Golden Jubilee of Sr John Baptist Fitzgerald’s monastic profession

On Saturday 6th August we had another joyful Jubilee celebration, the third of this year 2011, as Sr John Baptist Fitzgerald ocso marked fifty years of fidelity to Cistercian life as a monastic nun, gathering with the community, together with her family and friends for a special Jubilee liturgy and meal afterwards. Sr John B as she is affectionately known to us here is one of three sisters of the Fitzgerald family who are professed members of the community at Glencairn. Together with Sr Francis and Sr Elizabeth, there was a happy reunion with all the family on this special day.

The words of St Peter in the Gospel on the Transfiguration, the feast of this day on which Sr John Baptist made her solemn profession in 1961, are particularly fitting on such an anniversary of self-dedication to the Lord in the monastic life; “Lord, it is good to be here”. We pray in thanksgiving for Sr John Baptist on this day and that she will remain ever close to the Lord in her monastic life in Glencairn, now and always.