By Katie Beckmann Mahon, Communications Manager
On Saturday, October 10th, Sr. Bridget Mary Troy, OP, was among a group of Women Religious recognized at the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Blauvelt’s Jubilee Celebration.
During the Liturgy, Sr. Bridget Mary reflected on what 60 years of Religious Life has meant to her.
“It is said that there is a human attraction to Religious Life that we can ponder but can’t fully explain. In the words of Jesus, ‘you did not choose me, I choose you.’
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus telling the woman in the crowd, ‘How blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.’ We listened to the Word of God and kept it, and because of that, we were declared blessed, and we received gifts in faith, as we like Mary said, ‘be it done unto me according to the Word.’ We accepted the very reason we were created, and we also received a remarkable union of a sistership with God.
We began in 1960, a journey, which took us on the path of different ministries within a tradition handed down to us by Saint Dominic and accumulated in the life of Mother Mary Ann, who taught us that God does not rate us on our merits or degrees, but only on what is in our hearts and how we treated those we met on our journey by works of justice and charity.
Mother Mary Ann knew that the Biblical definition of good works is not merely good deeds. Good works encompass every aspect of our thinking and conduct before God. Good works are how we minister to the needs of other human beings. Good works are an integral part of God’s eternal plan and are simply an expression of our gratitude for all that God has given to us, as well as a realization that in the Body of Christ, it is never just ‘God and me.’ Mother Mary Ann knew that works of charity and the promotion of justice are elements of the Christian way of life, in which we become embedded.
We became aware on our journey that, in the way we treat a stranger, lays the measure of how we treat Christ. The needs of all are the responsibility of all in the Body of Christ. We saw the presence of Christ in the children, women, and men who touched our lives, for they were readily transparent in the indwelling of their creator. Through our ministries, some of the people we came in contact with, the uninteresting, the irritating, the angry, making it hard to see the divine light in their eyes. Still, in our deep faith, which made us Blauvelt Dominicans, we saw in every human face the face of Christ.”
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