Recently, a very gentle, beautifully conducted ceremony took place at North Sydney.

It was held in honour of the ninety plus year old sisters who had come together to celebrate the platinum (70 years), tourmaline (75 years) or tanzanite (80 years) jubilees of the religious profession they had made so long ago.

While just over one fifth of those of us professed on those memorable days in the 1940s and in 1950 are still with us, all remembered with great fondness the Sisters from their particular profession groups who are now with God—45 from 1940, 35 from 1945, and 26 from 1950. It was a special time of remembering with gratitude and sharing the highlights and the lowlights of the past seventy plus years. We were also conscious of those members of our respective groups who were unable to be present with us. In fact, those of us who were there scarcely drew breath during our time together. It was so good to see each other again!

We are so grateful to Sister Monica Cavanagh and Sisters Catherine, Marion, Louise and Maryellen of the Congregational Leadership Team for arranging our coming together and especially for how they organised our big day. All was done so quietly and graciously—the welcome, the morning tea, the Mass and finally, the delicious lunch and, of course, the cutting of a cake and a photo together.

God has been good! We have so much for which to be thankful as we now look forward to the time when we will all be together again with God in the company of Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods and the amazing sisters who have gone before us.

Marie Foale rsj