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.
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!