Sister Mary Louise
of the Passion (Marck), O.C.D.

In looking back at all your years in Carmel, what comes to mind as you prepare for your jubilee, especially in this Jubilee Year of Hope?
What we celebrate in a jubilee is God’s merciful faithfulness. Because without it, we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate! I can’t make it a single day in religious life without His grace, let alone two and a half decades. But my 25 years is so small in comparison with the 2025 years the Church is celebrating. What difficult times we have been through! How many challenges we have overcome! All by the grace of God! Looking at what God has done in my life and the life of the Church, I am filled with gratitude and hope. Tomorrow stands before us not only as a promise of the renewal of His mercy, but also as one step closer to the fulfillment of all our hopes, life on high with Jesus Christ!

What words or phrases come to mind as you think of your Jubilee?
As I celebrate my silver jubilee in the larger context of the Church’s jubilee, Hebrews 13:8 comes to mind: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” These words were the theme for the Jubilee Year 2000, the year I entered Carmel. And with a few decades of religious life under my belt, I appreciate these words so much more! I can look to the past and see what God has done and know that the same God is with me now and will continue to show His love in the future. And while He remains the same, He has gently been transforming me more and more to more closely resemble Him.