Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

This memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a complement to the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (celebrated yesterday) and is an encouragement to all of us to imitate Mary. She continually pondered on the mysteries of her Son\’s life: his incarnation and birth, his presentation and later his being found in the Temple, his hidden years at home, his public ministry, and finally his passion, death and resurrection. May we, like Mary, remember all these things and reflect on them in our hearts, until they become part of us!

God of unfathomable mercy, embrace the whole world and pour yourself out upon us through the merciful Heart of Jesus.

–St. Faustina Kowalska, Diary #1183

John the Baptist is unique among saints, in that we celebrate his birthday and not just his date of entrance into heaven. He shares this privilege with only two others: Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary! The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this for us: \”John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother\’s womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being the \’friend of the bridegroom\’, whom he points out as \’the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world\’.\” (523) May this holy man, who said of himself, \”He must increase, while I must decrease\”, be an example to us today and every day as we strive to follow Christ more closely and point out his way to all!

Today begins this year\’s Fortnight for Freedom! Our bishop, Bishop Joseph Strickland (Tyler, TX) has recommended praying an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be each day of the fortnight. What could be easier? It only takes a couple of minutes, but the impact can change the world! We hope you will join us in praying for religious freedom for all and the freedom to serve the poor and vulnerable. There are some good resources and more information on the fortnight at the website here.

Tamales, to be exact! Sr. Marie Augustine teamed up with our wonderful kitchen helper Diana and Sr. Irma to learn the art of tamale making…check out the results!

We don\’t have pictures of the actual tamale making, but here are the finished products!

Sr. Marie Augustine adds the tamales to a large pot where they will cook. You can see some tamale wrappings (corn husks) in the background

We\’re sure they will taste as good as they look! Everything Sr. Marie Augustine cooks is delicious!

Wishing you a blessed Trinity Sunday! It\’s also Father\’s Day here in the United States…so we offer many prayers for all our fathers, living and deceased. Thanks also to all our priests and the men who have been like fathers for us. You are all a great help when we try to comprehend the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the mystery of the Trinity! 

Update on Pentecost…It seems the most popular gifts from the Holy Spirit this year were \”Fear of the Lord\” and \”Wisdom\”. Since \”fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom\”, we hope to have a wise community in the coming year!

And…Sr. Bernadette Marie is home from the MTS program held at Summit this year! We are so happy to have her back, and looking forward to hearing all about her adventures after she has a chance to rest and recover from her travels.

We saw this picture of the sisters enjoying a break between classes at Summit and remembered the days when we had the MTS here in Lufkin. We went through a lot of snacks!! Of course you need to keep your strength up during such an intense program. At least that was our excuse! It\’s nice to see that the tradition continues at Summit, as we see Sr. Bernadette Marie here snacking on something. We pray that this week\’s round of classes (theology with Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP of our own southern Dominican province) goes well. Please do check out Summit\’s blog to see more great pictures and news.