Tag: feast days

Sr. Mary Margaret’s Golden Jubilee

This year we celebrated our prioress Sr. Mary Margaret’s Golden Jubilee of profession. We had several days of celebrations in which our monastery, the Lufkin community, and her family came together to celebrate Sr. Mary Margaret’s monastic life and all that she’s done for us.

First, the nuns celebrated her jubilee with a community feast day full of gifts, treats, and special performances.

We began the day by gathering in our decorated community room to sing a special jubilee song to Sr. Mary Margaret.

Then we all gave her a special greeting.

The morning’s program was a funny skit about Sr. Mary Margaret’s life before she entered the convent, with the nuns playing her and members of her family.

Sr. Mary Margaret enjoyed the “This Is Your Life” skit!

Then we gathered around to enjoy Sr. Mary Margaret opening her gifts. Most of them were handmade by us, and we couldn’t wait to show her what we had done.

Sr. Mary Margaret opening a gift from the nuns.

Sr. Mary Christine enjoys a hat and scarf set made for the Jubilee.

Sr. Mary Margaret received a special Papal Blessing for her Golden Jubilee.

After gifts, we all ate a special meal in the community room. In the afternoon, we watched a montage of pictures of Sr. Mary Margaret’s life, especially her life in the monastery.

In the evening, we gathered back in the community room for another special program, this one about her life in the monastery and all that she’s done for the community. She’s had a very busy fifty years!

A few weeks later, we held another celebration for her family and friends of the Monastery with her Jubilee Mass. She happily renewed her vows. There is a video of the Mass here.

Fr. R.B. Williams, O.P., Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares of Phoenix, and Fr. Ron Foshage, M.S., concelebrated the Jubilee Mass.

Our local Knights of Columbus served at the Mass.

Sr. Mary Margaret had so many visitors that we had to open up our side of the chapel to let everyone have a seat.

The special meal was provided by our friend Doug Russell and his friends, who also generously set up an eating area in the front of the Monastery so that there was room for all of our visitors.

We had a delicious meal, straight from the grill.

After the meal, we all met in the parlor to greet all of the guests. Sr. Mary Margaret has made many friends during her over fifty years in Lufkin.

What made the day particularly special was that it was the first time her whole family was able to be together in decades.

Sr. Mary Margaret with her siblings Jim, Sherry, and Mike.

We all had a wonderful time and it was a perfect way to celebrate Sr. Mary Margaret’s monastic life and our appreciation for all she’s done for us.

Tet 2025: The Year of the Snake

The novitiate made our annual Tet celebration fun and exciting, with games, food and prizes. As usual, we began the evening with delicious treats, a variety of Vietnamese candy and other goodies.

Then the novitiate did a special dance, using flowered branches and flowing ribbons to simulate snakes.

Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Giuse and Sr. Marie Augustine pose at the end of their impressive snake dance.

Then there were games, all snake themed in honor of this year’s animal. First, there was a snake soccer-like game, where teams tried to push a rubber snake across a table with chop sticks.

Next, there was the snake toss. Each sister had a chance to use a special grabber tool to toss a snake into a bucket. (The rubber snake writhed around like a real one, making the tossing extra dramatic.)

Sr. Mary Therese tries to grab the snake to toss it into the waiting bucket.

It’s a lot harder than it sounds, but we each got three turns and most of us were at least able to hit the bucket, if not actually get the snake in it. We all had fun trying!

Sr. Mary Margaret aims her snake.

Then we had our usual dice game, where we bet on which picture the big dice would land on. At the end of the evening, we all got to pick a prize.

As usual, the evening was a fun celebration and we’re grateful to our Vietnamese sisters for keeping this celebration alive in our monastery.

Christmas at the Monastery

Christmas at the monastery was fun, festive, and very busy. Our celebrations lasted for days and we had many special events and visitors.

We always enjoy decorating our monastery to get ourselves in the festive mood, and keep the decorations up as long as possible.

Our sacristan, Sr. Carmen Gloria, is particularly creative with the decorations in the chapel. The creche gets special attention to call everyone over to adore the baby Jesus.

Every year, the magi start at one corner of the chapel, but eventually make their way over to the Holy Family in time for Epiphany.

Christmas wreaths make the chapel particularly festive.

Right before Christmas, we had a visit from jolly old St. Nicholas and one of his elves (the Healys, good friends of the monastery), who brought along some friends

Dr. Price and Dr. Fidone with Bella

They brought along their new puppy Bella, a beautiful chocolate Newfoundland dog, who was given special permission to come over to the nuns’ side of the parlor and quickly made friends with everyone.

Bella takes a nap.

On Christmas Eve, we had our usual midnight mass, then sang Christmas carols on our way to the refectory for our traditional midnight breakfast.

The refectory looked so beautiful with all of the foliage and Christmas lights. The novitiate did a wonderful job decorating!

Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Christine, and Sr. Marie Augustine with the beautiful refectory Christmas creche.

On Christmas day, we spent all afternoon opening presents from our generous benefactors. There were group gifts to the whole community, and we also each got many gift bags full of treats for ourselves.

On New Year’s morning, we had our usual Big Chapter, in which we each get a card with a saint patron and a special cause to pray for during the upcoming year.

Then we give each other the kiss of peace to welcome in another year at the monastery.

In the evening, we go around the monastery Christmas caroling, which gives us a chance to see all of the Christmas decorations in the various departments throughout the monastery.

Sr. Mary Pauline and Sr. Mary Christine with their beautifully decorated novitiate Christmas tree

Christmas caroling in the outside lobby

We love going outside and seeing all the beautiful Christmas lights our workmen have put up for Christmas.

We made sure to go over and sing to our patron, the Infant Jesus!

On Epiphany, we have our big Christmas feast day, where we play games and recreate together all day.

This year, the novitiate was in charge of the evening’s activities, and divided us up into three teams and had us play star-related games.

In the end, everyone was a winner and we all got gift bags, including some special “star bread” baked by the novitiate.

Christmas is a special time for us, when we reflect on the closing year and look forward to the next. It’s a time not just for our community to come together, but also for us to visit with our special friends and benefactors who are so generous and make our lives here possible. Thanks be to the Infant Jesus!

Happy Thanksgiving in the Monastery

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this year, full of laughter, fun, and feasting.

As usual, we decorated the community room and set up tables so we could display and eat the food together. Seeing the full tables reminded us how blessed we are and how God always finds a way to provide us with everything we need. Friends of the Monastery were so generous, as they are every year, so we had plenty of food and treats. We even had an “international” table, with Vietnamese pho soup and a couple of Tanzanian dishes.

We’re especially thankful for our hard-working cook, Sr. Marie Augustine (pictured with a pie).

Other than feasting, we spent the day recreating with each other in the community room. We talked and laughed and relaxed together.

In the evening, we went outside for out annual fireworks display. Sr. Mary Christine was in charge of lighting them while most of us sat and watched, but when she brought out the individual sparklers we all took some to put on our own fireworks show.

When we were done with the fireworks, we went back inside to relax. We had enough time for our aspirant, Sophia, to entertain us with some musical pieces on the piano.

Sophia is an extremely talented pianist, and we all enjoyed chair dancing to her music.

As usual, we had so much fun on Thanksgiving, and it was a wonderful day for the community to come together as a family. We are all so thankful for our monastic vocation, each other, and all of our wonderful benefactors who make our life possible.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sr. Mary Christine’s Novice Mistress Feast Day

On the Solemnity of Christ the King, the novitiate celebrated the feast day of our novice mistress, Sr. Mary Christine. The novices prepared a day of fun, games, and surprises for our hard-working sister.

The novitiate can’t wait to show the novice mistress what they’ve planned for her.

First, the novitiate sang a special song and put on a musical performance (which they later showed to the entire community so we could all enjoy it). Then the group played games the novices had made up.

The party had both meals in the novitiate courtyard, with lights strung up overhead to add to the festive mood.

Sr. Mary Christine also opened up her many gifts, from the novices as well as from the community. She loves to garden and do crafts, so we gave her lots of gifts to help her with her hobbies.

Sr. Mary Christine is happy with her beautiful new peacock fountain.

In the afternoon, the party watched the movie Enchanted, a funny live-action Disney spoof of traditional fairy tale movies. They liked it so much that they showed it again later in the week so the entire community could enjoy it.

Sr. Mary Christine works very hard to show our new sisters what to do and to help them integrate into our community and the monastic way of life. It’s important for us to give her a special day to show her how much we appreciate her, and we’re happy she enjoyed her special day.

Celebrating Sr. Mary Margaret’s Feast Day

If you\’re thinking, “Wait, isn\’t St. Margaret of Hungary\’s feast day on January 18?” you would be right. However, since January tends to be a busy time–what with the New Year and Epiphany and all–Sister thought it would be more appropriate to have her feast day at another time of the year. We’ve had other prioresses do this too–notably, Sr. Mary John, whose feast day was December 27th, but who often celebrated either on Mother’s Day (as our spiritual mother) or sometimes the Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24). So, like so many things in religious life, we have a precedent and a tradition!

Part of the feast day table (gifts, etc.) Notice the picture of St. Margaret of Hungary in the middle!
Left side of feast day table (when you are facing it)
Right side

We began with the feast day song, a musical retelling of Sr. Mary Margaret’s many adventures and accomplishments over the past year. It was written by one of the sisters and set to a familiar tune.

Sister seemed to enjoy it a lot!

Then, we played games all morning. They had a “mystery” theme at Sister\’s request.

The community was divided into four teams, three of which are pictured here. Sr. Mary Rose (right) supervised and kept score.

In the afternoon, Sister opened her many gifts. The vast majority were hand made by the sisters. Possibly some future raffle prizes?

As Sister opened her gifts, we passed them around the circle so all could admire them.

It was a delightful and fun-filled day, ending with a skit and more mysterious games in the evening. We also saw a movie on the two evenings before and after the actual day (Friday and Sunday), so we had a triduum of celebrations for Sister!

Thank you for everything you do, Sister, and for everything you are! May God continue to bless you abundantly, and all our community, too!

Happy Feast Day To You!

We\’ve had a lot of feast days to celebrate recently–the Archangels, St. Therese, the Guardian Angels, and Our Lady of the Rosary. So, how do we celebrate?

Some things are subject to change depending on circumstances. For example, we currently have a generous cook who makes whatever the feast day sister wants for dinner and supper on the big day (within reason, of course!). The novitiate sisters often have a little party when one of their own celebrates her feast day. And all the sisters receive cards, small gifts, prayers, and other tokens of affection from the other sisters.

And, we sing a song of the feast day sister’s choice at recreation! This is actually a big deal because sisters often choose songs we don’t sing at Mass–and therefore sing rarely. We all stand in a circle for the song. Before COVID-19, the feast day sister went around the circle to embrace each sister, but we put that on hold for the time being. Still, we are happy to be a part of the community and to have a group of sisters to support us in good times and bad.

As another song we never sing at Mass goes, “the best things in life are free”!