Tag: feast days

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”!