A group of students from the University of Dallas recently visited our monastery on the way to Lake Charles, LA where they planned to participate in “Alternative Spring Break”. Instead of going to the beach and partying, these dedicated students were going to help restore homes and do other work. Shelby Ponikiewski, the campus minister in charge of Faith Formation and Outreach, has brought several groups to visit us over the years, and we are always delighted to meet them.
Shelby, her husband Trevor, and the students from UD
We had a great visit with them–a planned fifteen minute stop turned into a stay lasting over an hour! We enjoyed hearing their stories, and it was very uplifting to encounter young people trying to do good for others in this mixed-up world.
Thanks, Shelby, for coming by with your students! We hope to see you again next year!
Recently, Mr. Daniel Morris, a nurse practitioner from the East Texas Heart Institute (located here in Lufkin) came out to give us a presentation on heart health.
He gave a very informative talk, telling us the factors that can affect heart health, the stages of heart disease, and of course how to keep the heart healthy! (We weren’t surprised to hear that diet and exercise play a big role!)
Daniel also graciously answered our many questions. We would definitely like to have someone like him around if we had heart problems!
As you can see, we (and Daniel) have our hearts in the right place!
Thank you so much, Daniel, for your time and expertise! We really appreciated it, and we are grateful to be more aware of the symptoms of heart disease and how to prevent them. God bless you!
Father Gavin Vaverek, pastor of Our Lady of Victory parish in Paris, TX, recently came and gave us a class on Lent. Father gives us classes on a variety of topics whenever he has time, and we always enjoy his great presentations and his witty remarks. In this class, Father encouraged us to “begin with the end in mind” when it comes to Lent, looking forward to the Triduum and Easter. He covered the main aspects of Lent–prayer, fasting, and almsgiving–encouraging us to use Lent as a time to grow in our Christian life and to keep up our good Lenten habits through Easter and beyond. Most of all, Father reminded us, Lent is a opportunity to grow in love and to share in the life of Christ. We had heard some of this before, of course–but it was a wonderful help to renew us in our Lenten practices, which can become mere form if we are not careful. And we can always learn something new about the spiritual life! Thank you, Fr. Gavin, for taking time out of your busy parish schedule and making the long trip from Paris (Texas, that is) to Lufkin! You are always welcome!
The community listens attentively to Fr. Gavin’s presentation. He’s a wonderful lecturer!
Recently, our postulant Michelle received the Miraculous Medal of Our Lady and a rosary–signs that she has spent three months in the novitiate and continues to do well!
Gathered in the novitiate chapter room
Sr. Mary Margaret gives a brief talk
Receiving the Miraculous Medal…
….and the Rosary!
A little party to celebrate, with tea and homemade cookies
The newly “professed postulant”
The novitiate sisters and Sr. Mary Margaret
Sr. Mary Christine, Michelle, and some of Sr. Mary Christine’s orchids.
We call Michelle a “professed postulant” because this is a big step forward in her formation period. Please pray that Michelle will persevere these coming nine months to her next step, which will be receiving the habit!
Happy Lunar New Year! We celebrated this festive holiday on February 11 with dancing, games, lucky money, and of course delicious Vietnamese treats!
To begin, the novitiate sisters (and some friends) did a beautiful dance for us.
Sr. Carmen Gloria, Sr. Mary Christine, Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Mary Giuse, Sr. Marie Augustine, and Michelle
Since this is the Year of the Dragon, we honored our three “dragon” sisters in the community. You can see our “Tet tree” with its lucky money envelopes in the background. Naturally, we turned the money in to the Bursar and got tickets for playing the games in its place.
Sr. Bernadette Marie, Sr. Mary Dominic, and Sr. Maria Cabrini
One of the sisters read the personality characteristics of people born during the Dragon year, but we have to say most of them didn’t seem to correspond with what we know of our sisters! That’s why we rely on real life experiences, not horoscopes. But it was fun, anyway!
We played some games, too. One game involved trying to hit a tennis ball into a hole. Sr. Mary Pauline, Sr. Marie Augustine, and Michelle did very well with this! Some of the rest of us also managed to get the ball in the hole, but for many it could only be called “a good try”.
The final game was our Vietnamese lottery game. It used to be a little complicated, but one year Sr. Mary Christine just put all the different animals (and the squash) used in the game on a large homemade die, and so we just throw the die and see what comes out on top.
Sr. Mary Margaret prepares to throw the die as all look on expectantly. You can see the tennis ball game in the background.
Each sister received a Mass intention slip, to be filled in with the name of the person she would like Mass to be offered for, and each sister also received a prize. It was a delightful evening, and now we are all ready to begin the discipline of Lent on Ash Wednesday. May God grant you all the blessings He has in store for you, and know we keep you in our prayers!
Recently, we were delighted to welcome Sr. Mary Ann from our monastery in Trinidad for a short visit. During her stay with us, we celebrated her 60th jubilee–again! She had a big celebration in Trinidad this past fall, but a 60th jubilee is worth celebrating more than once.
Sr. Mary Ann renewing her vows.
Taking the gifts up to Fr. R.B.Williams, O.P., our chaplain.
Big smile for the camera!
Fr. R.B. celebrating Mass, assisted by Deacon Jesus Reyes. Check out our beautiful tree and creche!
Receiving a blessing from Fr. R.B. at the end of Mass.
Posing in the hallway after Mass.
We have had a long and beautiful relationship with the Dominican monastery in Trinidad, which has only become closer as the two nuns left there have “joined” our monastery. They will remain in their own country, but we will be giving our assistance and help as needed. We thank God for His ever-providential care of us!
In the Eastern Orthodox church, the phrase, “Christ is in our midst” is used as part of the dismissal in Ordinary Time. As we finally post our Christmas season blog, we rejoice that although Ordinary Time has begun, we still live in the radiant light of Christ’s birth–Emmanuel, “God-with-us”.
Our Christmas season this year seemed extraordinarily busy. Maybe it was because of the short Advent season! But in fact a lot has happened. We have had many guests, many community celebrations, and a visit from one of our sisters in Trinidad. We’ll post more about her soon.
On St. Nicholas Day (we celebrated on December 7) St. Nicholas himself came bearing gifts for all the good nuns. Here we have the four sisters who met St. Nicholas for the first time, proudly wearing their hand crocheted scarves.
The aunt of one of our sisters sent an Advent calendar! Although it was not religious in any way, we enjoyed seeing each door open, marking the days from December 1 to December 24.
One of our traditions is to have creches set up in the various departments where sisters work. Although we try to preserve the memory of Christ always, and we have crucifixes up everywhere, the creche scenes are a reminder of Christ’s humble birth in Bethlehem, and encouragement for us to be more simple, humble, and childlike.
The Guild department, where we send letters and make enrollments
The library
The community room. Sister’s theme this year was light and darkness.
The infirmary
The kitchen.
The refectory. Thanks to our hardworking novitiate–they clean the refectory, and so they get to decorate it, too!
They also decorated the walls and tables. The novitiate had an angel theme this year, with angels on the walls and angels on the tables. All handmade!
Even the copy machine room had a little creche!
The statue of Our Lady in the hallway
We hope to bring you some pictures of the chapel soon too–it looked amazing!
On December 28, Holy Innocents Day, we celebrated the novitiate (and our two newer sisters, Sr. Carmen Gloria and Sr. Maria). We played fun games and our four newest sisters each got prizes. We are so happy they are with us!
We played “Pin the Star on Dominic’s Forehead”
We also played a fun cup and ball game. Our postulant Michelle was the clear winner of this game!
Sr. Maria, Sr. Mary Pauline, and Michelle with their prizes
Then came Epiphany on January 6! The novitiate hosted the professed in the novitiate building. In the morning, we played a lot of fun games. In the afternoon, we had a tea party and Christmas karaoke.
Popping balloons for prizes in the novitiate courtyard.
One of our games! We had to wear this basket and try to put bows into it with a spatula–harder than it sounds!
Enjoying afternoon tea and cookies.
“Glooooooooooooooria!”
In the evening, the novitiate sisters put on a delightful play for us–“The Fourth Wise Man”. They all did a great job with their parts and the scenery and stage props were very imaginative.
And, we had guests and free days and all kinds of other things! Thank you to all our benefactors who helped to make our Christmas season so beautiful, especially our faithful Knights of Columbus who always cook Christmas dinner for us. May all of you be blessed most abundantly in this New Year 2024!
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 