Double Jubilee
Sister Teresita of the Holy Face and her Parents John and Ruth Flynn – Double Jubilee on June of 2011
Two years before my golden jubilee my father started talking about a double jubilee. My parents, John and Ruth Flynn, were married in 1941 and I took the Carmelite religious habit in 1961. It had not occurred to me that my 50th and their 70th would be the same year! When my Dad started talking about all this he was already 90 and had had a major heart attack and triple bypass. My Mom and I agreed with him that it was a great idea but we each thought to ourselves: God willing, we would all still be alive in two years! With parents 94 and 95 anything can happen at any time! Then about 9 months before the jubilee date Dad had a stroke! He insisted that we keep moving forward with jubilee plans! The “great day” dawned, the food was ready, the reception tables were set up on the front lawn, the flowers all prepared and relatives arrived from Chicago, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon and Canada to celebrate with us.
We are blessed with a wonderful Bishop, Richard Garcia and many priest friends, nine of whom were able to concelebrate the jubilee Mass with the Bishop. The highlight of a jubilee ceremony is the renewal of vows. After the homily, the prioress and I left the cloister to enter the sanctuary in order for me to publicly renew my vows, receive a floral crown, jubilee candle and receive the Bishops blessing. Then my parents stepped forward to renew their vows with the Bishop. I cannot even begin to express my happiness and how proud I was of them! After exchanging vows the Bishop invited my Dad to “kiss the bride”! The Bishop then gave them an apostolic blessing and presented them with an elegantly framed papal blessing from Pope John Paul II, now, Saint John Paul II. They were radiant! It was such a special grace to have both my parents alive and well on my golden jubilee. How many people have the privilege celebrating such a joyous event?
The Second Vatican Council emphasized the universal call of every person to strive for holiness in their vocation, whether it is to marriage, priesthood, religious life or the single state. Our jubilee was a powerful and wonderful witness to this universal call to holiness. We chose this quotation from St. Therese of Liseux for the jubilee invitation because it says it very well: Love includes all vocations; love is all, and reaches out through all time and space, because love is eternal.
Triple Jubilee
MOTHER TERESITA OF THE HOLY FACE
Mother Teresita was born in Minnesota on January 5, 1942. She was eight years older than her two younger brothers. The family went to Mass on Sunday and occasionally said the Rosary together. Since her father was a professor at the Community College in Santa Barbara, CA with summers off, they enjoyed vacations at the family farm in Oregon and family outings: hiking, camping, boating, water skiing, picnicking, square-dancing and horseback riding.
A very significant event happened when she was in the 4th grade. She attended public grade school, and the CCD teacher told the class that the most important thing in life was to do God’s Will. She told them that would bring them fulfillment and happiness. She explained to them that God calls each person for a special purpose in life. She suggested to them that they say three Hail Mary’s every day to Our Lady asking her to help them know God’s will for them. This made a profound impression on her child’s mind, and she faithfully said the three Hail Mary’s every night before she went to bed seeking to know what she should do in life. She added a “P.S.” asking Our Lady to help her find a good husband! Somehow, at nine years of age, she understood that this was very important!
Another significant event happened when she was 15, a junior in high school. The friend she rode to school with wanted to go to daily Mass during Lent. She was not particularly happy about getting up earlier, but she had no choice. Mass was in Latin and she did not really understand it. Her friend, Ann, taught her how to follow the prayers on the English side of the missile. When Mother Teresita got her driver’s license, she began going to daily Mass herself before school. She discovered a deepening relationship with Christ in the Eucharist, which changed her life, very slowly and subtly. She began wondering if maybe she had a vocation to be a Carmelite.
She entered this monastery in 1960. It was before Vatican Council II and felt that she was blessed to live with all the original foundresses of this monastery, except one who died in 1950. She felt privileged to accompany each sister with prayers as they “finished the race and won the crown”.
SISTER ROSE MARY OF THE CHILD JESUS
Sister Rose Mary was born on the beautiful Pacific island of Yap in Micronesia, 1947. Soon after her birth, she was Baptized and given the name Dolores. Her parents were among the few Catholics on the island which was largely pagan at the time and where a complex cast system still existed. Deeply disturbing to little Dolores was the low rank and treatment of women. As she learned of other peoples and customs in the Maryknoll Sister’s mission school, the desire to experience true freedom, equality, and a more just society grew.
She was determined to get a Catholic high school education, something not available on Yap. The kind and generous missionary stationed on Yap, Fr. John Condon, S.J., paid half of her tuition at the Mercedarian Sister’s Mt. Carmel High School on Saipan with the balance of the tuition being paid for in a work-study arrangement. There, in Dolores’ sophomore year, on reading a biography of Saint Therese, the seeds of her Carmelite vocation were sown.
Dolores entered the newly founded Carmelite Monastery on Guam, September 3, 1969. She made Profession of Temporary vows on September 15, 1971, and three years later she made Profession of Final Vows (September 15, 1974). In the last decades of the 20th century, the Carmelite Monastery grew and increased in numbers. However, the new millennium brought a sharp reduction in vocations, till there were just four remaining Sisters. In 2016, the painful decision was made to close the Monastery in Guam and join the Carmelite Monastery in Carmel, California.
SISTER BERNADETTE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Sister Bernadette was born to Chinese parents on the island of Borneo on March 14, 1940. Sister Bernadette’s father managed a rubber plantation in Borneo. Sister Bernadette was one of seven sisters and five brothers. She was third from the youngest. She recalls having the freedom to roam throughout the plantation, observing what was happening in the fields. She explained, “I was a very naughty child. I went to see how rubber juice was made when I was seven years old.”
World War II had a major impact on the island of Borneo. Japanese forces arrived on the island in December 1941. She saw World War II through the eyes of a child. Her memories of the Japanese soldiers are that they liked youngsters and always gave them sweets. In 1951 Sister Bernadette’s father died, after a long illness and left her mother with the four youngest children to care for. Her family was separated. At the young age of eleven, Sister took care of the family home and her two youngest siblings while her mother worked. She “learned to be a businesswoman”, bargaining the price of launderings and any other job to help earn money.
She was twelve when she began first grade at a Catholic School. She did not practice any religion up to this point. She learned about St. Therese and discovered that the Carmelite Monastery of Borneo was close by. She visited regularly and desired to enter. After becoming a Catholic she entered the monastery on December 18, 1957.
In May 1966, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Guam, Sr. Bernadette, along with five other sisters from the Carmel of Borneo, arrived in Guam to make a foundation. In 1968 they moved to the new monastery at Malojloj village and vocations flourished in the last decades of the twentieth century. However, the new millennium brought a sharp reduction in vocations, till there were just four remaining sisters. In 2016, the painful decision was made to close the Monastery in Guam and join the Carmelite Monastery in Carmel, California. Sister felt at home by the ocean but it took time to adjust to the colder California weather!
