Tag: feast days

Christmas at the Monastery

This year’s Christmas celebrations included old friends, community celebrations, and some very special presents for the nuns.

The refectory creche, decorated with a Dominican shield

As usual, we decorated our monastery so we would be in the Christmas spirit wherever we go.

The community room

Sr. Miriam and Sr. Maria Rosario with the creche in the infirmary

As is our tradition, on Christmas Eve our chaplain came in to the enclosure to bless the creches in the refectory and community room.

Sr. Mary Rose and Fr. Thomas blessing the creche in the community room

On Christmas morning, the Knights of Columbus came and grilled steaks for our Christmas dinner.

Afterwards, we visited with them in the parlor. This is a lovely Christmas tradition that we’ve enjoyed for over 40 years.

This Christmas brought another special guest: Fr. Brian Pierce, O.P. He got his Dominican vocation from the Lufkin nuns while he was a college student in Nacogdoches, and then served as promoter of the Dominican nuns for years.

Fr. Brian Pierce hugs his spiritual mother, Sr. Maria Guadalupe

We were honored to have him and Fr. Carmen Mele, O.P., celebrate Mass with us during their visit.

This Christmas, the nuns also received some special gifts.

Mike and Linda Beaver, great benefactors of the community for years, gave us a new car. We’re very grateful to them and to all of our benefactors who gave us gifts this year.

But it was our chaplain who gave us the most unusual gift: a hoverboard!

Sr. Mary Rose, our courageous prioress, was the first to ride it. She made sure to wear pads and a helmet!

On Epiphany, we had our usual community day of fun and games.

Sr. Mary Pauline and Sr. Maria Cabrini organized the games in the morning. Our two “wise men” made sure the morning was fun for all of us.

We separated into three teams to play Christmas-related games. First, we picked up cups, hoping to reveal a star.

Next, we put paper plates on our heads and tried to draw, blindly, a star with a smiley face. Sr. Maria Guadalupe was the judge and declared all of the pictures lovely.

What would Christmas be without candy canes? The next game was to use a candy cane at the end of a pole to try to fish other candy canes out of bowls.

Sr. Mary Margaret and Sr. Mary Therese race to be the first to fish out all of the candy canes. It was tricky!

Ornaments are also a big part of Christmas, so the next game was to stack cups while keeping an ornament balanced on the top.

Sr. Mary Giuse concentrates to keep the ornament in place.

Another fun game was guessing Christmas carol names. The teams picked cards with pictures on them that illustrated a Christmas carol.

This game was a lot of fun, but we had to think really hard. We not only had to figure out the pictures, but also remember a lot of song titles!

This Christmas season was full of fun, feasting, and community time, both with each other and with friends of the monastery. We love how the holidays bring us all together, and we’re so grateful to everyone who contributed to making this Christmas special.

A Day of Thanksgiving in the Monastery

This year Thanksgiving in the Monastery was a day of food, fun, and community celebrating.

At noon, we gathered in the community room, where our Thanksgiving feast was laid out.

We sang our traditional Thanksgiving grace, giving thanks to God for everything he’s given us.

Then we all sat down at our decorated tables to enjoy a wonderful meal.

In the afternoon, we gathered in the community room to watch The Boys in the Boat, an inspirational film about the U.S. rowing team at the 1936 Olympics.

After supper, we went outside to enjoy our traditional Thanksgiving fireworks.

The sisters had to bundle up on the cold Thanksgiving evening.

Sr. Mary Christine and Sr. Mary Pauline set off impressive fireworks.

Sr. Mary Rose and Sr. Mary Margaret enjoy hand-held sparklers.

Sr. Mary Pauline and Sr. Mary Jeremiah had fun with the firework lighters!

After the fireworks display, we went back inside to enjoy some of the annual dog show on TV.

As usual, this Thanksgiving was a day of community fun. We had good food, good laughs, and some great fireworks! We give thanks for God, our community, and for all of our benefactors who make our life here possible. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Monastery of the Infant Jesus Celebrates Our 80th Jubilee

On the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, we celebrated the 80th Jubilee of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus.

We began the day visiting with many friends of the monastery in the parlor. Several of them had come from out of town to help us celebrate our special day.

Sr. Mary Rose with Sr. Maria Christi, of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Georgetown, TX. They were college roommates and are now both prioresses of their respective communities!

We were very honored that Bishop Gregory Kelly visited us and celebrated Mass for us on our jubilee.

Bishop Gregory Kelly celebrates Mass.

Many priest friends of the monastery concelebrated Mass with the bishop.

After Mass, we enjoyed a special visit with Bishop Kelly in our community room.

Sr. Mary Rose with Bishop Kelly.

It was a wonderful day that we were honored to share with our bishop and many friends. We are truly grateful and thankful to God and everyone who has made our lives here possible over the last 80 years.

A Fairy Tale Feast Day for the Prioress

We celebrated the feast day of our prioress, Sr. Mary Rose, with a fairy tale theme this year.

The decorated community room windows

The day began with the sisters singing a feast day song, written by Sr. Mary Margaret.

Sr. Mary Rose greets Sr. Miriam

The day began with a “Fairy Quest”, fairy tale-themed games played in teams.

Sr. Mary Rose’s team do a picture find.

Another team does a word find.

A third team puts together a puzzle.

“Fairy food”–special fairy tale cookies

At the end of the games the nuns were given treats–fairy tale cookies, wand pens, and lollipop rings.

In the afternoon, we gathered in the community room and Sr. Mary Rose opened her many gifts.

The gift table, full of presents the nuns have made over the year

Sr. Marie Augustine embroidered a beautiful pillow

Sr. Mary Christine cross-stitched a tablecloth

Sr. Irma Marie made many beautiful rosaries

In the evening, we had a fairy tale themed talent show, with songs and dances, jokes and skits.

Sr. Mary Therese gave “fairy tale facts” between the acts.

Sr. Mary Pauline and Sr. Mary Giuse performed a beautiful Vietnamese dance, complete with rose petals.

“Grandmother Goose” (Sr. Maria Cabrini) told funny stories about getting older.

Since it wasn’t just Sr. Mary Rose’s feast day but also her birthday, we gave her a “fairy” special birthday cake.

At the end of the day, we all sang happy birthday to Sr. Mary Rose.

The festivities continued the next day when we watched the movie Disenchanted, a fairy tale movie we all enjoyed.

Prioress feast days are always special days for the community to get together and enjoy each other having fun. This year’s day was full of laughter and special surprises for Sr. Mary Rose, and we were able to show her how much we appreciate all she does for us as our prioress.

A Festive Columbus Day

Every year we celebrate Columbus Day with a big picnic day, full of games, food, and community fun.

We began the day gathered around the flagpole to pledge allegiance and sing patriotic songs.

Some of us wore patriotic hats and leis to begin the celebration.

Sr. Mary Veronica and Sr. Marie Augustine pose with some pumpkins a benefactor kindly donated to us.

We put some of the pumpkins outside to decorate the monastery.

Since the weather was so nice, some of us decided to explore our grounds (which encompass 80 acres, only some of which are actually within our enclosure). We’re putting up a new fence around our perimeter, so it was fun to see the progress the workers are making.

We encountered some workers putting up the new fence.

Sr. Mary Margaret drove around to inspect the part of the fence that had already been put up. It looks great!

Afterwards, we gathered in the community room to play games. We have our regular favorites, and this year some of the sisters tried their luck at Jenga.

Sr. Mary Magdalene considers her next move while Sr. Mary Rose watches.

Sr. Mary Margaret very carefully makes her next move.

Sr. Mary Margaret very carefully tries to remove a piece.

As usual, we had a lot of fun (and ate a lot of great food!) as we celebrated our country and our community, for both of which we’re very thankful.

Mother’s Day in the Monastery

This was Sr. Mary Margaret’s last Mother’s Day as prioress, so we wanted to make it a special day for her.

Sr. Mary Margaret enjoys some Mother’s Day gifts.

We love watching movies together, so we saw Saving Mr. Banks, a moving story about the making of the film Mary Poppins. (The community’s response: “Now we want to see Mary Poppins!”)

Sr. Marie Augustine cooks a special Mother’s Day dinner.

At noon, we gathered in the community room to eat a delicious dinner. We enjoyed talking and laughing together.

In the evening, we had games: The Mother’s Day Olympics! We divided into two teams–the Immas (Aramaic for “mother”, as we’ve learned from the TV show The Chosen) and the Miteras (Greek for “mother”)–and played a variety of “sports”.

Sr. Carmen Gloria and Sr. Mary Gabriel invented the games.

First, the team members bounced ping pong balls on a table to try to get them to land in an egg carton.

Sr. Mary Therese explains the chicken game to the teams. How many eggs can they get the chicken to lay?

Then the teams competed to see who could do best at the bean bag toss.

Sr. Maria Rosario tosses the bean bags into the “corn hole”.

Next, we played a version of miniature golf, in which the teams swept ping pong balls into a box with tiny doors. (Mothers do a lot of sweeping, don’t they?)

Sr. Mary Pauline sweeps a ball into the box. The sisters did very well with this game!

Next was the blind toss. One sister would sit in a chair and throw ping pong balls behind her without looking, while a teammate would try to catch it with a hat. Luckily, our nuns are spry and caught almost every ball!

We brought out some fun music for our final games. First, in a version of musical chairs, three nuns from each team stood around a table with five little duckies on it. When the music (“Baby Elephant Walk”) stopped, they each had to grab a duck. The one left without a toy was out, and we kept reducing the ducks until there was only one winner. Play nice, sisters!

Sr. Mary Gabriel, Sr. Mary Margaret, and Sr. Carmen Gloria pose with the rubber duckies.

Finally, we played “hot duckie” (like “hot potato”) with the sisters sitting in a circle passing around the duckie. When the “Pink Panther Theme” stopped, the one with the duckie was out until there was only one winner.

In the end, Sr. Mary Margaret’s team, the Immas, won, but at the Mother’s Day Olympics everyone is a winner and we all got prizes. We all had fun and enjoyed spending the day together.

Sr. Mary Rose and Sr. Mary Margaret enjoyed our Mother’s Day celebration.

Easter Celebrations and a Visit with Our Sisters

This year’s Easter celebration was beautiful, as always.

The chapel, decorated beautifully by our sacristan, Sr. Carmen Gloria.

After the solemnity of the Triduum, we celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass and concluded with our traditional midnight breakfast.

Sr. Miriam, Sr. Maria Rosario, and Sr. Maria Cabrini enjoy the Easter meal.

Sr. Bernadette Marie and Sr. Mary Giuse prepare the Easter dinner for us.

The novitiate worked very hard to decorate the refectory for Easter. This year, they made special mini Easter baskets woven out of various colors of yarn, and when the week was over we were allowed to keep them or send them to family or friends.

At the head of the refectory, the novitiate put up an elaborate display with an Easter cross surrounded by flowers.

Sr. Mary Christine designed the refectory decorations.

At the end of Easter week, we received special visitors: the Puerto Rican active Dominican sisters who live in Paris, TX. They brought a discernment group with them.

The group poses outside out monastery.

We enjoyed talking to the young women in the parlor. They were lovely and seemed very interested in religious life.

After our meeting, they joined us for midday prayer in the chapel.

The Dominican sisters brought an early Mother’s Day gift for our prioress, Sr. Mary Margaret.

Easter week was a time of celebration, relaxation, and visiting, in which we were reminded of our love for Jesus and why He has brought us all together in community here.