Tag: Monastery of the Infant Jesus

Dominican Friars…and Sisters

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that we always love to get visits from our fellow Dominicans! Recently, we were blessed with two visits–one from the novices of the Province of St. Martin de Porres (the Southern Province) and another from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, who recently opened a new house in Waco. So here are the stories!

These four young men came with their novice master, Fr. Francis Orozco, O.P., one afternoon. We had a delightful time hearing their diverse and interesting vocation stories, and we told them ours, too.

Please pray for the perseverance of these novices, and for many more vocations to the Dominican way of life!

A little later, we had a visit from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. They are teaching at a Catholic high school in Waco, TX (only about 2.5 hours from Lufkin).

From left: Sr. Maria Francisco, Sr. Mary Rita, Sr. Maria Benedicta, and Sr. Maximilian Marie

You may have heard of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist–a dynamic young community of teaching sisters based in Ann Arbor, MI. We have always felt a special connection with them (in addition to the natural Dominican ties!) because Sr. Maximilian Marie went to college with our sub-prioress, Sr. Mary Rose.

The alumnae of Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts

Just as we did with the brothers, we shared vocations stories and other tales with the sisters. It’s always remarkable to see how closely we are related, despite our different places in the Order–preaching friars, teaching sisters, contemplative nuns. But that is part of what makes the Dominican Order so great! We keep our sisters in prayer, that they may teach well and have many vocations–and we hope both the friars and the sisters will pray for us to have vocations, too!

Happy Birthday, Sr. Mary Annunciata!

Sr. Mary Annunciata recently celebrated a big birthday! She is now 89 years old and going strong. A good friend sent her this lovely bouquet of yellow flowers–yellow is Sister’s favorite color.

Sister still comes to community exercises, including prayer, adoration, meals and recreation. She is especially delightful at recreation, where she keeps her companions laughing with her unique sense of humor!

Sr. Mary Annunciata is a wonderful example of the way a nun’s vocation flowers over time, becoming more and more open to God’s love and grace, so that she is able to give to the world a glimpse of the unending beauty of Jesus Christ. We wish you many years, Sr. Mary Annunciata!

St. Dominic’s Day 2021

We always celebrate the feast of St. Dominic with special solemnity, but this year has been extra-special as we also celebrate the 800th anniversary of Dominic’s dies natalis, or “birth into heaven”. The theme proposed by the Order for this year is “At Table With Dominic”, and uses the image above as its visual presentation–the mascarella table, a painting of Dominic and his friars eating a meal together. The actual date of Dominic’s death is August 6, but since the Transfiguration now falls on that date, we celebrate Dominic on August 8.

We began the day with a lovely Mass celebrated by our chaplain, Fr. Ian Bordenave.

Fr, Ian in the beautifully decorated sanctuary of our chapel
Sr. Mary Rose did her usual excellent job as lector

Following Mass, breakfast, and prayers (we can’t omit these important things!) we all gathered in the community room to play Domingo!–which is, of course, a Dominican themed bingo game, using famous events, places, people and so on instead of numbers. A good time was had by all, and everyone won a prize!

We were delighted to have the whole Dominican family present at Mass, including our local chapter of the Dominican Laity and our good friends, the Dominican Sisters of Fatima.

The sisters brought us many lovely gifts, including this plant!

We had a delicious treat of milkshakes in the afternoon, and in the evening we watched the movie “Dominic: Light of the Church”, by the Dominican province in the Philippines. It was very good!

The day concluded with our usual prayers of Compline. At the end of Compline, we always sing a hymn to St. Dominic–most days, this is “O Lumen Ecclesiae”, “Light of the Church”. May Dominic light the way for the Church and for all people for many more years to come!

Sr. Mary Regina’s Funeral

As our chaplain, Fr. Ian, reminded us, a death in the monastery is always bittersweet. We mourn the loss of our sister, and yet we rejoice that she has gone home to God. In the spirit of hope and expectation, we celebrated Sr. Mary Regina’s funeral on Tuesday. The bishop of our diocese of Tyler, TX, Bishop Joseph Strickland, was on hand as main celebrant and he was joined by Fr. Ian our chaplain, Fr. Tom Edelen, and Fr. Ron Foshage, M.S.

We are fortunate to have our own cemetery within our enclosure, and that is where Sister was laid to rest. After the funeral, we met briefly with Bishop Strickland in the community room. The rest of the day was spent in much-needed rest (most of us had spent time throughout the night in vigil with Sister’s body) and ended with a circle recreation at night, as we all reminisced about Sr. Mary Regina, remembering her many talents and good qualities, the things she did as part of our community, and her steadfast devotion to prayer, especially in the last years of her life. May you rest in peace, Sister Mary Regina!

Yet Another Bishop!

This has been some week for visitors! First Bishop Eduardo, and now Bishop David Toups of Beaumont, TX on Thursday. Bishop Toups was on his way to Nacogdoches (a town near Lufkin), realized he would be passing by, and called to ask if he could stop for a brief visit. Of course we said yes! Bishop Toups arrived with a young priest from the Beaumont diocese, Fr. Philip Tran.

We have a strong connection to the Beaumont diocese because our monastery was located within it for many years. In fact, the Monastery of the Infant Jesus has been in four different dioceses–Galveston, Galveston-Houston, Beaumont, and Tyler–without ever changing its location.

Of course we had to get a picture with the Bishop and Fr. Tran, and our chaplain Fr. Ian kindly took it for us:

Thanks so much for coming by, Bishop! We hope we will see you again some time!

A Phoenix (Bishop) Flies In

Our dear friend Bishop Eduardo Nevares, the auxiliary in Phoenix, Arizona, was in town recently and paid us a visit. What with COVID and meetings and the usual work a bishop has to do, we haven’t seen him in a while, so this was a real treat!

Bishop Ed (as we fondly call him) has known our community since he was a seminarian with the La Salette Fathers here in Lufkin, back in the early 1970s! He served as pastor at one of our local parishes (St. Patrick’s) for many years, so he has a lot of friends to visit whenever he comes to Lufkin. He also has family near Houston.

It’s a fair bet to say that our Sr. Mary Veronica is his favorite nun, though! Sister, a talented cook and a woman brimming with hospitality, has been taking care of Bishop Ed both spiritually and physically ever since she’s known him.

Thank you for coming, Bishop Ed! May God bless you and your ministry abundantly!

Welcome to Fr. Ian

Fr. Ian Bordenave, O.P., is our new chaplain! He’s a Dominican priest of Creole descent who grew up mostly in Florida, and he’s been visiting our community now and again for about twenty years. Right now he’s finishing up his doctoral thesis, and needs a quiet place to work–and so we are fortunate enough to get him! We are enjoying his straightforward homilies and quiet manner, and we hope he will find it quiet enough here to get his work done. We’ll have more about Father in our next issue of “Monastery Bells”, coming out this fall.

Welcome, Father Ian, and may you grow closer to God while you are with us.