Two of the many celebrations where the Spirit was present this week were Junior Ring Day and the Jubilee Celebrations!
(Other times this week were: 9 Confirmations of our Cabrini students, great discussions with my students, visiting Villanova & finding roommates on my day off, and my parents and two of my seven siblings will be visiting tomorrow!)
Last Friday, we had the Junior Ring Day festivities. The day starts out with the Juniors receiving their MCHS rings in a prayer service in the Shrine, followed by a boat trip down the Hudson. The Junior Ring Ceremony is one of the most work-intensive events with behind-the-scenes work of the Liturgies so far. I don't want to get into all of the specifics, but it's a lot of work. During the ceremony, I was so worried about one of my Liturgy students making a mistake, that I made one myself! I skipped through a few parts of the program, so we had to loop back and pickup the skipped parts. In the end, it turns out that not many people noticed the mistake. It was humbling, and a huge thanks goes out to Crystal, Sr. Toni, and Maureen (another teacher at the school) for all their help-- I couldn't have done it without their help, support, and advice in telling me to RELAX! :)
So Crystal and I chaperoned the Junior Boat trip that follows the prayer service. Included in the trip were food and dancing on the floor.. and Miley's "Hoedown Throwdown" was one of tracks that the students danced to. Crystal and I had never seen this dance performed, but after witnessing three of the junior students: Lukia, Jiselle, and Khadijah dance, we decided to also learn it. So we did... in the Campus Ministry Center with the help of our students and this video:
On one hand, it's a cute commentary merging religious life and pop culture informed by the musical styling of Beyonce. On the other hand, not necessarily true. Although religious sisters, brothers, and priests are celibate, they aren't technically "single." I remember earlier this year, we were discussing Christians and Jews, and Sr. Angie piped up, "Well, my husband is a Jew!" :) We just celebrated the Jubilee's of some of the MSC's last Saturday. One member of our community, Sr. James, celebrated 50 years as a sister, along with Sr. Damien, Sr. Maria Loretta, Sr. Candida, and Sr. Aloysia! (One picture from the day is from Mary on the left.) And Sr. Cleta celebrated 80 years of religious life! Not many people can claim to being married that long!
So here's to two beautiful examples of joy this week: Dancing with the Juniors, and Celebrating Religious Lives of the Sisters.
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