Why I love these nuns…

Preparing to update a 50 year old kitchen

You want to know why I just love the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey?

Aside from the fact that they are prayer warriors who spend all their time in worship and praise, bringing our petitions to the Almighty, and that they make these soaps and lotions I adore, (and the best lip balm ever) they also have a sense of humor.

Elder Son’s Sweet Girlfriend is going to be heading out to grad school, soon, and I wanted to include a small bottle of the Dominican nun’s excellent Oatmeal hand creme and some of their soaps into her packing. Today arrives a box filled with the assorted soaps and cremes, and a vocations video they knew I’d like, a nice newsletter and this little note:

Thank you for your order of our Seignadou Soaps Oatmeal Silk & Shea Butter soap. Because our soaps are hand-crafted in small batches here in the monastery, from time to time we may unintentionally alter our recipes. The Oatmeal soap you are receiving was made with a base of creamy Goat’s Milk, which will moisturize and nourish the skin. We hope you will enjoy it.

“We may unintentionally alter our recipes…” I love that. The sisters are vowed to poverty and I’d hate to know they had to throw out a batch because it had a goat’s milk base rather than a silk base – and besides, I like all of their soaps, so I’m sure this will be great, too. But how cute is that?

It’s not all fun and games, though. Per my request, the sisters also added a few of their vocations pamphlets to my shipment, and their day looks like this:

5:20 AM Rise
5:55 AM Lauds (Morning Prayer)
Interval for Prayer, Lectio, Study
7:15 AM Holy Mass
Thanksgiving/Terce (the first of the “little hours”)
9:00 AM Work
11:30 AM Rosary & Sext (second “little hour” meant to reflect the sixth hour)
12:00 PM Dinner (in silence with reader or audio tape)
1:00 PM Optional Recreation
1:30 PM Profound Silence w/ prayer and work
3:00 PM Office of Readings (aka Vigils, longest office of the day) & None (the ninth hour)
Interval for Prayer, Lectio, Study
4:00 PM Work
5:30 PM Vespers
6:00 PM Supper & cleanup
7:00 PM Study
7:45 PM Recreation
8:40 PM Compline
10:00 PM Profound Silence

I’m glad we have monastics around. We need these powerhouses of prayer to keep us going. And they make great soap.