Sister Mary John’s Silver Jubilee of Profession
This October, we had the joy of celebrating Sister Mary John’s 25th anniversary of Religious Profession. We celebrated a Mass commemorating her jubilee on October 23 which was well attended by her many nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, her brother, and even her mother at 98 years young! The novitiate sisters played an arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon with flute, oboe, cello and organ as a prelude before the Mass, which was celebrated by our chaplain, Fr. Gregory Salomone OP. After the Mass, Sister joined her guests for a reception in St. Dominic’s Hall, which had been beautifully decorated for the day. On the occasion of a Sister’s jubilee, she is permitted to leave the enclosure to visit with her guests. Since Sister had so many young relatives coming, we had a kids’ corner set up with games, and even Sister Mary John got in on the fun!
Then, last week, we had our own community celebration for Sister! A jubilee celebration opens at recreation the night before, and the community sings a “greeting song” while the prioress leads in and then crowns the jubilarian. Since Sister Mary John takes care of the coffee and the library, the chorus of her greeting song fittingly began, “We have books and we have coffee, Halleluiah!” It went on to enumerate the many other wonderful qualities of Sister, all to the tune of an Israeli folk song. Accompanied with guitars and tambourines, it was a high-energy start to the celebration! Then, after we each greeted Sister with a hug, Sister Erin played a hymn and a beautiful piece by Bach on the cello for us.
The next day, Sister Mary John special-requested that, as part of the celebration, we watch the movie, The Trouble With Angels. Although this has become a Catholic classic, it was a first for many of the sisters! The final entertainment of the day was a Vietnamese dance, performed by the Novitiate sisters, and choreographed by our own Vietnamese sister - Sister Joseph Maria!
Celebrating a Silver Jubilee is an opportunity for us to step back and give thanks for the gift of Sister Mary John’s vocation to the Church and especially to our community, and to give thanks for each of our own vocations, praying that each of us will be given the grace to remain faithful until death.
