Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

This is our fourth anniversary!  Hard to believe we\’ve been doing this four years already! Thanks to all who read and/or follow this blog and know that you will be in our special prayers today. God bless you!

Sr. Bernadette Marie looks happy here on a tour of the monastery!

This morning Sr. Bernadette Marie (on the left, from our monastery here in Lufkin) and Sr. Mary Magdalen (on the right, from Rosary Monastery in Trinidad) left for Summit, NJ where they will spend two weeks at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary taking classes in philosophy and theology, part of the Monastic Theological Studies Program! Readers of this blog will remember that our monastery hosted the MTS from 2010-2013. It was great, but we are glad to let Summit have a chance to host this time! 

Sr. Mary Magdalen visited with us for a week before leaving for Summit. We had a wonderful time getting to know her, and hope she will be able to return for visits during this cycle of MTS!

Sr. Mary Magdalen (Trinidad) enjoying recreation with the sisters

Please pray for our sisters at the MTS who will be studying hard these next two weeks! We hope to bring you some pictures (or at least some links)!

We just heard yesterday that the province of St. Martin de Porres, USA (aka the southern province of Dominicans, where we have our geographic home) elected Fr. Thomas Condon, OP as the new provincial! We had a lovely visit with him last summer when he filled in as chaplain at our monastery for a few days. We hope he will come to visit us some time as provincial, too!

Fr. Tom in the parlor last summer

We continue to pray in a special way for all our friars in chapter making important decisions right now and for all the friars, nuns, sisters and laity in the southern Dominican province. May the Holy Spirit guide you all!  

We were happy to welcome Fr. Scott O\’Brien, OP recently–he\’s the novice master for the Southern Province of the Dominicans–and he brought his two novices along. We are praying hard for these men and for all those who are hoping to enter the Order this summer! 

Fr. Scott (in the center) with Br. Hugo and Br. Joseph

We also wanted to show you a couple of scenes from \”Lufkin in May\” (OK, it\’s not \”April in Paris\”, but it is lovely). 

The infirmary garden. We\’ve had a lot of rain this May which makes everything beautiful!

Mary, Our Lady of the Pines. We\’ve been making our May Novena processions out to this statue every evening before Compline. If you would like to submit some petitions, there\’s still time! 

It\’s May–and that means it\’s time for our May Novena! If you would like to send us an intention for this novena, please use our email address or the contact form. We sent out novena slips with our spring issue of \”Monastery Bells\” and if you prefer to send your intentions via snail mail, that\’s fine too. Remember, we are here to pray for the whole world–that\’s our job, and we take it very seriously, so no matter how large or small your intention, if you would like us to pray for it, let us know! 

The message of God\’s merciful love is at the very heart of the Scriptures and shines clearly throughout. It is also the message contained in the writings of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a humble religious sister who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a personal and moving account of the messages she received about God\’s mercy and its urgency for our times. 

God revealed his mercy from the beginning to the people whom he established as his own–the people of Israel–and he became their God. His infinite love and mercy is further revealed by Christ on the cross. Jesus accepted the cross and died on it because he loved us and took all sin upon himself. Now we can freely approach God because of what Jesus did for us. We enter into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. Believing the words of Christ means trusting the mercy of God, for Christ is unique as God\’s Son, yet he is fully God. He is able to reveal the divine revelation and imparts life-giving knowledge to us clearly and accurately. 

The Risen Lord revealed this image to St. Faustina and wanted this signature at the bottom of the image: \”Jesus, I trust in You\”. This phrase reminds us of the message of Christ\’s divine mercy and serves as a modern wake-up call for everyone. May we too come to know the divine mercy of God in Christ as we spread this message of mercy by word, deed and prayer for the poor in the everyday world we live in.