have regular meals for our main meal at noon, and what we call \”collation\” for our evening meal. During fasting season, sisters take what they need at their discretion–we don\’t impose fasting on anyone. However, there\’s a lot less food to choose from on the serving table!

A: We did see the most beautiful rainbow last night…

 …it was actually a double rainbow! Wow! God is so amazing!

As Dominican nuns, our main job is prayer. We pray for all kinds of things. We pray for all the people who ask us for prayers for their needs, great and small. We pray for our departed loved ones, friends, benefactors, and brothers and sisters in the Order. We are praying for the racial tensions and strife in our own country, the United States of America. We pray for all the urgent needs of our world today. And one of the most urgent needs is the ongoing crisis in Iraq. We have added community prayers for this intention to our own personal prayers, and we hope you will join us in praying for a peaceful and long-lasting solution to this terrible situation. Fr. Bruno Cadore, OP, Master General of the Dominican Order, has issued a plea to the UN which you can read here. We hope you will join us in praying for these intentions and also for an end to the violence and tension in Ferguson, MO. May we all have the courage to strive for peace in whatever way we can, and one thing we can all do is be united in prayer.

Who is Dominic? 

—A man on the move, who leaves a fixed secure abode and ventures forth in search of men and women to lead them to God. His joyous spirit and his faith are the means to persuade others to follow him. 

—A preacher of the Truth, who, impelled by people\’s ignorance, proclaims the Word of God wherever he goes. 

—A man steeped in Sacred Scriptures, who accepts them as God\’s message to him and who makes them the guiding principles of his life. 

—A contemplative, who in meditation and serenity of heart opens himself to God and thus continually awaits His call. 

—An apostle, who has both the courage to face heretics at the risk of his life, and the love to enter into dialog with them. 

—A mystic, who in loving and intimate union with his suffering Master accepts the cross as the sign of a true disciple. 

Not long ago we celebrated Sr. Mary Christine\’s silver jubilee with a community day! The entire community room was decorated like a tropical garden, and we played some fun garden-themed games in the morning.

Sr. Mary Christine posing with the winning team–note their \”gold\” medals!

And she also posed with the team who came in second–with their \”silver\” medals. (The teams were evenly divided but some of this team\’s members are not pictured!) 

In the afternoon Sr. Mary Christine opened her many jubilee gifts, both from friends and from the community. 

It\’s cute, but what IS it? (A tape dispenser shaped like a flower!)

Lots of stationery…handy for writing all those thank-you notes!

We ended the fun day by watching a documentary on the Servant of God Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan. Sr. Mary Christine actually met him once, before she entered the monastery. It was a beautiful and inspiring film which everyone enjoyed. Another wonderful celebration! We are looking forward to your golden jubilee, Sr. Mary Christine!