Saying “yes” every day to Christ is a calling for all Christians, but for members of religious communities, that yes runs especially deep.
About 125 consecrated religious, mostly sisters, celebrated their anniversaries of religious life at a special Mass for Religious Jubilarians on Sunday, Sept. 20 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
They renewed their vows to follow Christ more closely in religious life during the Mass that honored the 220 priests and sisters in the Philadelphia area from about 20 religious communities marking their 25th, 50th, 60th, 65th, 70th, 75th and even 85th jubilee in 2026.
The religious in attendance shared with Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez, celebrant for the Mass, the words, “My God, I renew my vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, hoping with your assistance to observe them faithfully all of my life. Amen.”
The Archbishop pointed to Sister Rosemarie Puettner of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia, in particular.
“Look at this lady. She’s going to be 104 (on) October 6,” he said, citing her as the longest-serving religious community member in person at the Mass, celebrating her 75th jubilee.
“I was a twinkle in God’s heart and mind when you became a sister,” he added.
It was not hard to find a twinkle in the eyes of many of these sisters, like Franciscan Sister Linda Marie Sariego, a longtime professor at Neumann University who was just elected to the Leadership Council of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, who marked her 50th year in religious life.
“Why I’m still here today is much different, (as) God’s graces and God’s challenges continue to evolve,” Sister Sariego said. “It’s the constant saying yes that brings me to today to be able to celebrate a Golden Jubilee.”
She sat next to fellow Franciscan Sister Elizabeth DeWaele, who still teaches fourth grade at St. Thomas the Apostle School in Glen Mills after 50 years in the same order.
“It’s fun. What I do is fun. I love being a sister. I love teaching. I love being with sisters and living in the convent,” she said.
Sister DeWaele admits that sometimes, the continual acceptance of God’s will means receiving some unexpected curveballs that have come her way.
“When I first went out, they sent me to Trenton. I went out to my mom and said, ‘Mom, they’re sending me to Trenton!” Sister DeWaele said. “She said, ‘You go where God sends you.’ And that’s kind of what the whole 50 years is. You go where God sends you.”
Their compatriot, Franciscan Sister Maggie Gannon, has shared in that mission for 25 years, being sent forth to Chester in helping set ACCESS Chester Community Center in motion.
“That’s where I get the closest to Christ is in the people of Chester. That really has brought me my greatest joy next to my own community,” she said.
She and the dozens of other sisters in person at the Cathedral Basilica honored not only their own order, but how religious sisters generally have built a shared community of faith and support through their lives fully committed to God.
“I’m grateful that God blessed me with such wonderful sisters to journey with,” Sister Gannon said. “Not just my own sisters, but the Sisters of St. Joseph and the IHM sisters played a big role in my life.”
The Gospel of St. Matthew from Sunday’s Mass spoke of how God gives grace freely in a way that doesn’t always line up with what we think we have earned.
Sister Gannon believes that the lives of her fellow religious are a wellspring of grace that can’t help but overflow to others in daily service.
“We’ve just had this fountain (of) fullness. It just keeps coming,” she said. “It’s hard for us to look and say, ‘Why did he get it or why did she get it?’ Because I feel like we got it all.”
Archbishop Pérez’s homily also touched on how the “yes” these religious take may change with ministry over the years, but the “yes” to God never changes.
“You’ve had all sorts of missions, assignments and works, and you know now as I know too, those moments, those missions, those assignments, whatever we end up calling them, they come and they go,” he said.
“What you persevered through all your time in religious life is actually the witness of your life, not actually what you did, because that came and went, but the witness that you gave to the world.”
The Archbishop said that how the religious have lived their lives, their work and their evangelical counsels of chastity, obedience and poverty all follow the heavenly path all Catholics are called to take.
“That was ultimately the gift that you give to the world,” he said, “not just what you did and the jobs that you held and the people you worked with, but by your very life under the charism of your founder or founders, you pointed us prophetically to another world, to the world that’s yet to come.”
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