Today’s event signals the beginning of the celebration for the centennial of our Province, Jesus, Lover of Humanity. Our year long celebration will highlight the blessings we have received from God and our contribution to our Order and to the Ukrainian Catholic Church in America.

We are grateful to our foundresses - those brave women – Mother Helena Langewych, Sisters Paphnutia, Euphemia and Jeremiah who surrendered themselves to the call of God and left their homeland to brave the broad expanse of the ocean; who opened themselves to the vastness of a new language and immersed themselves into a strange culture. They settled in Philadelphia 100 years ago on Franklin Street to care for the Ukrainian orphans and to minister to the Ukrainian immigrants. Something stirred deep within each of them and as a result of their response we are better for it. Their prayerful presence was initially on Franklin Street in the various ministries in which they engaged – an orphanage, a day school, a printing house, the sewing of vestments and the weaving of carpets. With the expansion of these ministries, membership grew as well from three to fifty to over one hundred.

With vision and foresight they built a physical presence not only there but also in Chesapeake City, MD, Fox Chase, on Lindley Avenue and throughout the United States. They taught at camps and parish schools. They worked in chanceries. They opened St. Basil Academy and Manor College. A multitude of souls were touched by the teaching, preaching, healing presence of the Sisters. They shaped us into a holistic presence that exists to this very day. Following in their footsteps, we minister through our Holy Trinity Chapel and Basilian Spirituality Center. They were essential in creating and promoting our rich Ukrainian heritage, our Basilian spirituality and our Byzantine tradition. Today and this year we celebrate and recognize each one of them for their self-giving.

We thank them for teaching us to be open to the will of God… a patience that grows into a hope of that which will be…a strong sense of the spirituality of work and to recognize the sanctity of all creation. They taught us to cultivate the artistic spirit of our rich traditions and to live in Basilian humility, community and love. Above all they discovered and passed on to us a wisdom that tells us God is not in the whirlwind, not in blustering and show, but in the breeze. God is in the very atmosphere around us and in the little things that shape our lives. They were simple, ordinary women but out of the ordinary they became and did the extraordinary. We are called to do no less.

How exhilarating and energizing to recall the contribution of hundreds of sisters who have touched thousands of lives. Yours included. All of you and all whose lives we have touched and been touched by are part of this celebration. I welcome each and every one of you who have come today to be with us and to begin this year long celebration. You are here because you are important to us and to our history.

Our objective tonight is twofold…first and foremost to declare our centennial year open and secondly, to share this moment with you our special invited friends of the Province and our sponsored institutions St. Basil Academy, Basilian Spirituality Center and Manor College.

Together let us get out the good news…that the Sisters of St. Basil the Great have declared a year of Jubilee – a year of celebration for the gift of 100 years.