If anyone is looking for Christmas presents, I ordered a bunch of stuff from the Cloister Gift Shoppe of the Dominican Nuns in Summit, and am now going to write a raving review

I bought two St. Dominic medals for myself and my sister (hope she doesn't read this... ), a few other small things, the Choir Book for our organist (which is SO COOL, it's sorted by Church season and has a section with hymns for the Saints, which I'm totally going to bull.. er, encourage him into using) and loads of SOAP as small presents for various people, like our parish priest (not that I think he smells!). They've got a special Christmas soap, it's green, red and white and called "Natale", which I think is quite excellent

But the reason to post this in Vocation Station and not Open Mic is that I also got the "Cloister Garden" scented soap for myself. I had to use it as soon as I got it, of course...

...and now all my friends keep sniffing me. Guy friends, too. I do hope I'm not leading anyone into sin. So just that you know, especially discerning ladies: it's highly dangerous. (Unless you've decided upon marriage, in which case it could be useful... if it leads to anything you should tell Sr. Mary Catherine and she could convince Sr. Superior Soapmaker to re-name it St. Anne's Soap.)

Thank you for your kind words! And the best part is that the soaps are NOVITIATE MADE! Yep, we have a lot of fun but it's hard work, too!
Please spread the word because it helps us pay the bills, if you know what I mean!

The Cloister Garden is one of my favorite. We're working on a few new ones. A Honey that contains, milk, honey and olive oil. And a few other things.!

God bless you!
Sr. Mary Catharine

PS Think of it as supporting vocations ! :-)

This Looks wonderful what great gifts!

As soon as I get paid next week I am taking my bank card over here. I love the soap idea and the hymnal looks excellent! I might have to "persuade" my choir director about it too! We use an awful OCP one that just drives me mad! (If I have to sing "Gather Us In" one more time..... )

As soon as I get paid next week I am taking my bank card over here. I love the soap idea and the hymnal looks excellent! I might have to "persuade" my choir director about it too! We use an awful OCP one that just drives me mad! (If I have to sing "Gather Us In" one more time..... )

Just ordered 4 trio sets - I'm intrigued with the "Gents scents" package and am now wondering what the "cloister" scent is?

Frankincense? Myrrh? :-)

I'm dying to get the Mocha Java, Cloister Garden and the Rainbow Sherbet, but as usual I dont have $$ Maybe I should go steal some $$, no I'm kidding! I cant and wont steal.

Cloister is a garden fragrance. It's a combo of light floral, musk and bergamot. Or so they tell me. I have NO sense of smell but they tell me it's lovely.

Gents scents are sandalwoood, ocean rain, bay rum and "savaonarola" which is our name for a scent that is like crackling firewood.

The great part of living in a community is that everything gets "tested" on 20 people! When we try a new scent or do a new combo it goes around and you get, "Oh, that is lovely!" then, "YUK!" then, "O, I love that!" then "What is it?" etc It's so funny!

I hope you enjoy them! We make them with love and silent prayer and have a great time, too! Thank you for supporting us in this way!

Sr. Mary Catharine

*Bows* Thanks to you and the rest of the Sisters for making them.

Dominican humor is great.

You got it? Most people don't!!

SMC

I go to a Dominican school. My church history professor would be impressed I got it!

I admit that is hilarious!



I always told Sister Mary Catharine that she is the patron of laughter. Even if the joke isnt her's. Isnt that right Sister?

Okay... I've been mulling over this joke for a bit now, and i'm thinking that it has to do with the "Crackling firewood"... and St. Thomas Aquinas?

Am i right?

I was just thinking that we should probably explain the joke now that we've been talking about it....

Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican priest from the 15th century. He was an apocalyptic preacher. He was eventually (though some argue wrongfully) condemned as a heretic, excommunicated, and executed. He and two other friars were burned in the public square in Florence. Thus a soap smelling of burning firewood would be particularly appropriate for Savonarola.

I remember reading that on my long retreat, we were assigned to read some saints, Dominican Saints and on Saint Dominic.



I love you nuns...did I ever tell you that?

Oh okay, i feel a little silly. But i learned something new!! I kinda want to go research him now.

I just bought:
--the Cloister Garden trio
--The Natale trio
--and, for my dad, the Oatmeal soaps. He likes that stuff.

Mmmm I love fun bath products--can't wait for them to get here!

I got my soaps today! I went right into the bath to use the Natale soap--it is wonderful! My skin is so soft and the bathroom smells great!!! I might have to put one of extras (I ordered 3) in with the oatmeal ones I got my parents.
This may be the only stuff I ever use--seriously.

lol....i remember learning about him in my class on Michelangelo. very funny

The pun is made doubly effective by the fact that 'savon' means soap in quite a few languages.

I soooooo know exactly what you mean

Think they use this soap in all Dominican convents??? Ha ha.

Two years ago I bought my brother a book called "The End of an Age," an idea which he is always talking about.
He never read it.

Last year I made him a scarf, which he may have worn sometime, but you don't really need that many scarves.

So when I saw the blog entry about soap and Christmas presents, I thought "Ah-ha! He HAS to use SOAP!"

I was very pleased with my cleverness. My mother has pointed out to me that he might not like the scents, but I remain nothing daunted. I will post the results later.

Yup, brothers have to use soap!! What scents did you get?

Just the "Gent's Scents" trio--Savonarola, Bay Rum & Sandalwood. I would have gotten the gift crate w/4 but I'm poor.

I hear you there. I hope the gift is a success!!

Just before I left for the Christmas break (which I'm enduring now ) my sister (hope she doesn't - oh wait, that's not going to work) gave me some rather wonderful Christmas presents at the airport.

Of course in the interests of international air safety I had to open them immediately. I discovered a St. Dominic medal (is she trying to tell me something, do you think?) and two soaps. One rather interestingly coloured, the second, she warned me in a rather non-specific way, was dangerous. To be used with caution, lest I unnecessarily tempt anyone.

Now I am a very obedient older sister and have restricted myself to the funny-coloured one (don't take it personally - I'm sure there's something in my DNA which specifies that something needs to be blue before I have anything approaching a decent opinion of it ). Which, it has to be said, is rather wonderful, even on my face.

The question of when I should use the Dangerous Soap is quite open. The question of what I'm to do with a St. Dominic medal, when the solid evidence of my Benectine oblation has first rights around my neck, is a further quandry. Ah well - I shall momentarily put these dilemmas to one side whilst I concentrate on writing my thesis and reading various works of St. Hildegard. Or I could completely de-lurk and dig up some old Benedictine threads as VS has once again become rather dominated by Dominican, Franciscan/Poor Clare and Carmelite factions

/me knuffelt VA heel erg stevig en hoop dat ze dr snel weer ziet, misschien wel in de Agnes, met mantilla Hartelijk bedankt en een Zalig Kerst!

You give the St. Dominic medal to Venite Adoremus and you use the "dangerous" soap (cloister garden) when you go to adoration! Don't you want to smell beautiful for the Lord?
Is the funny colored soap the SAVONarola?
As someone who doesn't have a sense of smell (and "CEO" of the soap dept) I have NO IDEA what the soap smell like but people like it!
Today we were experimenting with a new soap that has honey, milk and olive oil in it. But we put too much olive oil in and you have to wash your hands WITH SOAP after you handle it! Onto a new experiement!
Like the Colwich blog but would like it even more with photos!

Pax!
SMC

PS I'm all for OSB's. They're almost as nice as OP's! :-)

Hey, what about the OSF's? lol...

Well, what's VA going to do with two?

Nice idea about adoration though - a very nice idea. Never really considered whether Our Lord was fussed about how I smelt (although I assume He'd much rather I was on the nicer side of neutral - i.e. that deodorant was necessary) but I like your logic. Now I'll just have to make sure I'm out of Dangerous Sniffing Distance (I propose that each person's DSD is individual, which should make for..hang on[footnote1]) of anyone else - shouldn't be a problem for Our Lord as I assume His Sniffing Abilities are not hindered by the monstrance's physical limitations.

I've been keeping watch on the Colwich blog too - I'm so happy for Adele. Being there when she entered and knowing that in a short while she'll be clothed is fantastic. Perhaps it would be better with more pictures, but just as at Summit, the professed are more than adept at escaping the camera (although I have a couple of funny sweet ones of Mother Abbess), and I think Adele and Sr. Mary Magdalen are kept pretty busy. However...that's easy for me to say, as I've been there and I can "see" everything as described - which of course others might not be able to. And hey, who doesn't love pictures?

It's a real joy to see that people are getting in contact with Colwich via the blog though. Hurrah for Mother Prioress saying yes to the idea!!

Ok, back on topic. Soaps.

Arrgh, I should really learn how to finish my posts:

No, the funny coloured one is the Natale.

And now that we've established concepts like DSD, we could do some interesting research: given a church of x area, with adorers x_1, x_2, ..., x_n with DSDs d_1, d_2, ..., d_n respectively, find a suitable placement pattern so that each may wash with the Cloister Garden soap before going to adoration without distracting anyone (we'll disregard the problems of getting in and out of the church for the moment). Is there more than one placement pattern? For what value of n is the problem no longer solvable?

Ok. Wayyyy too off-topic now. Soap!

["and I think Adele and Sr. Mary Magdalen are kept pretty busy. "

And you think I'm not! :-) I squeeze in the entries here and there but mostly at night.

I don't see why you couldn't wear a St. Dominic medal. I don't think St. Benedict or St. Dominic would object. You could put it on your rosary if you don't want another on your neck.
We're all one family.
(from a franciscan sister named after a dominican tertiary and a carmelite nun. )

Well, since it's obviously not safe to write about my family here anymore, I'll not mention that I'm currently working on another present for PP, which she'll only receive if she takes me to the Extraordinary Form (it's celebrated in Amsterdam and I'm too chicken to go there all by myself)

All the Natale soaps have been distributed to various females of my family, and they all LOVED them (including some that are rather picky about hygienic products). One of my aunts cut the cake in three pieces, which looked really cute (for those who don't know: the soap looks like the flag of Hungary, and she cut it so that every piece had a cube of red, white and green). She put each of them in a guest bathroom for the Christmas guests to use. And since a good two thirds of my mum's 10 siblings were there, with partners and a selection of the two generations of offspring, at the end of St. Stephen's day some 35 Dutchies were smelling of Natale. I bet Sr. MC hadn't dreamed of that

I think the colwich blog is great, and adele seems like a very nice gal. I am glad she is on her way to the noviciate. The abbey I am flying out to join in 88 days and 14 hours also makes soap to sell. maybe I'l learn how to make some and then i'll see if i can smuggle some to a certain adorable English lass i know in the netherlands

My Natale bar is almost gone--good thing I got three! But if it lasts through the Christmas season (the current one) I'll be on to the Cloister Garden.
My bathroom smells so good after I use these. They are my new favorite things.

I just bought some soap! I can't wait to get it:-)

Yup, that's the only bad thing, they actually run out after a while (especially if one stays in the bathroom ten minutes longer because they smell so nice ). But that also means, of course, that you get to buy new ones and "support vocations" as Sr. Mary Catharine so nicely puts it

you guys have just sold me. I'm thinking of buying some soap with money I just got for Christmas... any suggestions on scents?

I like the rainbow sherbet, and the Cloister Garden has gotten rave reviews...

I would also like to note that Savonarola is a character in The Agony and teh Ecstasy, which I got for Christmas and am currently reading.
When I saw that, I LOL. Immediate thoughts of this thread and soaps came into my head....

That's the spirit

You know, once we've taken over the world so that everybody thinks of soap all the time, the nuns can just start printing Cathechism verses on the wrappers and we'll be done

Oh, and to horribly hijack the wonderful quote of St. Francis:

"Preach always. If necessary, use soap."

And now I'm going to bed since I've obviously had waaaaaay too much New Year's Eve "special kind of bakery product that's totally unknown outside of the Netherlands and therefore has no translation into English other than "oil balls" which you'd have to admit doesn't sound very appealing at all yet they are."

Typically, I'm in a country where we don't eat olieballen. Which says nothing more than "I'm not in the Netherlands."
Aaaaand I'm all peckish now!