Lives devoted to the Gospel message
Twelve Dominican Sisters honored for a lifetime of devotion to the Church and her people
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With that much devotion in one room, one couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe.
On May 21, 12 Dominican Sisters — having given 50, 60, 70 and 75 years of their lives to serve as the backbone of the Catholic Church – celebrated their jubilees, with a proud Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore there to celebrate Mass and to offer thanks.
"One of St. John’s signature words is the verb menein," Bishop Gilmore said to the sisters and family members who filled the Dominican Chapel of the Plains in Great Bend. "It meant to remain, to abide, to stay with, to dwell in. He normally reaches for this word when he wants to underline the permanence of relationship between Father and Son, and between Son and Christian. That word appears in today’s Gospel, and it invites us to think about remaining, to linger over abiding, as we thank God for the lives of those who have done so."
In the chapel balcony sat Dominican Sisters Joan Forward and Crescentia Peschka, who, along with Sister Marie Klein, were celebrating 75 years of service to the Church and her people.
Celebrating 70 years were Sisters Teresita Huse, Sophia Vesecky, and Petrona Stockemer. Celebrating 60 years were Sisters Marietta Urban, Frances Biernacki, Edith Marie Hauser, Patricia Martinez, and Marie Antoinette Klein. And celebrating her 50
th anniversary serving as a Dominican Sister was Sister Louella Staab.The Gospel message was particularly appropriate for those gathered: "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. This I command you: love one another."
In his homily, Bishop Gilmore spoke of the "intimate indwelling" of the Father and the Son.
"Because he is Son, all that pertains to Jesus must be permanent, must remain forever. … Just as the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son, so is the Son to be in the believer and the believer is to be in the Father and the Son. …
"There is simply no doubt that the intimate indwelling of Father and Son is the pattern that remains," he said. "What is more, it is the pattern that is always being transferred through the Son to the Christian.
"This intimate indwelling, this continuing and secret exchange, this ceaseless mingling of life and breath, is not a static thing. It can never be a static thing. It is a moving, dynamic, relationship, and one that is always turned toward us. It is the essential constitutive principle of all Christian life, from the baptized baby who cannot yet talk, to the mature mystic so absorbed in this reality that he can no longer talk. Sanctity is so often silence.
"I am the vine, you are the branches: John’s reflection in this section of the Gospel started with this image. Remain in me as I do in you, he said. Permanence and Pattern. A continuous exchange we know not how to express. Sanctity and Silence. Thank you, Jubilarians, for remaining in this profound truth by the supremely simple act of living it."
Assisting in the celebration of the Mass were Fathers Ted Skalsky, David Kraus, Charles Mazouch, Francis Jordan, Gerald Hammeke, and Father William Miller, C.PPS., of the Diocese of Des Moines.
Musicians included Sister Cecilia Stremel, Rebecca Otter, Gina Sanders, Sister Rene Weeks, Joan Ice, Sister Eloise Hertel, Robbie Grizzle, and Sister Amy McFrederick.