End of the First Week of MTS, 2013

We\’ve made it to the end of our first week of the Monastic Theological Studies Program for 2013! We are sorry to say goodbye to Fr. John Vidmar, OP, but we hope he will return to our monastery for some other presentation some time! He gave us an excellent overview of Church History that leaves us wanting to study more. 
Fr. Vidmar with the students in our traditional pose. Note Sr. Mary of Jesus (Elmira) at the far right, who acted as coordinator for our seminar again this year and did such a wonderful job! 
And these are the remaining presentations: 
Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) was all smiles as she presented her paper on St. Jerome
Sr. Mary Dominic (Lufkin) presented her paper on St. Leo the Great
Sr. Marie Augustine (Lufkin)  chose–who else but St. Augustine? She did a wonderful job!
And Sr. Mary Rose (Lufkin) concluded this week\’s presentations with her paper on St. John of Damascus.
Many thanks to all the sisters who did such hard work this past year for presenting their papers and bravely receiving the questions and comments of their fellow sisters! We look forward to next week, when the sisters will present papers on controversial topics in moral theology, and it seems we will have classes this weekend on a different topic as well…keep watching for more news!

Extracurricular MTS Activities

People may be wondering, do the nuns just attend classes and study while participating in the MTS progam? Well, mostly that\’s what we do–because the classes are intense and the seminar sessions (where we present our papers) are, too. We are grateful that our community in Lufkin is willing and able to fill in for some of our duties. But yesterday, we received 18 cases of bananas (yes, 18–about 20 bunches of bananas per case) and many of the MTS sisters helped to peel and slice bananas for drying! It was a lot of work but fun, too!
 Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin), Sr. Mary Jeremiah (Lufkin), Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit)
Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) and Sr. Mary Amata (Summit)
Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) and Sr. Mary Giuse (Lufkin)
Sr. Clara Marie (Farmington Hills) and Sr. Mary Gabriel (Lufkin)
Almost the whole group was peeling and slicing! It was late in the day and we got a little wound up! But it was lots of fun and we did a tremendous amount of work! 
We are so grateful to all our benefactors who provide for us so generously–and for all who help us to process these marvelous gifts! Thank you so much! More MTS news to come soon…

MTS 2013, Continued

We\’ve really been enjoying Fr. John Vidmar\’s classes on Church History this week!

Fr. Vidmar lectures on monasticism
The students are taking notes diligently!
Some important councils…
We also have a few more presentations to bring you!
 Sr. Joseph Maria (Summit) gave a fantastic presentation on St. Ephrem using PowerPoint–which unfortunately made for a dark picture!
Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) gave an interesting talk on St. Athanasisus
Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin) speaking about St. Gregory Nazianzen. Why are her eyes closed??
Sr. Mary Gabriel (Lufkin) shares a rare happy moment in the life of St. John Chrysostom

Monastic Theological Studies Program, 2013

We have just completed the first day of our current year of the Monastic Theological Studies Program, and we wanted to get some pictures up in a timely manner!

Fr. John Vidmar, OP is teaching us Church History this week. We are enjoying him both in class and last night in the parlor, where he really made us laugh! His classes are a nice combination of traditional lectures and PowerPoint presentations. Hopefully we will have some pictures of him teaching soon!

And here are some of our patristics presentations…

 Sr. Mary Amata (Summit) speaks on Tertullian while Sr. Mary Rose takes notes!
Sr. Mary Giuse (Lufkin) tells about Origen
Sr. Mary Rose (Lufkin), Sr. Mary Amata and Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) and Sr. Mary Jeremiah (Lufkin, under the crucifix) listen intently.
Sr. Marie Augustine (Lufkin), Sr. Mary Dominic (Lufkin) and Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) are also intrigued by the presentation.
Check back soon for more pictures, presentations, and news!

Welcome, Fr. Art Kirwin, OP!

Our summer of substitute chaplains has come to an end as we welcome Fr. Art Kirwin, OP as our chaplain here at the monastery for the next two years. Fr. Art is a Dominican priest of the province of St. Martin de Porres (aka the southern province) and his ministries prior to coming to our monastery include a great deal of preaching and chaplaincy work, especially in prison ministry. Fr. Art will serve our community in a variety of ways, mostly by celebrating Mass for us daily, and he will also work with our local chapter of the Dominican Laity. We hope Fr. Art will be able to continue his work of prison ministry in between the times he helps us–and he plans to do some preaching, too, with his work for CFCA (Christian Foundation for Children and Aging), a wonderful program that helps children and elderly people in developing countries through sponsorship. Check them out here. Thanks so much to Fr. Art for taking on this role! We are grateful to have you with us!

A New Prioress!

Yesterday we held our prioral election, and the community elected Sr. Maria Guadalupe, O.P., as prioress of our monastery for the next three years!

 
Sr. Maria Guadalupe has served the community in many capacities over the years, and in recent years served terms as subprioress and then novice directress. We are confident she will be a great leader for our community over these next three years. Please keep Sr. Maria Guadalupe and all of us in your prayers as we begin a new term of office! 
Sr. Maria Guadalupe standing with our bishop, Bishop Joseph Strickland (diocese of Tyler, TX) shortly after the election.

Visiting Friars, Summer 2013: Fr. Marty Iott, OP

We promised we would get a picture of Fr. Marty Iott and we did!

Fr. Marty Iott, OP began and now ends our summer of visiting friars. We have really enjoyed his beautiful celebration of Mass and his inspiring homilies. We hope he will be able to visit us again soon–he doesn\’t live too far away, so hopefully that will be possible! Many, many thanks to ALL our visiting friars who have made this summer so enjoyable and have kept our daily celebration of the Mass going. Ever since our monastery was founded in 1945 we have always had daily Mass and we are so grateful to all the priests over the years who have helped make this possible. It is a privilege and a joy for us! We look forward to welcoming our new chaplain later this week–stay tuned for a post about him soon!