Tag: Monastery of the Infant Jesus

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.

Celebrating Our 75th Jubilee!

 

Today marks the 75th anniversary of our monastery\’s establishment here in Lufkin! We had big plans for today: a Mass with numerous concelebrants, a reception, visits, souvenirs…but all that went by the wayside when COVID-19 came along. We hope to reschedule these events later, but for now our celebration has been scaled back a lot. Nevertheless, we are still celebrating! 

We published a long and informative article on the history of our monastery in the latest issue of our newsletter, \”Monastery Bells\”. If you don\’t receive the Bells, you can read it here.

 (By the way, if you\’re interested in receiving our newsletter in your snail mailbox, please go to the email address on our website and send us your name and address! It\’s free!) 

We also want to share just a few pictures that didn\’t appear in the Bells:

This is another view of the first incarnation of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus. Note the statue of the Infant Jesus in front! We still have this statue in our infirmary yard. In 1945, the Monastery was right on Lotus Lane, instead of up the hill as it is today.

 This photo was actually taken in the late 1940s, but it shows the growth the Monastery experienced in a short amount of time.

The sign on Lotus Lane directing visitors where to turn onto the access road to reach our Monastery today.

Part of the front of the Monastery today.

And finally–another version of our latest community picture!

We give joyful thanks to God for the past 75 years, and pray we will be here for many years to come!