Jubilarian Mass at Holy Angels Convent 2025

Published: July 11, 2025

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily at Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro July 11, 2025.

Bishop Taylor

Today we celebrate the 75-year jubilee of Romana Rohmer and the readings she has chosen are just beautiful. They speak of their betrothal to the Lord and the death to self that is part of any true love. 

First of all we have betrothal, specifically the passage in our First Reading from Hosea which they apply to their experience of the Lord taking them as his spouse: “I will betroth you to me forever: I will betroth you to me with justice and with judgment, with loyalty and with compassion; I will betroth you to me with fidelity and you shall know the LORD.” 

For Sister Romana, this betrothal began in her pious Catholic home even before she entered the convent and then grew during a couple of years in the juniorate—so we’re really talking about maybe 77 years or more. But in any event, her betrothal was formalized with first vows in 1950, and this union with the Lord is still strong. This theme is reinforced in our Responsorial Psalm: “He made us, we belong to him…his faithfulness lasts through every generation.”

And then we have the death to self that 75-plus years of faithfulness requires. In our second reading from Colossians we read, “over all these virtues, put on love, that is the bond of perfection.” But most of all, notice our Gospel story of the grain of wheat which dies and thereby produces much fruit. This image of the seed is a wonderful symbol of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and a powerful challenge, especially to us whom the Lord calls to a religious vocation. 

I am certain that over the course of the last seven and a half decades, Sister Romana has already had to die to self many times — as is the case of all of our sisters. Some of these deaths are adversities that may simply be part of the human condition — illness, loss of loved ones, the limitations of old age — things that we can “offer up” to the Lord with patience and resignation, which is one sort of death to self. 

Others of these deaths are times when we sacrifice our will, sacrifices we make for the benefit of others, sacrifices we make to live faithfully our vows of obedience and conversion of life — doing what we have been asked to do, submitting to the will of your superior even when you see things differently or of the community when there are elections. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Look back over these last 75 years and you will see what Jesus is talking about. 

Sister Romana served the Lord in the field of education: for 57 years (26 in Catholic schools and 31 as a DRE). And now in her “senior years” she provides prayer support for the community.

Today we celebrate one such death, a death that goes by the name of commitment. Every commitment binds a person to a certain way of life, and thereby excludes certain other ways of life. Making a commitment means burning a few bridges! And when Sister Romana made her commitment, there was no going back for her. Thank you, Sister, for your faithfulness and your death to self out of love for the Lord, to whom you were betrothed forever 75years ago.