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July 27, 2019
Diamond Jubilee of Sr Teresa
On this most special day, I’d like to share with you some words I have received from our Diamond Jubilarian.
“Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore him.”
Sr Teresa: these words from the recessional hymn you chose for your Jubilee Mass today strike me as wonderfully expressive of your spirit. You are a woman of energetic faith and fervent devotion, and your enthusiasm is catching. You just love to sing God’s praises, and your voice in choir has been an unwavering call to the rest of us to rise from our slumber and give him our full voice, as you do, every day. “Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore him.”
“We’re here to serve one another.”
You made this comment at one of our community dialogues, and your life speaks louder than your words. Your energetic self-gift has been clearly manifest on the work front. You just love to work really hard, whether at the barn or at hay or on the munch line at candy. You also have a genius for finding millions of little jobs to do quietly and without fanfare. Whether cleaning up spills, putting away laundry, faithfully arranging flowers before the Sacred Heart every day – and often getting lost there before him – you have always found ways to serve Christ and the community in love. These days you admit to having slowed down, and after sixty years, that’s understandable. But your daily fidelity is still a joy and an inspiration to us. “We’re here to serve one another.”
“Where’s your heart, Teresa?”
This is something you said once when you felt a need to draw your wandering heart back to your first and primary love. You have a soft heart, a kind heart, a heart easily moved to compassion for all creatures and genuinely interested in people. You once told me you felt compelled to confess your failure to save a hapless insect trapped between the window and the shade: “He was just struggling there, and I didn’t help him.” We all know of your devotion to your beloved Golden Retriever, Willie. On more than one occasion you gave me a lift by cupping your hands over my cheeks with a little squeeze and a word of affection. You have had many loves, because your heart is very much alive. But one love is greater, and you have learned to focus your heart on that one love, not shutting out the others, but keeping them in proportion. Your love for many things and many people has become focused and purified over these sixty years to the one love of your life: Jesus Christ. “Where’s your heart, Teresa?”
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25)
I don’t know how long you’ve been signing your notes with this word of Scripture. All I can say is that every time I see it, I receive a share in your well-developed spirit of gratitude. Today, I think it’s time for all of us to say thanks to God through Jesus Christ for you.
Thank you, Sr Tess, for your life of praise and service and devotion.
Thank you for singing with your whole voice, for working with your whole body, for loving with your whole heart for all these years.
Thank you for giving your whole life to Jesus and to this community.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25)