Celebrating 60th Jubilees

Select your favorite color. Now pick your favorite statistic. And with those two thoughts, create your own reflection for the two jubilarians whom we celebrate today.

This is exactly what I did as I began to prepare for this celebration.

Sister Nancy Booth, our creative artist, and Sister Georgine Schweers, our expert statistician, are celebrating 60 years of religious profession as Benedictine women. Ask Sister Georgine what time of day her first profession was and she will probably also tell you the day of the week and the temperature on that July 4, 1959. Sister Nancy most likely remembers the color of the profession booklet which perhaps she even designed or wished she had.

Each of us here at this celebration today has characteristics which identify us more particularly than others. Nancy’s creativity is well documented throughout the monastery as well as in the homes and halls of family, friends and offices. Sister Georgine’s proficiency with numbers goes well beyond baseball and other statistics. Countless students have learned math at her chalkboards, and business offices and senior citizen centers have benefited from her precision.

Sixty years of living the 73 chapters of the Rule of St. Benedict have given our jubilarians numerous opportunities for both precision and creativity.

Simply watching these two women in action gives us hints of the dedication of each of them to the Benedictine way of life. Faithfulness to prayer, ministry and community are the three most important tributes that could be given to any Benedictine woman (or man!) Nancy and Georgine both deserve the highest tribute in these areas.

Seeking God which is to be a characteristic of every Benedictine certainly can be applied to our celebrating jubilarians. In numerous ways both of these women have their primary focus on God.

To follow the Rule of Benedict calls for attention from the very first word of the Rule, LISTEN. How often our jubilarians listened to the challenge to grow as they moved from assignment to assignment in the traditional ways of the 1950’s and 60’s to branching out to other areas of ministry…child care, senior care, parish work, reaching out to work with other religious communities and meeting new and interesting individuals beyond the walls and confines of the monastery.

Both of these women have a unique and beautiful talent for social interaction. Always interested in guests and newcomers, they are also models of the welcoming hospitality to which the Rule calls us when Benedict reminds us to “Welcome all guests as Christ.”

Imagine if you will the day of their entrance into the community. Teenagers, with little life experience, they took their first steps into the arena of Benedictine living, probably with little more than lofty ideals. The years formed and shaped those ideals with both challenging and exciting possibilities as well as the day-to-day living which is essential to any life well lived. And fidelity to the Benedictine way of life is the most challenging call of all. Attention to detail, following a common schedule, rubbing shoulders with community members and others day in and day out certainly do require creativity and precision. Georgine and Nancy accomplish this unique challenge of community living well.

The lives that both of these women have touched over 60 years are gifts that they cherish as well as memories that they hold. The hundredfold of gospel living which was promised to those who follow Christ are theirs. Today, we as a community congratulate them and celebrate their fidelity, their creativity and their precision…as well as many other gifts with which they have been blessed.

Blessings to you both, Nancy and Georgine!

Sister Karen Brink, OSB

July 11, 2019