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!

Visiting Friars, Summer 2013: Fr. R.B. Williams, OP

We\’re almost at the end of our summer of visiting friars, because our new chaplain will be arriving next week! But in the meantime, we were happy to enjoy the celebration of Mass and great preaching by Fr. R.B. Williams, OP. Father is an old friend of our community (we won\’t say how old!) and it is always a pleasure to welcome him and renew our friendship with him. Some readers may remember that he gave us a community retreat back in 2010 (called \”Pictures at an Exhibition\”) which we all benefited from a great deal. We look forward to seeing Father again soon–actually, he\’ll be back for a weekend stay next month! If you would like to experience Father\’s preaching for yourself, check out his website: http://www.rbwords.com. He\’s available for parish missions and other preaching engagements!

Visiting Friars, Summer 2013: Fr. Thomas Condon, OP

After Fr. Austin Green, OP left us, we were delighted to welcome Fr. Thomas Condon, OP for a brief visit to our monastery!
Fr. Tom is the socius and vicar provincial of our province of St. Martin de Porres (also known as the southern province of Dominicans). That basically means he\’s the second in command to our provincial. We all enjoyed Fr. Tom\’s engaging homilies and his Tennessee accent (or lack thereof). Hopefully he will come back sometime soon and visit us again! Thanks, Fr. Tom and we keep you in our prayers!

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

You never know what a day will bring in the cloister…and on July 3, as we were in the midst of preparations for our annual 4th of July picnic, we were happily surprised with a huge amount of cherries! All hands were called on deck, and everyone got to work sorting, washing, cutting up and even cooking some of the cherries to make a delicious cherry sauce. We are always so grateful to people who remember us with donations, whether of money or food or anything else. As Dominican nuns, we are also mendicants (that\’s a fancy way of saying we beg for our needs) and we do not receive any stipends or regular support from Rome or our diocese. We are happy to accept anything that is given to us, and this summer alone we have received many welcome gifts of produce of various kinds. Blessed be God (and all our benefactors whom He inspires)!
Sr. Mary Lucy happily poses with some of the fruits of our cherry labors! Sister just turned 89 on the 4th of July, making her the oldest sister in our community. She also received a beautiful flag-decorated cake as a gift for her birthday celebration–and it was delicious, thanks so much for it!

Retreat in Springfield, IL

 
 These five happy sisters are going to a retreat for Dominican nuns in Springfield, IL!
L to R: Sr. Maria Cabrini, Sr. Marie Augustine, Sr. Mary Dominic, Sr. Miriam, Sr. Mary Giuse
Usually, we stay inside the cloister for our retreats! But the Dominican promoter of the nuns, Fr. Brian Pierce, OP, organized a special retreat for nuns at the motherhouse of the Springfield Dominican Sisters in Springfield, IL. There will be four presenters: Fr. Brian Pierce, OP; Fr. Donald Goergen, OP; Sr. Breda Carroll, OP; and Sr. Ann Willits, OP. We are sure our sisters will have a beautiful time retreating with the Lord and their fellow nuns (as well as some of the Springfield sisters), and we look forward to hearing all about their adventure when they return on Tuesday, July 9! We have to mention that in addition to our sisters who are participating, one of our sisters here made the booklets they will use for the Liturgy of the Hours. It was quite a job!
Meanwhile, the rest of us will be holding down the fort here in Lufkin! Pray for all of us!  

Visiting Friars, Summer 2013: Fr. Austin Green, OP

We promised to let you know about some of our visiting friars, and finally we\’re able to do so! 
Our first visiting friar this summer was Fr. Marty Iott, OP, a great preacher and really nice man who stayed with us several days. We took a picture of him with some of the sisters but for some unknown reason the picture wouldn\’t show up on the computer–and hence, it won\’t appear here. Possibly a problem with our card? Anyway, he is supposed to return in July and we hope to get a picture of him then!
We do have a picture of our second visiting friar, Fr. Austin Green, OP.
 Father is 93 years old and still going strong! He celebrated Mass and had Benediction for us every day, and even joined us in the outside chapel for many hours of the Divine Office and for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Father is a wonderful preacher. We all enjoyed his humble and moving homilies. We did have to make some small adaptations in our chapel to make things easier for him, but Father has a range of motion many younger men (and women!) would envy. One thing will suffice: he can genuflect beautifully! Father is currently stationed at St. Anthony of Padua Priory in New Orleans, LA. If God wills, perhaps he will return some day! Thanks to Fr. Art Kirwin, OP who acted as his \”travel agent\” and Fr. Marty Iott, OP who picked Father Austin up at the airport and brought him to Lufkin. And thanks to Father Austin Green, for a great two weeks! We certainly enjoyed having you with us!