Three-Fold Celebration: Centennial Jubilee, Corpus Christi and Mass of Thanksgiving!

The best things come in threes, and beginning May 29th, we began the month of June with three joyous celebrations: the 100th anniversary of the founding of our Monastery, Corpus Christi Sunday, and a Mass of Thanksgiving with one of our newly ordained friars.

This year marks the Centennial Anniversary of the foundation of our monastery. Due to COVID restrictions, we planned two celebrations to open our Jubilee year, as attendance needed to be monitored by issuing tickets to the Masses and receptions. This first celebration was held Saturday, May 29th, and included our Dominican family. Father Christopher Fadok, O.P., prior provincial of the Western Dominican Province, was our celebrant and homilist, and he was joined around the altar by many of our friars. After celebrating Mass, we all enjoyed a box lunch generously donated by the Western Dominican Province and our first in-person visit with our Dominican brothers and sisters in over a year!

Very Rev. Christopher Fadok, O.P., prior provincial of the Western Dominican Province. Photo by Br. David Woo, O.P., courtesy of the Western Dominican Province.

Rev. Br. Chrysostom Mijinke, O.P. proclaiming the Gospel. Photo by Br. David Woo, O.P., courtesy of the Western Dominican Province.

Outdoor reception, the meal was a gift from the Western Dominican Province in celebration of our Jubilee. And the personalized labels on each item was a delightful surprise! Photo by Br. David Woo, O.P., courtesy of the Western Dominican Province.

It was so good to visit with our Dominican family, even with the masks (can you speak up…and who are you? :-) Photo by Br. David Woo, O.P., courtesy of the Western Dominican Province.

Our Centennial Anniversary celebrations continued the following weekend as we celebrated Corpus Christi Sunday with our family, friends and benefactors. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco was our celebrant and homilist. This celebration occurred on the liturgical anniversary of our foundation (liturgically, our monastery was founded on the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi - Corpus Christi would have been celebrated on the previous Thursday). Again, we were overcome with gratitude for all the graces and blessings God has given us, and continued to shower down with the presence, kindness and support of so many that day, especially our Archbishop and the priests, deacons, and seminarians who were present. At the end of Mass, as we finished the recessional hymn, we looked up in the choir to see Archbishop Cordileone walk in with Sister Maria Christine, a delightful surprise! He wanted to make sure he was able to greet us personally and gave us his blessing. Following Mass, we enjoyed a leisurely reception.

To round out our celebrations, friar Chysostom Mijinke, O.P. of the Western Dominican Province, who served as deacon for our Jubilee Mass on May 29th, returned to our monastery on June 8th as Father Chrysostom to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving and give us first blessings. This day is particularly special to Dominican nuns as it is the feast of Blesseds Cecilia and Diana, two of the earliest nuns of our Order, and who were particularly dear to our Holy Father Dominic and Blessed Jordan of Saxony, the second Master of our Order. After Mass, we had a good visit with Father Chrysostom before he headed off to a busy summer and his new assignment as a Dominican priest.

Father Chrysostom Mijinke, O.P., newly ordained priest of the Western Dominican Province, giving first blessings to our community after Mass.

The past year has brought us many challenges and in many ways, life has a “new normal” due to COVID. Yet the most essential things remain - love, communion, and the reason for our hope. Be sure to check our website for updates as we continue to gradually expand our public chapel hours and post Centennial Jubilee updates and events. And a big thank you to our Dominican family, our Archbishop and the Local Church, and all our friends, family, and benefactors who continue to support our contemplative life. Please know you remain in our hearts and prayers before our Eucharistic Lord.

Westward Bound - From New York to San Francisco

“On the 29th of May 1921, it being the Sunday within the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi, five choir sisters - Mother Mary of the Rosary, Very Reverend Mother Prioress, Mother Mary Emmanuel, Reverend Mother Subprioress, Mother Mary of the Immaculate Heart, Sister Mary Agnes, and Sister Mary of the Visitation - two lay sisters - Sister Mary Rose and Sister Mary Thomas - and Sister Mary Benedict, touriere and natural sister of Sister Mary Rose, set out to found in San Francisco a new monastery with perpetual exposition and adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament…”

Monastery Chronicles - Archives
Corpus Christi Monastery, Menlo Park, California

Though our foundation date is May 29, 1921, the day our foundresses left their monastery in New York for California, the first record of the possibility of making a foundation in California goes all the way back to a letter dated March 26, 1906, written by Minnie Parrott of San Mateo, California to her cousin Julia, known in the Order as Mother Mary of Jesus, O.P., a nun at Corpus Christi Monastery in Hunt’s Point (Bronx), New York:

It was only on Saturday that I saw Archbishop Riordan, and obtained his views with regard to your making a foundation in San Francisco, for the present his responsibilities are all that he can meet, but he asked me to beg you to write directly to him, making thus a direct application…

Unfortunately, on April 18, 1906, less than a month after this letter was written, disaster struck San Francisco - a major earthquake followed by fire, which destroyed much of the city and left it reeling. A new monastic foundation would have to wait for the time being.

In December 1907, Father Arthur Laurence McMahon, O.P. arrived in San Francisco. A friar of the Eastern Dominican Province, he was appointed as vicar general for the congregation of Dominican friars on the West Coast. In 1912, when the congregation was elevated to a province, he was named the first prior provincial of the Western Dominican Province. In a letter from him to our foundress, Mother Mary of the Rosary, O.P. in 1928, he summarized what happened between his arrival in San Francisco in 1907 and October 1916 concerning the possibility of a new foundation of Dominican nuns:

Very Rev. Arthur Laurence McMahon, O.P., S.T.M. - Dominicana 27:3 — Fall 1942

Dear Mother Mary of the Rosary,

With this I shall hand you, to be copied for your archives, the letters that I received from Rev. Mother Mary of Mercy from November 1916 to May 1921…

I have refreshed my memory by reading the correspondence. One of my most earnest desires and purposes when I came to the west, at the end of December 1907, was to make a foundation in Seattle and to make it in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. In less than a year all arrangements for the foundation were made…

It may have been in the first year 1908, or perhaps it was in 1909 - I think it was in the former, that I had thought of a foundation of our Nuns devoted to perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. My mind was filled with a purpose of doing all I could to honor our Lord in the Eucharist, of promoting devotion to the Blessed Sacrament of thus making reparation for the neglect and failings of the Congregation of California and bring blessings upon it..

There was an annual Eucharistic Conference in October 1916 where a paper on devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was read and discussed. Archbishop Hanna who presided mentioned that he had hoped that in the city or diocese there would be a community of nuns who would keep perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Father McMahon seized the opportunity to have the Dominican nuns come to the Bay Area. He had a discussion with the Newark Community and was referred to the Hunt’s Point community.

In the correspondence that began in 1916, it is clear that the Dominican nuns of Hunt’s Point were willing to begin a new foundation in San Francisco, and Archbishop Hanna and Father McMahon were eager to have them, but there was the problem of housing and economic support. The local church was still burdened with rebuilding and assisting those in need after the earthquake and fire and any new foundation would be required to have their own benefactors and prospects for being financially independent of the local church.

Yet, Divine Providence always makes way to see His will accomplished, and eventually the nuns did receive the support they needed from their friend, a kind San Francisco woman, who knew the community at Hunt’s Point from her visits to New York. In a letter dated July 8, 1920, she wrote to Mother Mary of Mercy:

I do wish your community could come here - some months ago, a friend of mine who had been in Europe spoke of having heard that perpetual adoration might be brought here and established in the lower part of San Francisco where there is nothing Catholic to attract the many stenographers, etc.

Caricature of Most Rev. Edward J. Hanna, D. D., Archbishop of San Francisco by G. A. Bronstrup - Bronstrup, G. A., and Associates (1918) Club Men in Caricature, San Francisco, Public Domain

A letter to Mother Mary of Mercy from Father McMahon, also in September 1920:

You have received the Archbishop’s letter, and so you know that you may come and make the foundation that has been so long desired. I had hoped that we might have it for the seventh centenary of the confirmation of the Order, earlier hopes having been in vain; but it seems to have been reserved for the seventh centenary of the death of Saint Dominic.

Our Founding Community of Eight

When a young woman enters a cloister, it is for the purpose of devoting herself solely to seeking the face of God within a hidden life. As a Dominican nun, she does this not only for God’s glory and her own salvation, but also as part of the Order’s mission of saving souls. In their "fiat” to God’s will, during the short months leading up to May 29, 1921, the nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery finished with haste the many preparations necessary for this small group to leave their cloister in New York and head west by train to begin a new foundation in what must have seemed like almost another world.

What are some of the joys, challenges and heartaches these women consecrated to God faced as they took this step of faith and devotion? During our Centennial Jubilee year, we will be sharing with you more of the historical treasures in our archives about our own foundation and the early years of our monastery.

Lessons in Holiness from Dominican Saints Agnes according to Saint Catherine

Today we commemorate one of our cloistered Dominican nuns – Saint Agnes of Montepulciano. She is one of those saints who can seem unreal because of all the miracles and mystical experiences that are often relayed when discussing or summarizing her life. Yet these things do not make a person a saint. Our dear Saint Catherine of Siena wrote in a letter to Saint Agnes’ monastic community that Saint Agnes’ chief virtue was humility. How is this?

Saint Agnes was favored from her birth with extraordinary graces. At the age of nine, after begging her parents persistently, was allowed to enter religious life with a most poor and austere community commonly known as the Sisters of the Sack, because of the rough and poor habits they wore. She applied herself diligently to growing in prayer and virtue and was recognized for her humility, obedience and prudence – so much so that before she had turned 14, a superior put her in charge of managing all the community’s temporal goods. Imagine having to manage the monastery property and secure the needs of a community of sisters at the age of 14! Yet she did it with charity and prudence, and all without lessening her prayer and penitential practices.

A neighboring town had heard of the sanctity of the community and asked the Sisters of the Sack to send one of the nuns to begin a new foundation in their town. The community decided to send Sister Margaret, who had been Sister Agnes’ novice mistress. Sister Margaret insisted that to take on such a task, she would need Sister Agnes to help her. Reluctantly the community agreed and sent the two sisters to begin a new foundation in Proceno. By the age of 15, Saint Agnes was made the superior of the community by the local bishop.

Yet God was not through using her administrative and management skills. Before she turned 40, He led her to become a Dominican nun and found a new monastery in her hometown, Montepulciano, on the site of a former brothel. This was a particular trial that included the hired builders taking shortcuts in the construction so that part of the monastery collapsed and the nuns had to raise more funds to have a proper building erected.

Not many of us are called to such a high level of service to others. Yet, Saint Catherine of Siena was encouraging all the nuns of Montepulciano to follow the example of their mother foundress, by following her humility and her other virtues. During her life, Saint Agnes recognized that her talents and skills were gifts from God and meant to be used for His glory and in loving service to others and she applied herself well to the service of her sisters, yet that was not her primary concern. Rather, as Saint Catherine highlights in her letter, Saint Agnes possessed “uncreated charity that continually burns and consumes the heart”; she had a “taste and hunger for souls” and “always applied herself to keeping vigil in prayer”. Saint Catherine points out that there is no other way to acquire humility except with charity and to arrive at perfect virtue as Saint Agnes did, we must practice “free and voluntary self-denial”, which makes us renounce ourselves and the goods of this world.

Saint Agnes’ treasure was not what her earthly father or this world could offer; she sought and possessed the treasure of her Divine Spouse, Jesus Christ. She accepted all He willed to share with her: His cross, disgrace, pain, mockery and reproaches, as well as voluntary poverty, a hunger for our Heavenly Father’s honor, and our salvation. Saint Catherine goes on to instruct the nuns, “possess this treasure with the force of your reason, moved by the fire of charity,” and you will arrive at true virtue.

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano, pray for us!

Lesson in Contrasts: A Reflection by our Sister Postulant

As part of our Christmas preparations, our community holds a Joyous Chapter on December 23rd. Included in the Chapter is the reading of one of the Christmas Gospels and a reflection is given by the youngest member of the community. This year’s reflection was given by our postulant sister and we joyfully share it with you.

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Just last week during our Free Day, the novitiate had a mini art lesson with Sister Marie Dominic. One of the things I learned was that in a piece of art, your eyes will automatically focus on the area where the colors contrast the most. So for example in this piece of art, our eyes will eventually focus here, on Mary’s crown, because it is the area where the colors greatly contrast.

What does this have to do with our Gospel reading tonight? I ask you to please stay with me.

Jesus is our God, our King, our Savior, but at his birth, he was laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. A king born not in a palace nor in a hospital with doctors, but in a stable with animals. How great is the contrast in that scenario? But, if we remember our art lesson, the focal point of a piece of art is the area where the colors contrast the most. Perhaps in the deeply contrasting situation of Jesus’s birth, God is inviting us to see, to take a deeper look.

To see that amidst the Poverty of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Richness.

To see that amidst the Humility of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Power.

To see that amidst the Silence of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Glory.

To see that amidst the Solitude of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Intimacy.

To see that amidst the Vulnerability of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Strength.

To see that amidst the Darkness of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Light.

To see that amidst the Rejection at the Inn, He is proclaiming that He is our True Savior.

This made me reflect further on the contrasts of this monastic way of life, which I have been blessed to live for the past four months, thanks to the generosity of the community. Life is meaningful in the monastery precisely because of these contrasts.

Amidst the silence of the monastery, there is, in truth, a myriad of activities going on, all of which aim to serve and give glory to God. This myriad of activities, in turn foster the silence of our hearts, leading us to a more intimate union with God.

Amidst the solitude of the life, deeper bonds are actually formed within the community, allowing us to love and forgive one another even with minimal contact and with less words being spoken out loud. In turn, to nourish these bonds, a deeper solitude is yearned for, in order for us to learn how to love our neighbor even more.

Amidst the emptiness of the life - the emptiness of being away from our dearest loved ones, the emptiness of not having some physical comforts, the emptiness of surrendering our wills, time and preferences even in the littlest situations - these all contribute to making the life fuller, fuller in the awareness of God’s deep love for us. A moment with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament makes us forget the host of things we have had to give up. And in experiencing the fullness of God’s love for us, it moves us to empty ourselves even more of those little things which in the grander scale are unimportant, to make more room in our hearts for God.

Two years ago, I was in [our two current aspirants’] position - I was an aspirant in this monastery during the Christmas Season. I distinctly remember that after that year’s Joyous Chapter, I hurriedly went up to the novitiate library. Externally I was scanning the books on the shelves, but internally I was deeply distressed, asking God, “Lord, are you really calling me to this life? Because I really don’t want to do a sermon in front of the community when I enter.” And yet by the grace of God, here I am two years later, almost done with what distressed me so much back then. In keeping with the theme of contrasts in this reflection, kindly allow me to share that what distressed me so much back then has actually given me much peace right now, the peace of doing the will of God, no matter how distressing a situation may be.

“What distressed me so much back then has actually given me much peace right now, the peace of doing the will of God, no matter how distressing a situation may be.”

— Sister Postulant

Mary must have felt the deepest joy and peace as she gave birth to Jesus, even though she had to travel while pregnant and give birth in the most uncomfortable of situations. Mary’s full-hearted “yes” to God has given us the greatest contrast our world needs, the contrast of Jesus. In reflecting on the birth of Jesus, let us remember our art lesson: that the area where the colors contrast the most is the focal point of that piece of art. Perhaps what God wants to tell us is that amidst the poverty, humility, solitude, silence, vulnerability, darkness and rejection of our lives, we need only to keep our eyes and hearts on Jesus, our God, our King, our Savior.

Who are the Dominican Nuns? Premieres today!

When people hear that the Order of Preachers includes cloistered nuns, many scratch their heads - huh?! The puzzlement deepens when they learn how the nuns came to be: that Our Holy Father Dominic was moved with compassion for the salvation of souls, but before he sent out his first Friars Preachers, Divine Providence led him to found a monastery of women who would be the first Nuns of the Order of Preachers. After all, how can a person preach if he or she never goes outside the walls of their home? What do cloistered Dominican nuns do all day? Who are the Dominican nuns and what place do we have in the Church and Order of Preachers?

We are excited to invite you to the premiere of a new short video we’ve produced: “Who are the Dominican nuns?” It will premiere on both YouTube and Facebook today at 4 p.m.

Invite your friends to a watch party and let us know what you think! Also, be sure to Subscribe to our YouTube channel and Like our Facebook page to receive notifications about all our future video projects.

Strong Sisters: Bl. Diana and Cecilia

If you want inspiration for living feminine genius as a holy woman of strength, fortitude with gentleness, today’s Dominican saints give plenty to ponder. Blessed Diana and Cecilia were two of the first nuns of the Order of Preachers in Italy, and both of them faced difficult challenges in pursuing their vocation to give themselves completely to God as His bride.

Bl. Cecilia was a nun in Rome when she and her community first met Saint Dominic. Our Holy Father Dominic had been asked by the pope to reform the women religious of Rome, as most of them had grown lax in their observances. Dominic’s proposal to the nuns was to essentially come together and refound themselves under his direction as nuns of the Order of Preachers. His words and the workings of the Holy Spirit persuaded them. But before they could complete the arrangements, their families protested. They had gotten used to the lax practices, to being able to enter and leave the monastery enclosure and visit their female relatives in the monastery. The nuns began to waiver. Dominic came again and strengthened them in their resolve and they didn’t look back. When the way was made for a monastery of nuns to be founded in Bologna, made possible in large part because of Bl. Diana, Bl. Cecilia was asked to go to Bologna and teach the new nuns there the ways of the Dominican life.

To read the story of Bl. Diana is to meet a dynamic, passionate woman. From a noble background, she loved fashion and parties, and was considered beautiful and charming. Her parents had high hopes for a good marriage for her. Then, one day, a couple Dominican friars came into Bologna where they lived and began preaching. Diana was captivated…and experienced a turning point in her life. She began to engage in long periods of prayer and undertook acts of greater penance and sacrifice. When the friars needed a place to build a priory, Diana convinced her father to give them the land they needed. But when she decided to build a monastery for Dominican nuns and enter herself, her family forbid it.

Not to be outdone, she came up with a plan to have her way. She visited an Augustinian monastery and, to the surprise of her party visiting with her, she suddenly slipped inside and donned the habit! Stunned, they immediately reported her actions to her family. Her brothers were sent to fetch her, forcibly if necessary. And in the struggle, Diana suffered a broken rib that left her convalescing, imprisoned in her family home. Her family forbid that she have contact with the friars, but Dominic, and after his death his successor, Blessed Jordan of Saxony, slipped to her notes and words of encouragement. Eventually, due to the influence of Bl. Jordan and the workings of the Holy Spirit, Divine Providence cleared the way for Diana’s vocation - her family relented and she happily joined the ranks of Dominican nuns at the new monastery in Bologna.

We are indebted to these women in many ways: it is because of Bl. Cecilia that we know the appearance of Our Holy Father Dominic; her description of his physical appearance is the only one we have. And we are grateful for Bl. Diana and her community; they have preserved letters from Bl. Jordan to Diana which reveal much about the second Master of our Order and some of the happenings at the time, as well as provide a beautiful description of spiritual friendship. And they each model for us feminine genius lived with ingenuity, fortitude and grace under fire.

Blessed Diana and Blessed Cecilia, pray for us!

To Be[come] a Preacher

Our Monastery of Corpus Christi in Menlo Park, California was still wrapped in the stillness of night as we four sisters-in-formation made our way to the choir for a visit with Jesus, then slipped quietly to the kitchen. Our novice mistress and another sister were busy preparing sack lunches and a good breakfast of eggs and toast to send us on our way. Hugs and good-byes exchanged, we loaded up into the waiting van and headed to the San Francisco International Airport to catch a flight to Houston, Texas, where we would meet five other sisters-in-formation from across North America. Our ultimate destination was the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, Texas - a two-hour drive from Houston - to begin our first year of the Monastic Theological Program with a two-week session of classes in Philosophy and Theology.

Monastic study is not like studying for school or a career - we study God and the things of God to know Him better so we might love Him more, and more effectively share Him with others.

The Monastic Theological Program, or MTS, is offered by the North American Association of Dominican Monasteries (NAADM) for nuns who have professed, or will shortly profess, simple vows. It is a four-year program of philosophical and theological studies intended to introduce the nun-in-formation to more advanced study that we can then pursue for the rest of our monastic life. Each year begins with a two-week session of intensive classes taught by Dominican friars. This year, the first week was an introduction to philosophy taught by Father Brian Chrzastek, O.P. of the Province of Saint Joseph; the second week was an introduction to theology taught by Father Philip Neri Powell, O.P. of the Province of Saint Martin de Porres. After the two-week class session, we return to our own monasteries to “unpack” what we received, write topic papers, and prepare presentations to be given to our classmates at the following year’s two-week session. But MTS is more than just a program to sharpen our Dominican pillar of study. It also provides exciting opportunities for a nun to grow in the pillars of prayer, community and preaching.

Through the Monastic Theological Studies program, nuns-in-formation share a valuable experience of Dominican life in other monastic communities and begin building community with one another.

For this four-year cycle of MTS, four monasteries of NAADM sent sisters-in-formation to participate: one sister from the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, Texas, one sister from Queen of Peace Monastery in British Columbia, Canada, three sisters from the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey, and four from Corpus Christi Monastery, in Menlo Park, California. Those of us who traveled from the other three monasteries, traveled an average of 1,960 miles, or 3,110 kilometers. That’s farther than driving from Rome to Moscow!

For most of us, this was the first time we’d visited another Dominican monastery other than the one we entered. And, because our homes and monasteries are situated in vastly different regions of North America, we also have different cultural experiences and ways of expressing the values of Dominican life. Some of our monasteries are older (for North America) and were built in in a more classic European monastic style, with stained glass windows, an enclosed cloister, Gothic arches and other architectural details. Other of our monasteries were built more recently, in a more modern architectural style, and have taken into account resources available and the contemporary needs of the local community. Our respective horaria and details in observances also reflect the needs of our respective communities. So it was an enriching experience to see Dominican values lived in another monastery and hear stories from one another about each other’s home monastery.

One of our first activities was to take a tour of the monastery and meet some of the sisters. We delighted to see and learn how many things were the same as “home” and intrigued by differences. It wasn’t uncommon to hear as we went, “oh, that’s a great idea!” or, “this is how we have this arrangement, etc.” We also grew eager for the opportunity to see another of our four monasteries – next year, the community at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey will host the MTS classes.

But beyond architecture and the structure of the regular observances, the two weeks gave us a wonderful and unique opportunity to meet and begin to form bonds with each other. While our monasteries are autonomous, no monastery exists in a vacuum - we relate to one another and share with one another our time, talents and resources primarily through our association membership. Recently, the pope and our Master have emphasized the increasing importance of interdependence between monasteries and the developing role of Federations/Associations. Naturally, if we are to effectively share the fruits of our contemplation with each other and provide needed support and collegiality, we first need to know and begin to understand one another. Our MTS experience also gave us the opportunity to concretely realize “I am not alone.” That is, there are other sisters-in-formation who are experiencing the same difficulties, challenges and blessings that come with being formed as a Dominican nun.

When a young woman enters a monastery as a postulant, it is expected there will be a learning curve, especially at community prayer - when to bow, when to knee, sit, sing - everything is governed by certain rubrics that can vary from monastery to monastery. And so, our first time in choir for liturgical prayer was, in some ways, like returning to the postulancy. The content of the prayer, naturally, was the same, but the intonations, and the details of the way the prayer was expressed was different for most of us –the configuration of the choir, the procession flow for communion, using English versus Latin for some of the hymns and prayers, etc. The hosting community was exceedingly gracious in providing us the guidance we needed to participate more fully and soon we were, more or less, in the flow of things again.

All this gave us an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the essential values of Dominican life versus structures that can and should be adapted to time and culture. It was a beautiful experience to enter into the life of the hosting community, as much as our classes and studies would allow, and live Dominican prayer in that place. Ultimately, we can begin to see how much more we share in common than what we have in differences.

A Dominican nun’s first preaching is in her fidelity to the vows and Dominican life, which reveals the reconciliation of all things in Jesus.

We sisters-in-formation were the recipients of the most sublime preaching of our Order – the reconciliation of all in Christ. For we were welcomed with open arms, with hearts full of love (and as big as the Texas skies), and hands eager to serve and make us comfortable. We preached to each other with our common sharing and examples of preserving silence and prayer, despite our being out of our element. And we preached to all those we met along the way – the active Dominican sisters from Puerto Rico who were serving in the area and a Dominican friar from India who chanced to visit while we were there; the people in the airport and on the planes who couldn’t help but notice a group of nuns in full habit and who were eager to share their stories and ask for prayers, and many more along the way that we shall never know.

“We are preachers. It’s not what we do; it’s who we are.”

— fr. Gerard Timonell, O.P., Master of the Order of Preachers

Our newly elected Master of the Order, Father Gerard Timoner, O.P., recently emphasized that “we are preachers”. It is not what we do, it is who we are. The whole experience of MTS takes a vital step in forming the cloistered nuns of North America into the preachers Jesus is calling us to be for our generation and world today.

Celebrating 25 Years, a Bride of Christ (and a New Book)!

There’s nothing like celebrating a first profession: the youthful joy and excitement of the bride-to-be, the busy preparations of the community as they help her prepare for the big day. In some ways, it is like a fairy tale, a divine fairy tale. But even more beautiful is to celebrate a milestone anniversary with a bride of Christ. And recently, we had the privilege of celebrating with Sister Amata Marie her 25th anniversary of profession of vows.

Sister Amata Marie comes to our community from life as an apostolic sister of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Immaculate Province in Houston, Texas. It was as a sister of this congregation that she first professed her religious vows. And we shared her joy as most of her classmates, as well as family and friends, were able to join us at our monastery to celebrate Mass for her jubilee. It was a truly catholic celebration as the languages heard during the Mass were three: Vietnamese, English and Latin, and elements of Vietnamese culture blended seamlessly with customs more familiar to American Catholics. Afterward, guests were treated to a sumptuous Vietnamese feast, generously hosted by Sister’s family.

A jubilee anniversary celebration reminds us of the grace that is needed daily to persevere in this, or indeed any, vocation. We all recognize souls who have stood the test of time and cooperated with this grace. They have been tried by the fire of trials and sufferings, cooled by the waters of peace and joy, and hammered and sculpted until the most beautiful forms have begun to take shape. We say begun, because as a jubilarian will be the first to say, their journey is not yet finished. But those of us who surround such souls rejoice at their example of perseverance and the fruitfulness they bring to their communities and the entire Church.

We also celebrated with Sister Amata Marie in another way: with the release of a new book, Journey of Faith and Love: Through It All God Never Fails. The book, written in both English and Vietnamese, features 26 chapters of reflections based on Sister Amata Marie’s life and experiences: from her childhood in Viet Nam and her time on a fishing boat adrift in the South China Sea as she escaped, to her life as a religious sister amidst her newfound freedom in the United States.  Sister Amata Marie shares with readers her insights as she sought deeper intimacy with our Heavenly Father, and her experiences of loss and suffering, as well as moments of great peace and joy. 

“My hope in sharing these experiences is that, as my own faith is strengthened, the faith of others may be strengthened as well,” says Sister Amata Marie. “God’s love is constantly pouring down on us every moment of our life. All we need to do is be open to receive it. Through this book, I hope that those who read these reflections will also recognize God’s constant presence in their own lives and the love God has for them personally, even if they don’t always feel it.”

Journey of Faith and Love is available in paperback on our gift shop website and in paperback and Kindle format on Amazon.

May God continue to bless and protect Sister Amata Marie and her profession class as their continue their lives of love and service as brides of Christ, and may our Beloved Savior raise up new brides to the glory of God and the proclamation of His Kingdom. Deo gratias!

May They Rest in Peace: Anniversary of Deceased Friends and Benefactors of the Order of Preachers

Gratitude towards benefactors is a natural virtue, but the grace of Christianity perfects its interior principle and makes its effects more lasting.  When our friends, employees and benefactors have passed into eternal life, gratitude follows them beyond the tomb and assists them by numerous prayers.  Every day before meals the “De Profundis” [Psalm 130] is recited for them, as if we dared not take our bread before recommending to God those to whom, perhaps, we owe it. 

Today, we commemorate our departed friends and benefactors by a solemn anniversary.  Let each one, therefore, be mindful of it, and thus merit the increased protection of the saints for the work to which we have devoted our life.  This devotion was remarkable in the Ven. Sister Magdalene de Lorca who, while visiting the different altars of the convent church (a devotion very dear to St. Dominic), saw the souls of the departed anxiously following her from one altar to another until she had finished her prayers.

Prayer: My God, grant to the faithful departed friends and benefactors of the Order a place of refreshment, light and peace.

Practice: Before meals, say three Ave Marias for the deceased who have done you good, either spiritual or temporal, either in the world or in religion.

From “Saints and Saintly Dominicans: Daily Reflections on Their Lives”, edited by Rev. Thomas a Kempis Reilly, O.P. (1915).

Celebrating Hope: Dominic and the Assumption of Mary

Hope. It’s a word we hear a lot - it even became a campaign slogan - but do we really know what it is? It sounds good and on some level, we instinctively want it, but how can we get it? We can learn a lot about hope by looking to our Blessed Mother and our Holy Father Dominic.

Generally speaking, hope is a desire for a good that is difficult to obtain, with the expectation of eventually obtaining it.

As a supernatural virtue, like faith and charity, it is infused in us as a gift of God and by it we long for God and to spend eternity with Him. Hope motivates us to do acts of virtue, to seek God, to love and serve Him with the expectation that He will do what He has promised and grant us eternal happiness with Him.  By supernatural faith, we “see” our ultimate target - God - and it is by hope and charity that we fly and soar to the heights.

We can also think of hope with this analogy: picture a toddler who wants to be picked up. They stand in front of their parent, looking up, reaching as high as they can, standing on tip-toe even. No matter how hard they try, they cannot get themselves in their parent’s arms, but they have the expectation that their parent will look down with kindness and lift them the rest of the way. Hope is that desire and expectation, and yet more. Because without God’s gift of hope, we would never look and reach up in the first place.

Our Blessed Mother’s assumption is a lesson in hope.

By this teaching of the Church - that at the time Mary’s life ended on earth, God granted her the privilege of not having to wait until the end of time for the resurrection of her body, but instead her body and soul were assumed into heaven - the glorious triumph of her Son Jesus over sin and death shines all the more brightly. Mary was granted singular graces not because she earned or deserved them, but solely due to God’s lavish gifts of mercy. She was uniquely chosen to walk in unity with the life and her Son, Jesus. And just as His body did not see the corruption of death, so too was Mary’s body preserved from this.

Mary’s assumption teaches us that our hope does not lie in the things of this world - our bodies and souls are destined to a loftier end: heaven.

Materialism, so prevalent in Western culture today, “threatens to extinguish the light of virtue and ruin the lives of men by exciting discord.”

-Pope Pius XII
Munificentissimus Deus

Many monastics and saints have commented that our world would be much more peaceful if the words “mine” and “yours” ceased to exist.  So many of today’s arguments, battles, and wars are over material goods that cannot add one moment to our life on earth, nor increase our true happiness.  Some of the richest people in the world are also the most miserable.  And that is one reason why our Holy Father Dominic urged his sons and daughters to “make your treasure from voluntary poverty.”  Actual poverty frees a person from worldly cares because they have nothing to lug around or protect from damage or thieves.  “Voluntary” poverty implies more than actual poverty – it requires a detachment of the heart from material goods, a true poverty of spirit.  A person can be poor in fact and yet still chained by the desire to possess what they do not have. By choosing to be poor, a person not only renounces actual possession of goods, but also the desire to possess those goods. It is this detachment of the heart that makes it light enough to fly up to God.

Mary’s assumption reaffirms the dignity and beauty of the whole human person - body and soul.

While our ultimate destiny is not this world, we must also remember that God’s creation is good, including our bodies, because that is how God created. Yet, because of sin, “we groan…awaiting the redemption of our bodies.” Because we still labor under the effects of sin, we must discipline our bodies and emotions to put them in right relationship with our intellect and ultimately God.  But we should not abuse our bodies – the human person is both body and soul.  Our holy Father Dominic began his preaching mission in earnest when he encountered a heresy that denied the goodness of the created world, including the human body.  Dominic preached tirelessly against this heresy and spent himself to help provide for the corporal needs of the poor, even to the point of selling all he had, including his books, to help feed starving people during a famine.  Dominic also left us the heritage of his “Nine Ways of Prayer”, descriptions of how he prayed using body postures, gestures and his voice to praise God and intercede for others.

Mary’s assumption should stir our hearts to a stronger piety toward our heavenly Mother, and move us with the desire of sharing in the unity of Jesus Christ's Mystical Body. 

That is, it should make us more receptive to God’s gift of hope. Because hope is a supernatural virtue, it is a gift. Yet, there are things we can do to make ourselves more receptive to it and to the extent we have it, we should exercise it. In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul gives us a good place to start:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.

- Romans 5:1-5

From this we see that the road of hope passes through affliction. Our Blessed Mother showed us how to walk in this path as she walked it with her Son, for she endured affliction all the way to the foot of the cross on Calvary. And the saints also light this way for us. When things are darkest, that’s when we should look up all the more and wait for the dawn with desire and expectation - God will keep His promises! As the psalmist sings,

Those who sow in tears
will reap with cries of joy.

Those who go forth weeping,
carrying sacks of seed,
Will return with cries of joy,
carrying their bundled sheaves.

-Psalm 126:5-6

May we increase our love for her who shows her motherly heart to all the members of this august body.  And may our Mother Mary and holy Father Dominic intercede for us!