Celebrating Corpus Christi Sunday

On Corpus Christi Sunday, Dominican family, friends, and benefactors gathered at the monastery to celebrate with us our patronal feast day. The festivities began with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The principal celebrant and homilist was Father Andrew Opsahl, O.P. Father Andy is one of the newly ordained priests for the Western Dominican Province. He was joined at the altar by many of our Dominican friars, including Bishop Robert Christian, O.P., auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and Father Stephen Maria Lopez, O.P., student master for the Western Dominican Province.

Immediately following Mass was a Eucharistic Procession and Benediction. After the beautiful and solemn celebration of the Eucharist, a reception was held in the parlor for everyone. It was a delight and joy to share this special day with all our dear ones. And it is a day that will be particularly poignant in our hearts and minds with the sudden passing of Bishop Robert Christian.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating and giving thanks for the life, love, and many graces God has poured out on us.

Come Spouse of Christ! Sister André Marie Professes First Vows

June 29th, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, was warm and bright as our chapel filled with friends and family, here to celebrate Mass and witness Sister André Marie of Divine Mercy make her first profession of vows. The principal celebrant and homilist was Very Rev. Christopher Fadok, O.P., prior provincial of the Western Dominican Province. The main concelebrants were Rev. Johnpeter Pragasam, Rev. Thuong Nguyen, Rev. Tri Pham, and Rev. Reginald Martin, O.P.

During his homily, Father Christopher tied together the balance and beauty of the life of the Church exemplified in Saints Peter and Paul, with the balance and beauty of discerning and living the contemplative vocation.

“Bishop and missionary. Integrity and creativity. Responsibility and freedom.” Father Christopher said. He went on to say that the Church needs both to strike the right balance and thrive, as do each of us individually. “What does it take to make us stand upright and proclaim the Gospel without falling over? It is a balancing act and creates a sense of tension, but good tension. A tension that brings us joy because we know we are making progress on the way.”

Sister André Marie professed vows in the hands of our prioress Sister Maria Christine of the Cross, O.P. After Father Christopher presented Sister André Marie with the black veil of a professed nun, Sister Maria Christine was assisted by our novice mistress, Sister Joseph Marie of the Child Jesus, O.P. in changing sister’s veil from the novice white to professed black.

Following the Mass, Sister André Marie greeted family and friends in parlor for a joyful and bountiful reception. Deo gratias!

Te Deum laudamus! We Have a Master of the Order!

Over the weekend, the friars gathered at the General Chapter of the Order of Preachers elected a new Master of the Order - Father Gerard Francisco Timoner, III, O.P. of the Dominican Province of the Philippines. Father Gerard is the 87th successor to Our Holy Father Dominic and is the first Asian to serve as Master of the Order. In his remarks following his election, he humbly stated his first inclination was to decline, but he was encouraged by former Master Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., and others, to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit .

He went on to say:

The Catholic Church today, it seems, needs a Francis and a Dominic. There is a need for a new evangelization, and we are all called to do precisely that.

Saint Dominic formed an order of preachers. It is not what we do. It is who we are. Mission is not what we do. It is who we are. And if that is clear, everything will just follow. We are preachers even when we are not preaching. We are preachers even if in our old age, we can no longer speak. We are preachers even if we are not ordained. We are preachers even if we are sick. We are preachers even if we are doing serious research alone in our rooms. We are preachers when we are helping the less privileged. We are preachers. That is our identity.

Father Gerard Francisco Timoner, III, O.P. is the 87th successor to Our Holy Father Dominic.

Dominican government is shaped by the communion and universality of Dominican religious life. According to the mind of Our Holy Father Dominic, each member of the Dominican family is to have a participation in the life and government of the community and the Order. As a result, the government of the Order of Preachers is noted for an organic and balanced participation of all its members for pursuing the special end of the Order. But this participation is not strictly democratic - it is communitarian in a special way. We do not simply seek a majority in making decisions - we seek consensus and unanimity under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And so, every nine years, Dominicans from around the world gather for the General Chapter of the Dominican Order to settle important matters, including electing the new Master of the Order, who then serves the Order of Preachers as its head for the next nine years. May God bless and protect Father Gerard as he assumes his new role and may God continue to guide our Dominican brothers during the remainder of the General Chapter.

Want more information?

Dominicans elect 51-year-old Filipino as master general

Dominican Common Life and Government

98 and Looking Great! (Psst! It's the new floor and pews!)

A photo of our community from the 1930s. Already it had grown from the very small group of nuns who first arrived in San Francisco in 1921.

Today our community celebrates our 98th birthday! It was on this day in 1921 that a small group of intrepid nuns left the cloister walls of their monastery in Hunt’s Point (Bronx), New York and headed west to bring Dominican cloistered life and perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament to San Francisco, California.

The struggles they faced in establishing the new foundation were immense, but with the prayers and support of the bishop of San Francisco, the friars of the Western Dominican Province, local congregations of Dominican apostolic sisters and many lay men and women, the community found their cleft in the rocks of the West Coast and thrived.

While the area surrounding the monastery has transformed from cattle and farmland into suburbia and tech companies, some things have remained the same: the prayers and support of our Archbishop and local Church, our Dominican brothers and sisters, and the laity, who were are proud to consider our friends and family.

Installation of the new flooring! Here you can see the last of the old tile flooring.

The new floor before the chapel chairs were put back (awaiting replacement by the new pews).

Installation of the new pews!

One such friend of the monastery recently reminded us of these ties that remain through time. One day last summer, we received an offer from a gentleman to help us with new flooring and pews in our chapel! His grandfather had attended daily Mass at our monastery, until his death a few years ago. This man, who was born and raised in Menlo Park and saw how many people regularly attend Mass at our monastery on Sundays, decided to offer this project in dedication to his grandparents.

After consideration by the community we gratefully accepted his offer. For one week during November, our public chapel was turned upside down to install the new commercial grade flooring over the old asbestos tile. Then, over Lent, the chapel chairs began to “disappear” as they found new homes. Right before Holy Week, the new pews arrived and were installed. We are so grateful for the generosity of this benefactor and were even more excited that the floor was in before Advent and Christmas and the pews before Holy Week and Easter!

Thank you to all our brothers and sisters, friends and family who support our cloistered Dominican life. Be assured you remain always in our daily thoughts and prayers. Deo gratias!

Model For Living a Passionate Life: Saint Catherine de Ricci

A Christian mystic is gifted by God with a state of soul raised to higher forms of prayer – to extraordinary heights of contemplation.  St. Catherine de Ricci was a true mystic.  She discovered her passion early in life - Jesus - and never took her eyes off of Him. Though very few of us will be granted the extraordinary graces God deemed to give her, we can learn from her how to live a passionate life along the path of grace God has laid out for us.

If we want to scale the heights of heaven, if we want to receive the grace of complete union with God and see Him face to face, it begins as St. Catherine began – in humility. Saint Catherine was born to a prestigious family in Florence, Italy. Early in life, she was drawn to give herself to God alone, so she sought religious life among the most poor. God answered her prayer by leading her to the Dominicans. During her novitiate, the favors God granted her in prayer made her seem simple and stupid to her sisters - she was always forgetting things, having accidents and seemed slow in conversation. When Catherine learned they were about to expel from the community as unfit for religious life, she went around to each sister to beg their mercy in letting her stay. Only under direct questioning from her confessor did anyone learn the true reason for her behavior. And throughout the rest of her religious life, she was truly a humble and compassionate servant to her sisters and others.

Second, we can follow Catherine’s example in abandoning ourselves to God in times of plenty and in suffering. Catherine suffered immensely during her life, both from her ecstatic in living out the passion of Christ each week for years, and with prolonged bouts of illness. Yet she simply trusted herself to God. But she did not seek suffering in itself. Once in prayer, the Blessed Mother came and offered her three crowns - one of gold, another of silver, and a third of thorns. Catherine was already undergoing immense suffering at the time and was afraid of the crown of thorns, so she left the choice to Mary. Mary chided her for her cowardice in trying to abdicate her freewill to make the decision. Catherine gulped and pointed to the crown of thorns. She did not receive that crown at that particular time, though she did later in her life.

Which leads us to the third lesson: everything we undertake, we should do for love of God. Catherine did not love suffering in itself, yet she so loved Jesus that she wanted to be conformed to Him in every way possible, however and whenever He deemed fitting. This is true passion - to love Love rightly. Her life and example spoke Jesus - she had become the voice, speaking the Word to all those she met.

Like Catherine, our passionate life begins with humility, trusting and abandoning ourselves to Jesus and His love for us, and doing all for love of Him. Jesus showed us the way – by living the passion and death of Christ with love for our Heavenly Father and His will, we have the promise of the Resurrection.

St. Catherine de Ricci, pray for us!

Lust, Love and Angelic Warfare

There once lived a boy who was born to a wealthy and prominent family. He had the world at his fingertips, but there was a question that burned in his young heart and mind: who is God? His life began to circle around answering this all-important question. His family made plans for him: if he wanted to search for God, he could do that as abbot of a wealthy and powerful Benedictine monastery. But then one day, he encountered a new kind of religious: poor, mendicant friars, living an apostolic life, traveling from town to town and preaching the Gospel with joy. Here was his future: the Apostolic Life of prayer, study, community and preaching.

His mother was appalled. His brothers scoffed and locked him in a tower of the family castle until he changed his mind. His sisters begged and cajoled. He converted them to his way of thinking. Then his brothers decided to try a different approach. He was a young, vigorous man, after all. So they sent into his room a beautiful woman of ill repute to seduce him.

What was his response to the temptation against his chastity? Was he completely indifferent to the temptation, a “cold fish”? Did he think himself above danger? Did he flounder or cave under the flirtations of the woman before him? No, on all counts. His reaction was swift and passionate in its own right – he grabbed a burning log from the fire and chased the woman from the room. Then, using his fiery brand, he marked the sign of the cross on the wall and collapsed in prayer, begging God’s grace to preserve him from falling into these temptations and for His deliverance from them. In answer to this prayer, God sent two angels to bind him with a cord about his waist and assured him he would never again be tempted against chastity.

This story eventually gave rise to the Angelic Warfare Confraternity and devotion to St. Thomas Aquinas as a patron saint of purity and chastity. Those who become members of the Confraternity enjoy the intercession of St. Thomas and certain aids for the purpose of formation and perseverance in the virtue of chastity according to their state of life. Confraternity members are devoted “to St. Thomas Aquinas and the truths he taught about the integrity of body, emotions and will with the truth about human sexuality.” They also commit to pray daily for one another, that all confraternity members may preserve and grow in the virtue of chastity and purity.

Many people today, especially the youth, can understand and draw encouragement from the example of Brother Thomas, his trial and triumph, and strength from the prayers of Confraternity members united together under the patronage of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Thomas Aquinas. We encourage you to learn more about this Confraternity.

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

The Story of a Princess Dominican

Once upon a time, there lived a king and his queen in a beautiful land. For a time, peace and prosperity reigned in this land. Then, whispers and rumors came of a storm brewing and moving toward them. A destructive and blood-thirsty people, the Tartars, were coming. The king and queen grew vigilant, but the people could not be roused from their peace and comfort, and dismissed the threat. Then, the storm descended and the Tartars invaded the peaceful land, destroying what the people had built.

The king sent his children and pregnant queen to another noble, who, seeing an opportunity to grab power for himself, sought to exploit the king’s vulnerability by rousing other nobles and the people against him. Eventually, the king was driven to run and, reuniting with his queen and children, fled to make a last stand at a stronghold on an island. Two of his three children died in the course of their escape and, as they watched the Tartars building boats and readying themselves to cross the waters to the island, it appeared the rest of the royal family would soon follow them in death. Desperate, the king and queen knelt down and prayed. “God, should you see fit to deliver us and our people from these violent people, we will consecrate our unborn child to you, in the service of St. Dominic’s Order.”

At the completion of their prayer, another storm began, this one from nature. For three days, their place of refuge was buffeted by the winds and rains. At the end of the third day, as the storm began to break, the priest with them heard their confessions and prepared them for the death all thought to be inevitable. But as they went outside to meet their fate, they were met instead with calm and clear skies. There was no sign of the invaders anywhere. And they never returned to the land. Returning home, the queen gave birth to a little baby girl they named Margaret.

True to their promise, when the little girl was three years old, they took her to a Dominican monastery to be educated with other girls of noble birth. But soon the nuns realized little Margaret was different from the others girls. She spent her time in prayer instead of play. If the other girls invited her to play, she insisted they all go to the chapel first and pray an “Ave”. Watching the nuns, Margaret learned the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary by rote and would recite it to herself during the day. When she heard the nuns made certain sacrifices and acts of mortification for Jesus, she begged permission to do the same.

One day, she asked the meaning of the crucifix, and was told how the Son of God became man and died for us on the cross. She sank down on her little knees, kissed and hugged the crucifix tightly, burst into tears, and said:

O my Jesus! Me too! To You I give myself, for You I abandon all things.

The nuns and others observed her understanding and reasoning seemed to be more advanced than other girls her age. When she was four years old, she begged, and was permitted, to receive the Dominican habit. She received it with such gravity and respect, all the nuns were filled with admiration.

Her parents build a convent for her on an island in the Danube River, on the outskirts of Budapest, and she moved there with several sisters when she was ten years old. The community grew quickly and soon numbered seventy sisters. Despite her royal lineage, she longed to be treated as a worthless servant, desiring only to share in Jesus’ life and sufferings. She was never prioress or held any other position of prestige or authority, even in her own monastery, and no job was too difficult or menial for her. In fact, she sought the dirtiest and most repugnant work and took special delight in caring for the especially difficult sisters in the infirmary. In offering her mind to God, she set about memorizing all 150 Psalms and the Conferences by John Cassian in Latin, among many other Scripture passages, prayers, and written works.

One day, the king of Bohemia chanced to meet her on a visit to the monastery and was beguiled by her beauty. Smitten, he asked permission of her father to marry, who responded with the fact that she was dedicated to God. Undaunted, the king of Bohemia asked, if he could obtain a dispensation for her from the pope, would he consent? The match was politically compelling…and just think of all the good Margaret could do for the people of Hungary and Bohemia as queen! Her father agreed that, if he could obtain permission of both the pope and his daughter, he would grant his consent. The pope granted the dispensation, but Margaret adamantly refused. Despite arguments and pressure from her parents, she held her ground: she would not break the promise of her dedication to God, and would rather die than marry. You see, Margaret had already given her heart, mind, body, and soul to another Love.

Margaret continued her penances, long vigils, and tireless works of charity within the cloister. In all things, she offered herself for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, in particular, her own people. The Cross was all she needed to be spurred on to her heroic acts of love and sacrifice. One of the items she cherished most was a crucifix in which was kept a small relic of the True Cross and she was often found praying in front of a crucifix, with tears streaming down her face.

A fellow sister once asked her how to pray well. She responded:

Sister, offer God your body and your soul, and let your heart be always near Him, with neither death nor tribulation, nor anything here below being able to detach it from Him; thus you will pray well.

In her desire to be the poorest of the poor, she chose to wear the poorest, roughest, most threadbare habits. If she was given anything new and of better quality, with permission, she immediately sought to give it away to benefit the poor. Her knees were cracked and gnarled from her long prayers and her hands were often chapped and bled from her work. Her face was marked with tears of compassion and sorrow for sins from her prayers, streaking through the dirt and grime she picked up from her tasks. Because of her resulting poor and dirty appearance, some of her own sisters became embarrassed and avoided her. She was not ignorant to this fact. Shortly before her death, she told her sisters:

You will no longer want to keep away from me then, for my body will be as fragrant after death as it is displeasing to you now.

Though this treatment from her sisters may have stung her sensitive heart, she was joyful to be treated as Jesus was – scorned and despised. When her sisters encouraged her to spare herself and moderate her sacrifices and penances so that she may live longer, she simply looked at them with her delightful smile and replied:

Many of the people who look forward to a long life in this valley of tears put off doing good works, since they think that they will have plenty of time before they die. As for me, I prefer to be of the number of those who, being anything but certain of a long life, consider that they have no time to lose if they wish to give God all the glory that they can before they die. Besides, we all know that it is a waste of time to live here in a convent if we are looking for rest and comfort for our mortal body and for the joys of this world. The enclosure is a suitable home only for those who are seeking those things which are eternal.

Reading accounts of her life, we cannot help but wonder, “How can I possibly relate to this?!” For we have the incredible story of a princess who became a pauper and endured much pain and hardship, whose life was filled with unbelievable graces and miracles. But ultimately, her story is the fairy tale that is not a fairy tale – it is a love story Jesus invites us all to live. The one where we recognize that the end is the beginning: the ultimate purpose of our life on earth is not to live the soft, luxurious life of a princess, to seek riches, power, or pleasure, even if those things could be used to do good. Because, ultimately, whether rich or poor, talented or not, we are all poor servants and the only treasure that will last is that to which we look for in eternity.

St. Margaret of Hungary, O.P., died when she was twenty-eight years old. Before she died, she was given the grace to know the date of her death. While in still perfect health and vigor, she told a sister on January 8, 1270, “I will die in ten days.” After a few days of violent fever, on the 18th of January, she died, having spent 24 of her 28 years in the religious habit.

A few days before Margaret died, a Premonstratensian nun in a neighboring convent, saw in a vision the Blessed Virgin Mary descend to the Dominican convent and place a magnificent crown on the head of Sister Margaret, when she led her to heaven amid the sounds of ravishing music. Another nun of the same order saw a brilliant star go up to heaven at the moment Margaret died. During her life, Margaret worked many miracles, but after her death, they were very numerous – no less than two hundred having been proved: the blind, the lame, the paralyzed, and the sick obtained a cure at her tomb. She is invoked as patron saint against floods and fevers.

St. Margaret of Hungary, pray for us.

P.S. Want to know more about this amazing Dominican saint? There were many miracles that St. Margaret of Hungary performed while alive (and even more attributed to her intercession after she died), but here’s a couple from “Margaret: Princess of Hungary” (written by S.M.C. and published by the Blackfriars), that involve Dominican friars and also reveal a bit of her personality and sense of humor.

One day, a friar came to the monastery to preach to the nuns. The community invited him to stop the night and give them a second sermon the next day. The friar refused; he had work to do and could not spare the time. Leaving the parlor, he went in search of his horse and trap, for King Bela had evidently built a bridge from the mainland to the island. Margaret was very anxious for him to remain; when, however, she saw that he was determined to go, she made no comment but betook herself to prayer.

When the Friar reached his trap, he found that the vehicle was broken and unusable. On making wrathful inquires, he was assured no one had touched it. There was nothing else to be done but to make the best of a bad job, go back to the monastery for the night and give the nuns the sermon they had requested. He also must have had a sense of humor, and he had made a good guess as to the cause of the mishap, for the next morning, when his exhortation was ended, turning to Margaret, he said:

You have forced me to do what you wanted, Sister; now you must give me back my trap.

Margaret still said nothing, but betook herself again to prayer and straightway the vehicle was found completely repaired, though no one had been near it since the previous day.

The same thing happened to another friar who refused to stay and preach a second sermon; only in this case, the victim had gone some distance before the break-down of his cart forced his return. On a third occasion when a like request had been refused, Margaret said she would pray for such a downpour of rain as should force his return; and this is what actually happened.

And the last miracle we will share here was worked because her truthfulness was called into question (and also explains why Margaret is invoked in floods). Margaret had been relating to the Provincial and a group of sisters some circumstances connected with a flood of the Danube she had seen. The Provincial refused to believe her; he told her that it was impossible for anything of the sort to have occurred, and that she must have imagined it.

Margaret was angry, for to call her truthfulness into question in this way was to cast a doubt on her honor as a Dominican; and she gloried in belonging to the Order of Truth. She cried out:

My God, I beg of you to show that I am speaking the truth!

Immediately the waters of the Danube began to rise, overflowing the river banks. Swiftly rose the river, and soon the community were driven from the shore where they had been standing back to the monastery. Still the water continued to rise until the whole ground floor of the building was submerged, and the nuns were obliged to retire to the upper part of the house.

The Provincial, somewhat perturbed, climbed the enclosure wall, and from this vantage point watched the flood waters continue to rise. Then the nuns gathered around Margaret, begging her to undo the mischief she had done. This she was quite willing to do now that the veracity of her statement had been proved. So she prayed again, and the waters immediately began to subside. The flood had begun just after Vespers (sunset), and by Matins (midnight) the river was again flowing smoothly between its banks; and more wonderful still, it had carried its mud back with it, leaving no trace whatsoever of the flood.

Celebrating a New O.P.-to-be!

I will lead her into the desert and allure her…

With joyful hearts, we are excited to announce the profession of the first vows of our Sister Mary Francis of the Holy Cross on Saturday, February 16, 2019!

“Faith and family characterize my childhood in San Jose, CA,” Sister Mary Francis wrote in her vocation story.  “I loved going to church and always ran to hug the parish priests when I saw them.  As a little girl, I even wanted to be a priest, but whenever anyone suggested becoming a sister, I replied decidedly ‘No!’  Consecrated life was outside my experience.” Want to know more? Her story continues here.

Please keep her in prayer as she prepares for this important day. Congratulations, Sister!

"Let Us Be Their Followers."

Today we celebrate the feast of several of the Dominican Order’s martyrs in the Far East. Francis de Capillas, a Spanish Dominican, labored for a number of years in the Philippines before going to China in 1642. When he and his fellow Dominican missionary priests arrived in Fogan, they were initially heard and received warmly by the people, and there were numerous conversions to the Christian faith. But shifts in the winds of politics soon changed that. As the ruling dynasty was being wiped out by ruthless and invading Tartars, to try and save themselves, they cast suspicions in the Christians and the missionaries. Soon, persecution began.

While Father Francis and his superior, Father Garcia, were in hiding, they received word that one of their flock was dying. Father Francis asked Father Garcia for permission to cross “enemy” lines and go to him, which Father Garcia granted. All began well - Father Francis made it in time to the dying man and gave him his last Sacraments before he passed away. But as Father Francis was headed back, he was captured by a roving band of Tartars.

The ruling mandarins tried everything to get Father Francis to renounce the Faith. He was tortured by having his feet slowly crushed. When the mandarin saw his unwavering resolution, he demanded to know the secret of his love for suffering. Father Francis responded, “My body suffers, but my soul rejoices, for in suffering there is a likeness between me and Christ.”

Father Francis was then thrown in prison with the roughest criminals. The Christians provided him with food, drink and blankets and clothing, as winter was coming. Most of the food and drink he gave away to his fellow prisoners and he shared his blanket with two of the filthiest prisoners in their cell. His example and words converted so many of his fellow prisoners and caused the jailors to show him leniency and kindness. When the mandarin heard of this, he was once more infuriated and had Father Francis flogged with bamboo reeds so hard, he could hardly move for three days.

Eventually there was again a shift of political power, but the death of the mandarin and rise of a new leader did not change Father Francis’ situation. Instead, the Christians were again implicated and the new viceroy issued the order for Father Francis’ execution. When Father Francis heard the news, he turned to his friends and flock. "Dwell together in peace, my friends," said Francis with triumph in his voice. "I go now to my death."

The saint was led out to a nearby hill. Here he was like Jesus stripped of his garments save only his stockings which could not be removed because of the horrible condition of his crushed and blood-caked feet. His hands were bound behind his back, and he knelt peacefully to receive the blow of the executioner's sword on January 15, 1648.

Blessed Francis was the first martyr of the Order in China. In the following century, several Spanish Dominicans were martyred at Foochow including Bishop Peter Sanz on May 26, 1747; and on October 28, 1748, Bishop Francis Serrano along with the priests Joachim Royo, John Alcober and Francisco Diaz.

Martyrs of China, pray for us!

Epiphany and the Melting Pot Dinner

By now in the world, Christmas is a distant memory.  But in the monastery, we are still celebrating in full swing.  Where Christmas tends to be big and flashy, with lots of greetings and gifts between our community and our family, friends, and benefactors, Epiphany is a big feast for us as a community and it is marked in a special way by our novitiate sisters.

When a young woman enters the monastery, she primarily lives and works in the novitiate wing of the monastery under the guidance and instruction of the novice mistress.  It is a beautiful and grace-filled time, almost akin to “monastic childhood”.  And when she leaves the novitiate and integrates into the professed community, the doors of the novitiate are then closed to her.  Literally.  As a professed sister, if she needs something or someone in the novitiate, she must ring a bell outside the novitiate workroom and wait for someone to answer.

But on Epiphany, the novitiate community hosts the professed community for a feast!  The novitiate common room is decorated and set for dining and the novitiate sisters spend the day cooking and preparing.  Actually, the preparing starts the day before or even earlier!  And depending on the sisters, you never quite know what you’ll get.  With our novitiate community, we often joke with delight that novitiate-prepared meals are “East Meets West.”  This Epiphany was no exception – the table was set with spring rolls and peanut sauce, Calabrese-style “no meat” balls with zesty marinara, deep fried Brussel sprouts with honey-sriracha sauce, a snowman pumpkin pie, æbleskiver (a Danish sweet), xôi vị (Vietnamese sweet rice desert), Vietnamese snowballs, and more!

In the course of dinner, our three wise “men” visited the festivities with little gifts for each of the sisters, some handmade by the sisters and others donated by a sister’s family and held just for this occasion.  Music, games and fun conversations over a Christmas picture slide show rounded out a beautiful evening, which was all too short.  But when the bell rang, we were ready to close the day singing praises to God in Compline.

Deo gratias!