Dominican Life on Lotus Lane

Today we celebrate the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a companion to the celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (which we celebrated yesterday). This memorial has a lot to do with relationship to Mary. Because she was immaculately conceived–preserved from all taint of original sin–and her heart is completely pure, she retains a tremendous capacity both for joy and suffering. We tend to emphasize the sufferings and sorrows of Mary, but there is a chaplet devoted to the seven joys of Mary, too! This devotion can become very sentimental, but there is a strength here as well. We recall the promise of Our Lady at Fatima: \”In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.\” This is a reminder that despite all the sound and fury of the devil, God will always win.

Mary promised the conversion of Russia and a time of peace at Fatima. May these two events come to pass in our lifetimes! 

\”The love of God is manifested no longer through actions alone but through a divine Person who, by the very act of his Incarnation in the nature of man, shows concretely the heights of this love. In Christ, God loves man infinitely and is loved by him…Through the revelation of his divine nature and through the acceptance of his supreme sacrifice, Christ opens man\’s eyes to the reality of God\’s infinite and pure love which to redeem us and return us to our former estate as his sons: \’did not spare his own Son, but offered him for all of us\’ (Romans 8:32). \’Christ…loved us and gave himself up in our place\’ (Ephesians 5:2)…Love is the most radiant novelty of the Gospel: it is pre-eminently the commandment which the Lord chose to call \’mine\’.\” –from \”The Heart of Christ: Center of the Christian Mystery and Key to the Universe\” by Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

Today is the third anniversary of this blog–wow–it\’s hard to believe! As always we are sincerely grateful to Sr. Anna Marie, OP of our Dominican monastery in Elmira, NY who helped us get started on this adventure. And we are grateful to all our readers! Thanks for checking in to see what Dominican life is like on Lotus Lane in Lufkin, TX! 

Also today, our chaplain of two wonderful years, Fr. Paul Philibert, OP, packed his many bags and boxes and took off in his U-Haul for a three-day road trip to Providence, RI, where he will be holding a chair in Catholic Culture at Providence College. We are sorry to see him leave, but confident he will continue to do great things in his future assignments. We look forward to our new chaplain, Fr. Art Kirwin, OP, who will arrive on July 18. In the meantime, we have several friars who will be filling in, and we are happy to have them come to our monastery. More details as future events warrant! 

The famous passage from Ecclesiastes reads, \”There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens\” (Ecc.3:1) May we all be inspired to live through the changes that come with grace!

Many thanks again to all who helped us with our generator project! We had a short power outage this morning. Normally this would have left us groping in the dark for our candles, flashlights and kerosene lamps, but today–almost before we could say, \”Oh, no!\” when the lights went out–suddenly there was a great roaring sound. The new generator had begun its work! Power was restored! And then, as soon as the regular power service was back on, the generator shut off, just as it is supposed to do! We are so grateful to everyone involved in this project! Thanks for helping keep the lights on!

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Corpus Christi, which honors in a special way the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, truly present in the Eucharist. We are very happy that we have the privilege of adoring our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament each day in our chapel. In union with Pope Francis, we will also be having a holy hour this morning from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM to adore the Lord all together as a community. We hope you will unite your adoration and prayers with the Pope, with us, and with the whole world during this time.

May God be praised forever for His wonderful gift of the Eucharist!

Blessed William and his companions were martyred in 1242–ten years before St. Peter Martyr (d. 1252), who is considered the \”first\” Dominican martyr. They were actually martyred by the Albigensian heretics in a church where they were seeking sanctuary. Those were difficult times!

Last Easter, Sr. Mary Christine (our sacristan and an able gardener) decided to plant many of the Easter lilies she used to decorate the chapel around the statue of the Infant Jesus in our infirmary garden. She planted the bulbs, watered them faithfully, and asked the Lord to make His garden bloom. And this year it has–in abundance!

This one lily plant has an amazing 13 blooms on it!

Some of the lilies are growing taller than the Infant Jesus–and taller than Sr. Mary Christine, too!

May God be praised for all His goodness to us! And thanks to Sr. Mary Christine, whose faith helped produce such a beautiful garden!