Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
With still a few days left in the Christmas season, we wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and to share a bit from our celebration of the feasts of these past weeks!
Advent in the monastery is a time of fasting to prepare our hearts to receive Christ. The last week of Advent takes on an increasingly joyous tone as we begin to prepare in earnest for the celebration of Christmas. Around the house, decorations begin to go up, while in the liturgy we begin singing the great ‘O’ Antiphons, culminating with the antiphon ‘O Emmanuel.’ These traditional antiphons for the Magnificat at Vespers from December 17 to 23 are the basis of the well-known Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
On Christmas Eve, all is quiet after supper as Sisters finish last-minute preparations and take an opportunity to get some rest. Then we rise at 11pm to sing the office of Matins, followed by the celebration of Christmas Midnight Mass at midnight. After the Mass, we head to the refectory to greet one another with a quiet but joyful “Merry Christmas!” and enjoy some snacks to break the Advent fast - usually cheese and crackers, cookies, and hot chocolate! After getting back to bed around 2am, we are back up at 6am to sing the office of Lauds, followed by a time of personal prayer and then the Christmas Mass at Dawn.
The liturgies of our Christmas Masses were beautiful. A few recordings from the Masses are below!
We observe the last day of the year, December 31, as a retreat and fast day in reparation for our sins of the past year and to pray for God’s blessings on the year to come. Then on January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the octave day of Christmas, we gather in the chapter hall to draw patrons and prayer intentions for the following year. This year our community drew St. Martin de Porres as our patron! Each sister also drew her own personal patron and prayer intention for the year.
On the feast of the Epiphany, the novitiate sisters traditionally host an Epiphany party for all of the professed. The professed sisters enjoy getting a chance to see the Christmas decorations in the novitiate! We enjoy singing carols by candlelight and snacking on Christmas goodies. Three “kings” are crowned while we sing the carol “We Three Kings”. These three lucky sisters are the ones who found an almond in their roll at breakfast that morning! The best part of being a king is that a Mass is offered for the intention of those three sisters a few days later.
We have remembered all of you in our prayers throughout this Christmas season and will continue to pray for you throughout the year to come! Especially at this time of year we are reminded of our gratitude for our many benefactors who continue to make our life of prayer and contemplation possible. We could not live our Dominican contemplative life without you!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Dominican Nuns!
