This has been an incredibly busy and blessed week! Last Saturday, the Knights of Columbus, Our Lady of Snows Council hosted a dinner reception for vocations in my honor. The spaghetti dinner was prepared by the Knights and all proceeds and donations were directed to The Labouré Society in my honor. Over $1,200 was raised! I was overwhelmingly blessed by friends and strangers alike who came out that night and gave so generously of their time, talent, and treasure. Thank you.
I also realized I neglected to share some other news: one of my fellows aspirants from TLS’s fall term, Sarah Golden, who was featured in an article published in the St. Louis Review, will be entering Bethlehem Monastery on March 9, 2013! Thanks be to God for her discernment of vocation and for TLS, benefactors and friends, for their generous support of vocations.
After a busy week of work and activities for TLS, tomorrow is Candlemas! The feast is now more commonly called the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord. It is the day we remember Joseph and Mary presenting Jesus at the temple, the day Mary submitted in obedience to the Jewish laws of purification, and the day she received Simeon’s prophesy about her son and her own future.
This feast falls forty days after Christmas and, with recollection of Simeon’s prophesy, now we begin to turn our gaze toward Easter. Candles are blessed and traditionally there are processions included in the liturgy. Tomorrow, my parish will celebrate the day’s Mass according to the Dominican Rite and I am pleased to have the privilege to sing in the schola. For more information about this feast, including recipe ideas and activities to do with the family, check out Catholic Culture’s day overview. If you are interested in the liturgical aspects of the feast according to the Dominican Rite, Fr. Augustine Thompson, OP has a post here.
In just a couple weeks, we will enter the season of Lent and then we will be one quarter of the way through the 2013 Spring fundraising term. Please continue to keep me and my fellow TLS aspirants in prayer. Most of our pictures are up on the class website, as well as some very basic information. Stay tuned – we will have our video stories up soon!
Truth in Love 
Congrats! That is wonderful news for you Tara! I hope you continue to get more donations to meet your laudable goal!
Tara, I’ve contributed to the 2013 TLS class, and I hope you all meet the goal soon! Through your bio (which I read on TLS site) I discovered the existence of the Corpus Christi Monastery in Menlo Park. I’m so excited to visit it later this month when I’m in Palo Alto – just a couple of miles away!
Thank you! God bless you for your generosity in supporting vocations! Please remember us in your prayers – I will remember you in mine also! Are you discerning?
Not discerning the way you are! I’m a 56 year old married woman, discerning a possible call to be a 3rd order Carmelite. Right now I’m spending a good bit of time in Palo Alto and want to see Corpus Christi.
Wonderful! One of the first saints I “met” when I converted was St. Teresa of Avila – I love her.
I think the sister’s schedule may be available online (perhaps at their website or blog), but in any case, if you are able, Mass is generally at 8 a.m. or you may join for Vespers at 5:00 p.m. There are exceptions to this schedule, but they don’t happen too often. There is another parish almost directly across the street, Church of the Nativity, which has some historical importance to the area and is beautiful, if you get the chance to stop by.
Thanks for the info! Looking forward to checking it out.