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.
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.
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.
We recently welcomed Fr. Thomas McDermott, O.P., to the monastery to give us a week of talks on St. Catherine of Siena.
Fr. Thomas McDermott
St. Catherine of Siena was an Italian mystic who lived in the 1300s. Although not a nun, she lived as a Dominican mantellate, a lay woman who embraced Dominican spirituality.
Fr. McDermott is a Dominican priest with the Central Province, who did his doctorate and wrote several books about St. Catherine. He taught us all about her life, spirituality, and visions, and the things she did to try to make herself more in conformity with Jesus Christ.
We enjoyed the talks and meeting with Fr. McDermott. We love learning more about our Dominican heritage, and St. Catherine of Siena is a model to us all in how to live our Dominican life.
The Monastery of the Infant Jesus is pleased to announce the election of our new prioress, Sr. Mary Rose. For the last six years she has served the community as our sub-prioress (in addition to many other duties) and we are confident she is well-prepared to be our new leader.
Our outgoing prioress is Sr. Mary Margaret, who served for six years and six years before that as sub-prioress. Throughout her six years as prioress, she saw the community through many changes and challenges, including COVID, big maintenance projects, and the addition of three new nuns to our monastery. We thank her for all that she has done for the community.
Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and others followers of Jesus, signifies the end of the Easter season and is always a special celebration in the Monastery.
The chapel altar decorated for Pentecost
Every year on this solemnity, every sister is given a special card during midmorning prayer.
2025 Pentecost card
On the back of each card is a different gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit.
At evening recreation, we share with each other what the Holy Spirit has specially given us.
Throughout the next year, we reflect on the special way that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives to help us in our monastic community and to strengthen our relationship with God.
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.
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 