Tag: Holidays and Celebrations

Columbus Day Picnic

On Saturday, October 12, the community celebrated our annual Columbus Day picnic. It’s always a day of outdoor exploration, community games, feasting, and fun.

We began the day with our traditional flag raising of the United States and Texas flags. We sang some patriotic songs, then our prioress Sr. Mary Margaret led us in a prayer thanking God for the freedoms and liberties we enjoy as citizens of this country.

After the flag raising, we went to the refectory to look over the treats our cook had put out for us. Special snacks fortify us for a day full of community adventure, games, and fun.

The nuns sample special picnic day treats.

Several nuns decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and made a trek around the back path, the part of our land that we own but is outside the cloister. It’s a great wooded area, and halfway through we came across a huge tree that had fallen over the path. Some of us were able to climb over it and continue walking, and we found a beautiful area with wildflowers such as goldenrods and baby’s breath. We never know what we’re going to find when we go exploring!

When we returned to the monastery, we decided to pick some of the persimmons that were growing behind the professed dorm.

Sr. Mary Christine holds the ladder while Sr. Mary Therese cuts down a branch full of ripe persimmons.

We were able to harvest quite a bunch that the squirrels hadn’t gotten to yet, and then took them to the novitiate courtyard to finish ripening. We were able to enjoy the fresh persimmons a few days later. Delicious!

We spent the rest of the day feasting and playing games in the community room.

Sr. Mary Jeremiah, Sr. Mary Christine, Sophia, and Sr. Miriam enjoy playing Uno.

Running a monastery can be hard work, and with our usual days filled with prayers and our own work we don’t have a lot of time to spend together as a family. Our picnic days provide welcome time for us just to relax and have fun with each other. Laughing and playing together bond us as sisters and strengthen us for our important work of praising God as a community.

The Novitiate Celebrates St. Louis Bertrand!

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!

Sr. Mary Margaret’s Triumphant Feast Day

On September 14, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, the community celebrated the feast day of our prioress, Sr. Mary Margaret of the Cross. Since this will be her last feast day during her term as our prioress, we wanted to make the day particularly special.

We began the celebrations by gathering in the community room and singing a special song that Sr. Mary Jeremiah and Sr. Mary Gabriel had written to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. Then Sr. Mary Margaret opened all of the gifts the community gave her.

Sr. Mary Margaret’s Feast Day table

We’ve been working hard hand-making such gifts as knitted and crocheted items, stuffed animals, cross stich pieces, and diamond art pictures. We have plenty of beautiful items to go in next year’s raffle!

Sr. Marie Augustine and Sr. Mary Christine have a special gift for Sr. Mary Margaret–the novitiate bearing gifts!

Then we gathered in the community room for a special steak dinner.

Tables decorated for the feast day

In the afternoon, we watched the movie The Chosen, based on the Chaim Potok novel. It’s about two Jewish boys growing up in 1940s New York, and explores ideas of friendship and family.

The evening’s program was a variety show, in which various sisters showed off their performing talents.

The novitiate performed several songs.

Sr. Maria played a couple of pieces on her accordion.

In between acts, Sr. Mary Rose shared fun facts about Illinois, Sr. Mary Margaret’s home state.

It was a fun, relaxing community day for the sisters, and a wonderful way to celebrate our love and appreciation for our prioress!