By Sor Teresa Maya

Sister Jubilarians, as this beautiful celebration draws to a close, I assure you on behalf of our congregation we all share your gratitude to God’s mercy and presence. Thank you for saying yes over and over and over again, thank you for witnessing that a life filled with purpose is worth living.

As a Congregation we have definitely entered the “Diamond age”-  today most of our sisters have been or are about to celebrate their Diamond Jubilees.  How will we offer the gift of wisdom and freedom this represents?

I don’t see many of you “wearing purple and a red hat”!  Remember, how much we shared Jenny Joseph’s poem “Warning” – all those years ago…

When I am an old woman  //  I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn’t go,  //  and doesn’t suit me.

We weren’t quite yet diamonds, yet we were captivated by the freedom in the poem.  Now is the time for purple and red hats!

Could it be, that we needed to get to Diamond to have the freedom to speak truth to power, to advocate for the migrants and women and young people in ways we could not when were just silver or barely gold?  Could it be, that now that we have nothing to lose, we have to invest our energy and wisdom and influence to proclaim that God does not want a world filled with violence, disrespectful of our planet and all its creatures- or where women’s dignity remains at risk?

Diamond means something.  I challenge all of us to go forward today and find what is ONLY OURS to do, precisely because there is so much diamond in our midst.   Who knows we could be a CCVI branch of “The Red hat Society”!

Praised be the Incarnate Word.

We invite you to see some pictures of the Jubilarians San Antonio event which took place at the Chapel of the Incarnate Word on May 28, 2022.