Congratulations to Sister!

Sr. Francesca Marie was received into
the Novitiate on June 19th -- Congratulations!

Sr. Francesca Marie

Sister celebrating

Priestly Ordination, Jubilee, Vows, Passion Garden, and the Texas Show

Deacon Scott Schwind was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on May 24.
From now on, he will be known as Fr. Christopher.
Congratulations!!!  We will support you in prayer and friendship.

We are very excited about our new "Passion Garden" project -- outdoor Stations of the Cross.
We will be working with a young man that has made this his boy scout Eagle Project.
We have "Naming Opportunities" for those who would like to have their names
remembered where we are praying!  More details to come soon on our website.

Sample brick -- for the Passion Garden. One can buy a brick for $100. 
See our website for more details.

Example of an outdoor station that will be installed soon!
"Jesus Meets His Mother"

This is the location in our backyard where we hope to have all the names of our
friends, benefactors, and relatives in our new Passion Garden.

"Dinner with the Sisters" auctioned off at our Gala last year --
We had a blast with a family that bought the dinner.
God sure made people fun -- always great to make new friends!

Bishop Patrick Zurek celebrating Mass for our big 25th Jubilee, Final Vows, and Renewal of Vows.
May God be praised!

Sr. Mary Magdalene professing her Final Vows.

Sr. Mary Grace renewing her vows.

Packed chapel for the Vow Ceremonies on June 5.

From left to right:  Sr. Jean Marie (Regional Superior),

After the Vow Ceremonies, we enjoyed a great lunch and fellowship,
including basketball with the children.

We were given free tickets to see the "Texas Show" in Palo Duro Canyon.

Here we are right before the show. Awesome as usual.

Even though the Vow Ceremonies are in the middle of all of these pictures, they are the most special to us.  It was a great day to celebrate and be together.  May God be praised for His faithfulness in the past and His constant companionship on the way. May we be instruments to build the Kingdom of God!

These pictures only represent a portion of what's happening in our lives. We're also preparing for a Summer Camp, Vacation Bible Schools, and several other things. Most importantly, we are growing in the Love of the Lord.  May you also receive that desire and grace.  Amen.

May is the Month of Mary -- our Beautiful Spiritual Mother!

May is Mary's Month -- On Mother's Day, we process into the chapel holding candles for our
earthly Mothers, asking Mary to pray for them.  We also crown Mary as our Queen.

Picture taken at the Bishop's Gala 2013.
We had a delightful time - a couple invited us to sit at the table they bought.

Mother's Day Meal with everyone home!

We're in the process of creating a "Passion Garden" in our back yard!

  Memorials available soon!!!

Amen.  Learn to dance in the rain!

Thanks to the Mary E Bivins Foundation in Amarillo, we're able to finish our Sunporch with a new floor and new blinds (not pictured here).  They were installed yesterday though.  They already made a huge difference in the room.

Fr. Francisco is a man of many talents. We invited some priest friends to eat with us, and he entertained us with his basket making out of newspaper.

School Spring Festival 2013

Sr. Mary Ana leading the children in a song in their school program.

Spring School Festival -- cool kids and cool Sister

All the Sisters enjoying the School Program and time together

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in SO long -- as usual, so many things going on . . . If you think it's boring living in a convent, you've never been in our shoes.

Last week we were able to be apart of the Diocese of Dallas' "Marian Dinner" for ladies that are open to Religious Life. It was held at the University of Dallas.  I think they had about 75 ladies come.  Bishop Farrell was there as well as about 20 Religious Sisters and Consecrated Women.  It was great -- Mass, Adoration, Evening Prayer, some vocation stories, and some good ol' down time to visit.  Sorry there's no picture.  Oops.

At least we remembered to take pictures at the Spring Festival at school (see above).  The 5th Graders did a song for Pope Francis.  It was awesome.  We'll try to upload some videos soon. 

God bless you all!  God is SO good!

More Interior Renovating for Lent

Our faithful friends helping plant new trees in our Rosary Garden! 

Rosary Garden overhaul on the move - pray that our trees turn out okay! 
As it can be seen here, we still have to put our rosary stones back down.

Spring Break!  All Sisters hands on deck for cleaning and trimming!

After our plumbing mess in the front of the house, we were able to acquire a grant
to help with repairs.  If you need concrete work in the Amarillo area, call Ruben
at Ruben's Concrete!  He is very good to us and does a GREAT job!

Sr. Celine posing with Mary at the Immaculee Retreat in Amarillo.
Monica is here below -- she came for this retreat from the Dallas area.

Some of the Sisters at the Retreat.
See Immaculee below speaking about forgiveness.
She knows what she's talking about -- she forgave the people
that murdered her family during the 1994 Rwandan Holocaust.

Sarah Hart was the speaker / singer last night at the Amarillo
Pro-Life Banquet. She did an outstanding job!
What a beautiful person inside and out.

This probably does not look like anything to put on a blog, but it's
another job of "Rebuild My House" project.  The bricks around our house are so loose
in places, it looked like they were about to fall off the house. Major repairs all over the place!

Of course we're THRILLED about the election of Pope Francis!  May God grant him much peace, courage, and joy on this road of being our Holy Father.  May he do all with extraordinary love!  And may Mary help protect him and guide us all closer to her Son, Jesus!!!

Trips, Joys, and Broken Things for Lent

What is this?!  It's representing the old broken light, ceiling damage (from snow), plumbing break-down, water-being-turned-off days, heater going out in one wing, among other maintenance projects happening all at the same time.  Let's spiritualize this -- During Lent, it's time to do a renovation on our souls.  May the Lord remove some of our blinders on ourselves so that we can see how He's inviting us to change for the better!

The IRL (Institute on Religious Life) has created a display of Religious Communities in our country. Here is our poster in the display!  We saw it at the Here I Am Lord Conference (HIAL) in St. Charles, IL.  : >

Ariel and Sr. Mary Michael (below) helped with a First Communion Retreat while attending the HIAL Conference.

One of the groups at the HIAL.

On Feb. 25th, the Texas Panhandle was hit with the biggest and strongest blizzard in a long time.  It's the worst of this Sisters' memory who has lived here over 40 years.  The 50-60 mile / hour winds and 19 inches in Amarillo (a record) was a sight to see.

Busy Students' Retreat at Texas A&M -- another awesome week with the Aggies!

Home-school Valentine's party at a bowling alley in the Austin area.  Good family fun!