It happens once a year — the greatest party ever! At the end of every July my nuns get together to celebrate Jubilee, that is, milestone anniversaries of becoming an IHM Sister. Here’s more one what the Jubilee mass is like and a little Jubilee video I took a couple years ago on Jubilee. The video features a chance encounter with a Jubilarian that year, Sister Anita.
I still have a ways to go before I hit the big milestone of 25 years but with the entire IHM Community of sisters, associates, and friends, I celebrate another awesome year of IHM and of being a sister. I continue to give thanks for the most unexpected gift of being a Catholic sister. It wasn’t exactly something I was looking for, and it just so happened that by the grace of God, religious life found me.
This week as we gear up for being with one another in community, prayer, and celebration, I think about the women who with me have been friends, racquetball partners, co-ministers, Habitat for Humanity crew members, mentors, theological explorers, and more. I give thanks for all of my sisters all the way back to our founders, Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin and Father Louis Florent Gillet.
In what ways have you celebrated Jubilee in a religious community or marked special milestone anniversaries in your own life?
Archived Comments
- July 24, 2012 at 10:31 am
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Ah, Nunpalooza, indeed! Since we are spread so far in the Southwest (Texas to California), we always group together annual retreat and Jubilee. We double the number of sisters usually residing in the Central Convent (former provincial house). Our chapel resonates with a fuller sound of praising, praying sisters, and our dining room is stuffed with great company.
This year we had the added joy of witnessing the perpetual vows of two of our sisters. It had been about 10 years since we had this beautiful celebration that we had forgotten the richness of this special liturgy.
We used to say that the annual gathering was a booster shot to get us through the next year of ministry. Assemblies do ground us a little deeper in understanding and redefining our charism, and Jubilees and vows give us cause to celebrate our faithfulness and commitment to living out what our Founders and Foundresses intended when beginning this form of life.
- July 24, 2012 at 3:58 pm
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As soon as I read this, I immediately remembered my sixteenth birthday. I’ll be twenty this Christmas, so it’s been three and a half years since then. It’s been a tradition since I was 12 or so for my Gran to make or buy me a cake. That year I had gone with my Grandmother and brother to my Great Grandma’s for Christmas Eve. It was Christmas Eve, my sixteenth birthday, and the night I’d take my first Communion and be confirmed Catholic. I went to my Great Gran’s for dinner and family time before we went to Mass, and my Grandma had surprised me with a cake. It had everything written on it (happy birthday, first communion, confirmation, and merry christmas), and was decorated with pink flowers. She’d put it in the back of our car to hide it and since it was a really cold Christmas Eve, it kept. When we cut into the cake my Grandma said “Why is this cake so hard? It couldn’t be frozen!!” Then, when she took the first slice out, she realized why: The store had given us a Styrofoam display cake!!”
