May in Lufkin

Wow! We\’ve had a busy month… 

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! 

May Novena

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! 

Divine Mercy Sunday, 2014

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.  

Snap To It!, or, How You Bean?

We always welcome donations–of food or whatever–but we were a little overwhelmed yesterday when Sr. Maria Guadalupe, our prioress, announced at the end of a meeting that we had received 28 cases of fresh green beans! (That\’s a LOT of green beans!) However, we quickly rearranged our plans and set today aside for cleaning and freezing the green beans. The only sound you could hear as we worked was the distinctive \”snap!\” as the stems of the green beans were separated from the rest of the bean. Oh, and maybe a few giggles…
A typical case of green beans (some have been taken out!)
Sr. Mary John and Sr. Mary Lucy \”snapping\” away at the beans
Sr. Mary Gabriel and Sr. Mary Margaret
Sr. Bernadette Marie, Sr. Irma, Sr. Mary Rose all hard at work 

We are so grateful to all our many benefactors who have given us so much already this Easter season. May God bless you and reward you a hundredfold for all your kindness to us! And yes, we had some of the green beans for dinner and they were delicious! 

Easter Eggs

We love birds! Since we have no pets to bother them, many birds have come to live in the forest around our Monastery. We really enjoy watching them and listening to their beautiful songs (except when they keep us up at night!). We put out bird seed and hummingbird nectar at the appropriate seasons. However, sometimes they can be a little troublesome…especially to our Sister Sacristan, who has been cultivating some flowers in pots for the Easter chapel decorations. Some birds think these flower pots would make fine places for a nest! So she has been carefully removing the nests (they didn\’t have eggs yet) as a gentle suggestion to the birds to build nests elsewhere. Some of the birds took her advice to heart! One day, when Sister went into the garage to get the watering can, she found a surprise…

Was it just a random collection of pine needles and branches? No, it was a nest!! 
And there are (as you see) several eggs in it! Our own monastic version of an egg hunt (only we didn\’t take anything but a picture!). 
We showed Sister several pictures of birds that frequent the Monastery…when she saw the House Wren, she exclaimed, \”Yes, those are the birds!\”  
We couldn\’t help but wonder at the ingenuity of the little birds…and their persistence. Isn\’t it true that sometimes we arrange our own little \”nests\” in what seems to be a perfect spot, only to have God come along and clear it out? Instead of sitting around bemoaning their lost nest, the birds simply went looking for another place to build. In the same way, perhaps we should listen to God when he encourages us to \”build a nest\” somewhere else. The most unexpected place may be the best location for new life! 

Raffle Drawing 2014

Easter Sunday was the day we held our raffle drawing! This year the weather was fine and so we all headed over to the laundry building to put all the tickets (literally thousands of them) in the big dryer so they would be really mixed up!

Sister set the dryer going…
Sr. Maria Guadalupe, our prioress, draws a ticket! Notice she\’s not looking–we try to play fair!
Sr. Mary Christine reading a name…
Sr. Mary Dominic identifies another lucky winner…
…as does Sr. Irma…
…and Sr. Mary Rose!
You might think Sr. Mary Thomas knows the person on the ticket she just drew, but actually she\’s just happy because it\’s Easter! 
All the sisters were pleased with the results of the raffle…the response, the winners (some well known to us, some we hope to know better in the future), the drawing, everything. Some of you who entered may be receiving a call soon! We are so grateful for all the love and support we have received from our raffle. May God bless you all abundantly and give you all the graces you need and desire! And of course we are grateful for everyone who supports our life in any way. May the blessing of the Risen Christ be upon you all! Alleluia!