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Diocesan Jubilee Celebration: February 7, 2009
Reflection by Sr. Carol Loughney, IHM

Who are we? We are daughters, sisters, friends, people called by God. Women of the Gospel, women of the Church, consecrated women, faithful virgins, women of wisdom.

We are young and old. We are individuals and congregations fired by the love of God to witness to the unconditional love that God has for all people. We are children and grandchildren of immigrants. We are women of energy and passion for righting the wrong and defending the downtrodden.

What do we do? We are administrators, theologians, teachers, mentors, spiritual leaders and directors, pastoral leaders, doctors, nurses, web masters, professors, ministers of prayer, adoptive mothers, foster mothers, and lawyers.

What have we accomplished? As individuals and as congregations we have done mighty things, built up an education system that has educated and trained some of the great minds in this world and those who are the salt of the earth. We can take credit for helping to put an African American man in the White House through the education we have offered throughout the country/world and very especially here in North Carolina and in this City. We have built up medical systems, built buildings, inspired multitudes, defended the helpless and hopeless and have been surrogate mothers for many a child and young person.

How many are we? We are thousands.

How do you recognize us?

• By the works we do.
• By the witness of our lives.
• And hopefully by the simplicity of our lives
• By the challenges we have undertaken for the church and the world.

Now after all of that, who wouldn’t want to be a Sister?

I am grateful each and every day that God called me and that I answered. I came from a good, loving and strong Catholic family who had a Priest and several Religious, but this is not the life my mother wanted for me at young the age of 18. I was the seventh of nine children. She wanted me to stay close to home and finish growing up, but that was not to be. I believe many of us grew up in our religious congregations. My first recollection of ever thinking of this life was when I was six years old. My aunt, Sister Phillipa said,” I wonder who will fill my shoes?” And so I thought, “Well, maybe I will.”

I have been inspired by many sisters who taught me and countless sisters with whom I lived or with whom I am acquainted.

It has not always been easy to stay connected or to remain faithful to this life. There were countless challenges for all of us throughout our religious lives. In the ‘60s so many of our dear friends, both Sisters and Priests, were called out of the religious life and the priesthood to be witnesses in other fields.

There have been challenges in our professional lives and in our personal lives. But God and community have sustained us. The words we said on our profession days, when challenged with the realities of life, were, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.”

We are like you: We have interviewed for jobs, lost jobs, been insulted, fired from jobs and maligned. We have been ridiculed and made to look foolish for our choices. We are graced sinners and have made bad choices like all the baptized, but God has always put someone in our path to encourage us and has given us the Holy Spirit to support us.

I have always held on to the memory of, (I thought, a very old priest celebrating his 50^th anniversary) who said, “I love being a priest.” I remember hoping that when I reached that milestone I could say the same thing. And of course I can. “I love being a Sister.” I believe that each of us celebrating today can say, “Oh Lord, you have touched my heart with your word and I have loved you.”

The Love of God and of God’s people has been the focus of our lives. We have all been called to different work, but it is the same God and Lord Jesus Christ who has called us and sustained us over, 65, 60, 50 and 40 years of being called “Sister.”

We love being Sisters. We are grateful that God called us and we were able to respond with generosity and faithfulness all these years.

We have not come to the end of our journeys, nor has religious life come to an end for as Habbukuk said in chapter 2 verse 3, “The Vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment and will not disappoint.” From the earliest biblical times there has been this phenomenon in the church and in the world.

Our way of life is changing, true, but the Holy Spirit is with us and with our congregations in a very powerful way. As we explore new ways of living the vision, we choose religious life again today, and young people still choose this way of life and always will. One of my sisters-in-law often says, “Old age is not for sissies, not for the faint of heart,” neither is this time in religious life or the church. The wonderful thing is that with God’s help we are equal to the task.

We will not loose heart. Again as Habbukuk says, “If it is late, wait for it. It will surely come…it will not be late.”

We thank each and every one of you who have supported us and worked along side of us as we minister in this diocese and in this church which we love.

We ask you to pray for us that we will be able to continue to be thankful people, dedicated to be reconcilers among God’s people.