Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

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!

We recently had a beautiful Mass honoring Sr. Mary Christine of the Sacred Heart, OP and her 25 years of consecration to Our Lord. Sister has been a member of our community since 2001, but for some years before that she was a perpetually professed member of the Houston Vietnamese Dominican Sisters. However, altogether she has spent 25 years serving the Lord faithfully, and we are happy to honor this commitment!

We are delighted to welcome our new chaplain, Fr. Marcos Ramos, OP! Father is a member of our southern Dominican province (province of St. Martin de Porres) and originally hails from Puerto Rico. He will be working on his doctoral dissertation while serving as our chaplain, so he may not have time for all the other extracurricular activities our chaplains usually do! Fr. Marcos is pursuing a doctorate in historical theology and the topic of his dissertation concerns St. Irenaeus of Lyons (an early Church father) and baptism. We met with Father during recreation recently and he shared some of his findings with us…really intriguing! We hope he will have time to teach us a class or give a talk occasionally. He also has a beautiful singing voice which has already enlivened our liturgies. We have been truly blessed in all our chaplains, and we are confident that this time will be a blessing as well. 

After a great year as our chaplain here at the Monastery, Fr. Art Kirwin, OP is moving on today to further adventures in his Dominican life. We will really miss him! Fr. Art has been a wonderful brother to us, celebrating Mass and other sacraments for us, visiting our sisters at the nursing home, sharing recreation with us in the parlor on a regular basis, teaching a class on Church history, and faithfully helping with our Dominican Laity chapter. In addition to this, he has been involved in prison ministry and his work preaching for a foundation which helps both young and old in poverty-stricken areas. We will miss Fr. Art, but we have hopes that he will return occasionally to celebrate Mass for us since he will not be too far away! And we are not left completely alone…we already have a great new chaplain (more on that later!). Thank you so much for everything, Fr. Art!

Sister Mary Lucy of the Incarnation, OP entered the Monastery in 1950 and made her first profession on July 2, 1952. She was professed 62 years.

Sister was an accomplished musician. She played the organ and piano, but especially loved the violin! Before her entrance, she played the violin with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. (That\’s Austin, the capital of Texas–as she loved to tell us!) 

Sister held a variety of duties around the Monastery, including librarian, infirmarian, maintenance, and bursar (in charge of paying bills, etc.) Sister was an especially dedicated worker who came to work in the Guild (her last assignment) until shortly before her death.

Sister was born on the 4th of July–Independence Day in the United States–and missed celebrating her 90th birthday by one day. She was very witty and had a great sense of humor, taking inspiration from everything around her to make little jokes.

Sister was a true community person, who loved the Dominican life and lived it to the full. She loved our life of common prayer, and also spent a lot of private time at adoration. We miss you so much, Sister Mary Lucy!

Eternal rest grant to her, O Lord, 

And let perpetual light shine upon her!

Our dear Sister Mary Lucy entered eternal life on July 3, 2014, about 4:10 in the morning. We will post the times for her rosary and funeral Mass when we know them. Please keep our sister in your prayers.