To celebrate the jubilees of their Sisters, the Daughters of Jesus met on Wednesday the 12th of June 2024 in the Motherhouse, Kermaria (France) for a Eucharist and a convivial meal.
To follow Jesus for 25, 60, 70, 75 or 80 years is an event in religious life! Our jubilee Sisters celebrated with prayer and joy.
The Eucharist
From 10.15 am, the bells rang out. Associates, Sisters and friends flocked in to join the jubilarians in celebrating this event. Father Benoit, Abbot of Timadeuc Abbey presided over the Eucharist, giving thanks for the Lord’s faithfulness day after day. “If, as he said, we take a look in the rear-view mirror of our life, despite all the trials that may have marked it, there remains the memory of a life that has known intense moments that we can savour, when God’s love for us seemed so close, so obvious, so natural.”

The Eucharist was also a time of confidence in the future. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we were invited to ask the Lord to “stay with us, for evening is drawing near and the day is already fading“.

The liturgy had been prepared by the group celebrating 60 years of religious life who had spent a week together on retreat at Timadeuc at the end of May (link to Timadeuc Abbey). There, Father Luc had invited them to reread their lives, to see in them both the “painful” and the “joyful” mysteries.
To helps us to continue our journey, and to bear witness, he suggested the “A B C D E method” :
A: Attention à l’autre – attention to others
B : Bienveillance – Kindness
C: Courtoisie – Courtesy
D: Douceur – Gentleness
E: Ecoute – Listening
At the end of this beautiful celebration, the novices, present for the feast, launched into a resounding Magnificat.

A time of conviviality
The festivities continued in the courtyard with an aperitif offered to all the participants and the staff who work every day on the St Joseph’s site. It was a great moment to meet and exchange.

The jubilarians then gathered in the Sacred Heart hall for a festive meal shared with the celebrants and the Sisters from the General and Provincial Councils. Each group set about enlivening this time with songs, stories and dances.
It was wonderful day! Thank you to everyone who helped to make this celebration a success.
A group of fj jubilarians, France
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