Tag: community

Fall Picnic Day!

We had our annual Fall Picnic this weekend! When we have a picnic, we still sing the entire Divine Office and pray the Rosary and keep our times of Eucharistic adoration–we just don’t work (except for doing some dishes). But that makes for a great holiday!

We always begin the picnic with an official flag raising. Sr. Mary Pauline thought she might try to pose as Lady Liberty!

It was such a beautiful, cool fall day, some of us decided to go for a long walk. On picnic days we are allowed to go outside the main part of the enclosure and wander through the wild woods. This year, things looked a little different! We recently had a company harvest some of our trees. We do this about every 15-20 years, and the company returns in the spring after they harvest to plant new trees. This was all good and necessary, but as we walked, parts of the forest now resembled a desert wasteland.

You can still see the tire marks from the machines that harvested the trees!

Some of the younger trees remained untouched.

Ah…this is more like it!

Postulant Sarah reclining on some rejected trees

And we joined her for this photo op!

Beyond the stack of downed trees, the woods appeared, wild and beautiful again

It was a fun and relaxing day for everyone, and so delightfully cool! We started this tradition of a fall picnic when we realized our summer picnic (held around the 4th of July) comes at a time when it is too hot to go outside and walk around or play games. Sometimes it’s still hot even in October, but this year the weather cooperated!

May you be blessed with abundant peace, this fall and always.

A Jubilee 75 Years In The Making

Sr. Mary Veronica of the Holy Face, O.P., recently celebrated 75 years of profession as a cloistered Dominican nun!

Sister Mary Veronica, herself

The celebration was so big it stretched over several days. Everything began on the evening of June 18, when we had a gift table for Sister.

Sister has always had a strong devotion to Our Lady of La Salette.

She received all kinds of unique and creative gifts, most handmade by the sisters.

Many of these she was able to give as gifts to her friends and relatives who attended the jubilee Mass the next day. Which was just perfect!

June 19 was the Mass itself, celebrated by Bishop Eduardo Nevares, auxiliary bishop of Phoenix AZ and a good friend of the community for many years. His concelebrants were Fr. Ian Bordenave, O.P., our chaplain, Fr. Denzil Vithanage, pastor of St Patrick’s parish here in Lufkin, and Fr. Ron Foshage, M.S., one of our confessors.

You can see a video Fr. Denzil made of the Jubilee Mass here!

Sr. Mary Veronica and Sr. Mary Margaret bringing up the gifts

Most of the community (with the priests and bishop) following Mass

On Saturday, June 24, we had our day of community celebration in honor of Sister’s jubilee.

Sister Mary Veronica greeted with her jubilee song, “Jubilate Deo”

The novitiate band: Sr. Maria Goretti on accordion, Sr. Mary Pauline on guitar, Sr. Marie Augustine playing the drums, MIchelle playing the cymbal, and Sr. Mary Christine on xylophone and bamboo.

It’s a soup pot! The novitiate also sang and danced to a fun song called, “We’re Swimming In The Same Soup” about getting along harmoniously–very appropriate for our multicultural and multiracial community!

Sr. Maria Cabrini shared some puns and jokes.

We never get tired of hearing Sr. Maria Goretti play the accordion!

After a talking meal and some time to rest, we returned in the afternoon for a treat and games.

Sr. Mary Jeremiah tries her luck!

To finish the day, we watched the movie “Hidden Figures” during evening recreation. This true story of Black women at NASA during the 1960s was inspiring and enjoyable. We finished it on Sunday evening. Then, we showed some old home movies on Monday night!

Whew! It’s been quite a time! But after all…how often does one celebrate her 75th jubilee? Here’s hoping you make it to your 80th–and even beyond!

Into the Woods

It’s that time of year again! Today we’re beginning our annual community retreat, and we’ll be in retreat until June 14. We’re delighted to have Fr. James Sullivan, O.P. as our retreat master, and we look forward to everything he will say to help us grow in our spiritual lives!

You may be wondering–why “into the woods”? Don’t we usually describe retreats as a desert experience? This is much more common, but here in East Texas we’re short on deserts and long (or tall) on pine trees, so we decided to embrace our situation. And after all, the woods can be every bit as wild–if not more so–than the desert. We have all kinds of critters roaming our property, raccoons, opossums, foxes, snakes, bobcats–not to mention the numerous species of birds and some bats! So do keep us in prayer as we go out into the wilderness of the retreat woods, and know that we are all praying for you, too!

Easter 2023

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!

Holy Week was rainy and dismal, but on Easter Sunday it cleared up and we had a beautiful day. Praise God! In fact everything about our Easter celebration this year has been truly lovely, from the many liturgies and processions to the decorations in the refectory and community room.

We spent a great deal of time in chapel–our favorite place to be!

Sisters processing up to receive Holy Communion on Easter Sunday.

Our chaplain, Fr. Ian, reading the closing prayer at Mass on Easter Sunday. Father gave us some especially dynamic homilies this Easter, using storytelling he he studied as part of his own recently completed doctorate in homiletics. Congratulations, Father!

Isn’t this an amazing refectory centerpiece? We have a very talented novitiate.

And here they are!

They decorated the entire refectory, including this cheerful wall.

Our table decorations this year featured real flowers (in pots, so we can plant them later).

Everyone was filled with Paschal joy!

Sr. Mary Giuse made this lovely community room decoration. The banner says “Rejoice” and that’s what we’ve been doing.

Anna and Dennis, some new friends of ours, generously brought us fried chicken for our supper. Thank you so much!

Remember, Easter is not just a Sunday–it’s a season that lasts 50 days. This year we’ll be singing extra Alleluias until May 28th! We keep all of you in our prayers in a special way during this Easter octave, and we pray the whole season will be a time of many blessings for you.

Your Name Will Be…

Sr. Mary Pauline of the Holy Spirit, O.P.!

Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Pauline, and Sr. Mary Margaret

We had a festive day all day (well, we worked in between times) with delicious meals, a beautiful ceremony, and a fun tea party in the novitiate.

Breakfast in the refectory

Sister’s place mat, with art by aspirant Michelle and lettering by Sr. Maria Goretti. When we saw it, some of us were sure her name would have something to do with Fatima! (It didn’t–she just has a devotion to Our Lady.)

Sr. Marie Augustine busy in the kitchen preparing our dinner

The ceremony was held at 10:30 AM in the Chapter Hall. Since Sr. Mary Pauline is a finally professed religious, she will wear our black veil (even though this year is her constitutional novitiate year, as we explained in a previous post).

Sister received her new habit from Sr. Mary Margaret, and she left to change, with Sr. Mary Christine’s help.

We waited expectantly as Sister left to get dressed in our habit, and returned.

We each gave her the kiss of peace, still wondering, “What will her name be??”

As we finished singing “Ubi caritas”, Sister came to the center for the moment of truth.

Finally, it came!

She was clearly thrilled to hear her new name–and so were we!

We have a tradition where the sisters make guesses about a novice’s new name, and the box was conveniently placed outside the community room. Sr. Mary Margaret brought it to the ceremony and entertained us by reading the guesses afterwards.

Interestingly, a number of sisters guessed the mystery would be the Holy Spirit…but no one guessed Pauline (or even Paul)!

The novitiate sisters decorated Sr. Mary Pauline’s cell so elaborately that she had to move to the cell next door for a while.

After dinner, the professed sisters came over for a tea party, where we watched Sr. Mary Pauline open her gifts and drank tea and had homemade cookies. Sr. Maria Goretti even entertained us on the accordion! It was an afternoon we will long remember.

Please pray for our three novitiate sisters, and for Sr. Mary Christine, our novice directress, and Sr. Marie Augustine, who helps out. They would like to have more companions–and we would, too. Pray also for their perseverance!

Solemn Chapter of the Annunciation, 2023

Early this morning we had our traditional solemn chapter of the Annunciation. We have solemn chapter twice a year–on March 24 (the day before the Annunciation) and on December 24 (the day before Christmas). For March 24, a sister is asked to sing the account of the Annunciation to Mary from Luke’s Gospel, and on December 24 a sister sings the Christmas Proclamation. We know it looks like we had chapter in the middle of the night, but it was really about 6:30 AM.

Sister Mary Gabriel did a beautiful job singing the Gospel!

Sr. Margarita gave an excellent sermon centered on Mary’s fiat.

This is probably the last time you will see Sr. Margarita in this habit, because tomorrow she will receive our habit (same Dominican habit, just a different style) and her new name. We are all wondering what her name will be! Even Sr. Margarita doesn’t know for sure–she asked Sr. Mary Margaret to choose for her! We will try to post some pictures–and solve the mystery of the name–this weekend.

The ceremony will be at 10:30 AM in the same room you see above–the Chapter Hall. Please keep Sr. Margarita in your prayers as she concludes her retreat and prepares for a new beginning!

Rest in Peace, Sr. Mary Annunciata

Sr. Mary Annunciata of the Holy Spirit, O.P., died on February 22, 2023. She lived 66 years of profession as a Dominican, 45 of these in solemn vows. Sister first entered the Dominican Sisters of Houston, where she taught and served as principal at some of their schools. However, she began to feel her own “call within a call” and transferred to our community. Sister served our community in many and varied ways, including in the demanding roles of novice directress, sub-prioress, and prioress.

Sr. Mary Annunciata was well-known for her love for St. Therese of Lisieux and cats–the latter a characteristic she shared with the late Pope Benedict XVI. She was a deeply spiritual woman and always firm and practical. You can see Sr. Mary Annunciata in our documentary, which is on YouTube (she’s in the section on study). She celebrated her 90th birthday on August 15, 2022. We miss Sr. Mary Annunciata very much, but we take comfort in the fact that she is with God now. May you rest in peace, dear Sr. Mary Annunciata!