The novitiate recently celebrated the feast day of St. Louis Bertrand, the Dominican patron saint of novices. On his official feast day, October 9, our novice mistress, Sr. Mary Christine, led the prayers during the Liturgy of the Hours throughout the day. Then the novitiate had special activities on Friday and Saturday to celebrate their small community within our monastery and to thank God for the gift of our novices who are in formation to join our order.
The novitiate opens gifts from the community.
They spent much of the day playing outdoor games such as tennis, and then came inside to play table games like the monastery favorite, Sequence.
For supper, the novitiate had a special meal of barbecue. Then they played instruments and sang songs.
Our novitiate is forming quite a band!
The community was happy to let the novices have some free time to celebrate their special day. We’re very excited when new women want to join our community, and we look forward to see what God has planned for them!
Sunday was the solemnity of the Ascension here in Texas…and it was also Mother’s Day! We had festive meals and games in the evening to celebrate these two events. We started with Mass of the Ascension in the morning, had a delicious meal in the community room for lunch, enjoyed some free time during the afternoon, sang Solemn Vespers of the Ascension, and had yummy sandwiches and chips for dinner. After that, we went back to the community room to play games!
Sr. Mary Margaret, our “mother prioress”, and Sr. Mary Rose holding the card she designed for Sister. We each promised to offer three days of prayer for Sr. Mary Margaret’s intentions.
Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Giuse, Sr. Mary Jeremiah, and Michelle seated at one of the decorated tables in the community room.
Sr. Mary Christine and Sr. Carmen Gloria
Sr. Mary Therese, Sr. Maria Cabrini, and Sr. Mary Thomas
Sr. Maria, Sr. Miriam, Sr. Mary Giuse, Sr. Mary Jeremiah, and Sr. Marie Augustine–ready to play games!
Sr. Maria Cabrini, Sr. Bernadette Marie, Sr. Mary Margaret, and Sr. Carmen Gloria–another team for games
Spending some free time working a puzz
Michelle and Sr. Mary Pauline with the novitiate turtles, Jerome and Anthony
At the end of the day, we had our May procession (inside, because of the rain), singing the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
One more picture! The novitiate honored their directress with a lovely card and two plants.
It was a beautiful day, filled with many thoughts of Our Lord’s ascension into Heaven, and many prayers for all out mothers (and those who have been like mothers to us), both living and deceased. We keep all of you in prayer as we continue our May devotions this month!
Father Gavin Vaverek, pastor of Our Lady of Victory parish in Paris, TX, recently came and gave us a class on Lent. Father gives us classes on a variety of topics whenever he has time, and we always enjoy his great presentations and his witty remarks. In this class, Father encouraged us to “begin with the end in mind” when it comes to Lent, looking forward to the Triduum and Easter. He covered the main aspects of Lent–prayer, fasting, and almsgiving–encouraging us to use Lent as a time to grow in our Christian life and to keep up our good Lenten habits through Easter and beyond. Most of all, Father reminded us, Lent is a opportunity to grow in love and to share in the life of Christ. We had heard some of this before, of course–but it was a wonderful help to renew us in our Lenten practices, which can become mere form if we are not careful. And we can always learn something new about the spiritual life! Thank you, Fr. Gavin, for taking time out of your busy parish schedule and making the long trip from Paris (Texas, that is) to Lufkin! You are always welcome!
The community listens attentively to Fr. Gavin’s presentation. He’s a wonderful lecturer!
Recently, we were delighted to welcome Sr. Mary Ann from our monastery in Trinidad for a short visit. During her stay with us, we celebrated her 60th jubilee–again! She had a big celebration in Trinidad this past fall, but a 60th jubilee is worth celebrating more than once.
Sr. Mary Ann renewing her vows.
Taking the gifts up to Fr. R.B.Williams, O.P., our chaplain.
Big smile for the camera!
Fr. R.B. celebrating Mass, assisted by Deacon Jesus Reyes. Check out our beautiful tree and creche!
Receiving a blessing from Fr. R.B. at the end of Mass.
Posing in the hallway after Mass.
We have had a long and beautiful relationship with the Dominican monastery in Trinidad, which has only become closer as the two nuns left there have “joined” our monastery. They will remain in their own country, but we will be giving our assistance and help as needed. We thank God for His ever-providential care of us!
In the Eastern Orthodox church, the phrase, “Christ is in our midst” is used as part of the dismissal in Ordinary Time. As we finally post our Christmas season blog, we rejoice that although Ordinary Time has begun, we still live in the radiant light of Christ’s birth–Emmanuel, “God-with-us”.
Our Christmas season this year seemed extraordinarily busy. Maybe it was because of the short Advent season! But in fact a lot has happened. We have had many guests, many community celebrations, and a visit from one of our sisters in Trinidad. We’ll post more about her soon.
On St. Nicholas Day (we celebrated on December 7) St. Nicholas himself came bearing gifts for all the good nuns. Here we have the four sisters who met St. Nicholas for the first time, proudly wearing their hand crocheted scarves.
The aunt of one of our sisters sent an Advent calendar! Although it was not religious in any way, we enjoyed seeing each door open, marking the days from December 1 to December 24.
One of our traditions is to have creches set up in the various departments where sisters work. Although we try to preserve the memory of Christ always, and we have crucifixes up everywhere, the creche scenes are a reminder of Christ’s humble birth in Bethlehem, and encouragement for us to be more simple, humble, and childlike.
The Guild department, where we send letters and make enrollments
The library
The community room. Sister’s theme this year was light and darkness.
The infirmary
The kitchen.
The refectory. Thanks to our hardworking novitiate–they clean the refectory, and so they get to decorate it, too!
They also decorated the walls and tables. The novitiate had an angel theme this year, with angels on the walls and angels on the tables. All handmade!
Even the copy machine room had a little creche!
The statue of Our Lady in the hallway
We hope to bring you some pictures of the chapel soon too–it looked amazing!
On December 28, Holy Innocents Day, we celebrated the novitiate (and our two newer sisters, Sr. Carmen Gloria and Sr. Maria). We played fun games and our four newest sisters each got prizes. We are so happy they are with us!
We played “Pin the Star on Dominic’s Forehead”
We also played a fun cup and ball game. Our postulant Michelle was the clear winner of this game!
Sr. Maria, Sr. Mary Pauline, and Michelle with their prizes
Then came Epiphany on January 6! The novitiate hosted the professed in the novitiate building. In the morning, we played a lot of fun games. In the afternoon, we had a tea party and Christmas karaoke.
Popping balloons for prizes in the novitiate courtyard.
One of our games! We had to wear this basket and try to put bows into it with a spatula–harder than it sounds!
Enjoying afternoon tea and cookies.
“Glooooooooooooooria!”
In the evening, the novitiate sisters put on a delightful play for us–“The Fourth Wise Man”. They all did a great job with their parts and the scenery and stage props were very imaginative.
And, we had guests and free days and all kinds of other things! Thank you to all our benefactors who helped to make our Christmas season so beautiful, especially our faithful Knights of Columbus who always cook Christmas dinner for us. May all of you be blessed most abundantly in this New Year 2024!
Although we always celebrate feast days here at the Monastery, there are only two days that get an extra special celebration–the feast days of the prioress and the novice directress. And Sr. Mary Christine celebrated her feast day on November 26. The novitiate invited the prioress, the vocation directress, Sr. Maria (our transfer, recently of the novitiate), and the sisters who teach in the novitiate to this fun celebration.
The whole group! Back row: Sr. Mary Margaret, Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Christine, Michelle. Front row: Sr. Mary Rose, Sr. Mary Jeremiah, Sr. Mary Thomas, Sr. Marie Augustine, and Sr. Maria.
The novitiate put on a charming play about their life, and then we played some fun games. We ate dinner in the novitiate community room–a festive meal with talking and Cokes.
Sr. Mary Christine demonstrating one of her many talents.
After dinner, we all watched joyfully as Sr. Mary Christine opened her many gifts.
A lovely scarf hand-knitted by Sr. Mary Therese.
New book for the novitiate!
Possibly Sr. Mary Christine’s favorite gifts–a persimmon tree and an Asian pear tree! Sister is very good with plants, as you can see in these pictures!
In the afternoon we enjoyed a fun, family-friendly movie and then had a special supper in the novitiate. After supper, we played some more games.
Tossing beanbags–always harder than it looks. And check out the great decorations! We especially liked the disco ball!
As the bell rang for Compline, we had to end our party. What a beautiful day of sisterly sharing it was! Thanks to all the novitiate sisters who did such a wonderful job making the day awesome.
We had a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday! Although the weather was cold and damp, our spirits were bright and cheerful. It was so good to be together with our sisters sharing a Thanksgiving meal–and almost all prepared by the sisters, too!
The day before–Hard at work preparing various dishes!
Sr. Mary Giuse made a delicious Vietnamese noodle dish while our kitchen helper Diana sliced pineapple.
Sr. Mary Thomas and Sr. Marie Augustine with dressing and dirty rice
Michelle chopping carrots in the bakery. (More on Michelle to come!)
Thanksgiving Day! Sr. Miriam checks out the dessert table.
Fruits and salads!
Sr. Mary Veronica gets some ice for her drink.
Looking over our groaning table.
Some sides and bread–as well as the gravy and cranberry sauce.
The community room was beautifully decorated by the novitiate.
Although we cooked and prepared almost all the food, most of it was given to us by our very generous benefactors. We are truly thankful and blessed to have so many wonderful people who support our life. We are praying hard for all of you!
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 