May 4, 2016
We celebrated a double Jubilee on April 23 for our Sisters Margarita and Pamela. 50 years of religious vows for Marg, and 25 years for Pam! A day of joy and gratitude for all! Msgr. Tom Cahalane and Fr. Greg Adolf, pastors of Our Mother of Sorrows in Tucson and St. Andrew’s Parish in Sierra Vista, respectively, concelebrated the Jubilee Mass. Family members, Sr. Jeanne Bartholomeaux, (Vicar for Religious for our diocese), and a number of our friends joined us for the occasion. Here are a few photos we want to share with you.
Margarita renewed her vows …
… and then Pam renewed hers
Msgr. Tom Cahalane and Fr. Greg at the Consecration
Our Jubilarians with their families: Suzanne, Don, and Diana Fletcher, and Kathy Hennahane
A lovely dinner was held in the refectory with Sisters, family members, and special guests. Margarita enjoying the meal with her sister Kathy.
Pam with her mother, Suzanne, and Fr. Greg–not only a friend of the monastery, but also a family friend for over 40 years.
The community with Fr. Joseph. Standing: Jacqui, Kate, Clare, Joe, Nettie, Vicki, Marg, Rita, Miri, and Fabi. Kneeling: Pam, Esther and Cathy.
In other news, Dom Joseph Boyle, abbot of St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, CO, was here for our Visitation April 11-18. A Visitation is a pastoral visit to see how each Sister and the community as a whole are doing. We Sisters all appreciated Fr. Joe’s kindness, wisdom, and encouraging words.
Sr. Fabiana
We’ve been blessed this past year to have Sister Fabiana with us from our monastery in Nicaragua. She is a kind and generous soul, and was a joy to have in our midst. She was also a big help on the work front: altar bread bakery work, retreat house maintenance, and taking a turn cooking dinner once a week. But the time has come to say goodbye. After a farewell pizza party (she loves pizza!) she left us on April 28 start her journey home. She promises to keep us in her prayers and we will do the same for her and her community.
Nettie moving the monastic journals
A monastic community needs a good library for the ongoing formation of its Sisters. We do love books! After ten years in our “new” library, we’ve run out of room in the history & biography section, so it was time to shift books around. During April our sisters Nettie and Pam were busy in the library, one afternoon a week when they could be spared from other duties. Team Nettie and Pam assembled six new bookcases–the first one took an hour, by the fifth and sixth ones they were up to two per hour. (Maybe we should hire them out for furniture assembly, a new monastic industry?! Actually, we need them at altar breads and elsewhere much of the time.) And now it is time to move books around …