A day before the Jan. 29 Mass for Religious Jubilarians in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Constance Fitzgerald was in the yard of her convent picking the first calla lilies to bloom this year from a plant that everyone earlier had told her was half dead. Happy to see this new life, she put the calla lilies on a prayer table in the convent.

"I think one day at a time and I am always ready for the new," she remarked, in reflecting on how one celebrates 75 years as a religious. "I've changed with the changes, and I think that's why I am in such good shape."

For 52 years Sister Fitzgerald taught school (mostly high school) and then decided to learn Spanish. So, at age 72, she moved to Central California and began teaching ESL to migrant farmers in a labor camp in Los Hills outside Fresno. For three years she drove 100 miles each way, twice a week, to teach English.

"It was one of the best experiences of my life," she says. "The Mexican people are the most generous, most loving people I have ever known."

Then at age 75, Sister Fitzgerald went to Guaymas. "I went to help run a new facility for homeless old men in Mexico. I had gotten permission to go and the people wanted sisters to help run it." The Franciscans had built the facility but needed someone there to do the day-to-day work.

"I stayed just one year," she says. "I wanted to stay longer but the community wanted me to be a regional superior." So she switched jobs another time, this time to serve her religious community.

Sister Fitzgerald has always had a special love for the poor. She continues today to serve in what should be her retirement years by volunteering at the Justice Office at the CSJ provincial house. In a few weeks she will celebrate her 75th anniversary with her sisters in community and her family.

Her family includes brother William, an 88-year-old Redemptorist priest, and sister Anne Gertrude, a 90-year-old CSJ sister, neither of whom have stopped working either. Father William is serving in Brazil and "He wants to die there," says Sister Constance. "He loves so much working among the poor." Anne Gertrude lives in San Diego and volunteers at Community Christian Service Agency, an ecumenical facility for the homeless.

Of her religious life, Sister Constance says, "I am eternally grateful to God for the wonderful experiences I have enjoyed in these 75 years. I have had a lot of fun in my life, a great life. I didn't want to enter religious life, but God told me to, and I've surely loved it all."

Sister of Holy Faith Mary Cronan Collins celebrates 60 years of religious life this year. As a former elementary school principal, teacher, and religious superior, Sister Cronan came to the United States from Ireland in 1953, and is highly regarded by clergy and the community. "Everybody knows Sister Cronan," says fellow Holy Faith Sister Joanne Tierney. "She's the backbone of the community."

"Retired" from education, Sister Cronan went into religious education at two parishes in Norwalk, and also worked in RCIA, before deciding to volunteer and help Sister Joanne with development for her religious community.

"I am very grateful to God for the undivided availability of time to love God and serve him," said Sister Cronan. "Daily we have opportunities to express this consecration by fidelity to our vows and participation in the work of the Church. A religious vocation is a gift from God, a personal call to live for him alone."

Sisters Constance and Cronan were among 158 other religious celebrating anniversaries as sisters, brothers and priests this year during the Mass for Religious Jubilarians at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Notre Dame Sister Anncarla Costello, Vicar for Religious, said, "A Religious Jubilee is a celebration of life and commitment, of faith and vocation. It is a celebration in which jubilarians once again proclaim publicly who they are and whose they are."

"It is also a celebration in which we, the Church of Los Angeles, give thanks for the love and fidelity of these women and men who have shared their lives with us for 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80 and 85 years as sisters, brothers, companions and friends." Added Cardinal Roger Mahony in his homily: "You've been a great gift to Christ and his Church."

Several religious communities celebrated significant anniversaries of service within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The 50-year group included the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The Society of the Holy Child Jesus marked 75 years, and the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul celebrated 150 years.

Two religious communities of women also celebrate significant anniversaries for their congregations: the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Sacrament, a Korean community, 50 years, and the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, 125 years.