Sr. Benedicta 90th birthday celebration

Sr. Mary Benedicta, Guest of Honor

About 30 McCorry relatives gathered in Milwaukee May 25 for a mass and family reunion in honor of the 90th birthday for Eleanor McCorry, the first of the six McCorry children born in the U.S. Eleanor, whose religious name is Sr. Mary Benedicta, turned 90 on May 21.

Also in attendance were two of her three remaining siblings, Therese Jonas and Rita McCorry, Sr. Mary Acquinice. Betty Schield was not able to attend. Brother Dan McCorry and sister Mary Mullins (my mom) passed away in 1993 and 1995, respectively.Sarah, Michael and Peter Jonas
were among the attendees

The ceremony was held at Robert's, a bar/restaurant on Milwaukee's south side where my brother Joe works. It began with a mass, followed by a luncheon, lots of photos and lots of time to catch up with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandchildren not seen in years. Pat Werth flew in from California and her sister Wendy Smail from Colorado. Bill, Tricia and I flew in from California.
Joe gave a toast to the guest of honor, which is included here:

Joe Mullins

[In 1986] we celebrated Sr. Benedicta’s Jubilee at St Catherine’s in Milwaukee. The theme that day was “Faith and Family”. Today we gather to celebrate your 90^th Birthday as Family, and also as the Family of God. I took a little time to look up some definitions and quotes of “Faith” and “Family”.

Faith is a belief, a conviction, a sureness. Faith is hope. Faith is an instinct, for it precedes all outward instruction. Faith is our response to the beckonings of the eternal. Faith is the soul riding at anchor. Faith is God felt by the heart, not by reason.

Family is a clan, a tribe, relations. Family is siblings, children, a brood (and being Irish- Catholic, we all know what that is about). Family is one of nature’s masterpieces. Family is the miniature commonwealth upon which the greater commonwealth depends.

Family is the we of me.

Pope John XXIII once said, “Family is the first and essential cell of human society.”

The 23^rd grandchild of our family, my brother John wrote at age 8, “A Family is a community that is loyal to each other. When a person has a birthday, everyone is happy. If someone goes to war, everyone sends him a letter, and when someone goes out, everyone says goodbye.”

It is your Faith, and as a member of our family, you have helped sustain our Faith all these years. You are our Rock, our shining beacon in the darkness. You have traveled to many places, but your Spirit has and always will remain with us.

Happy Birthday

Group photo

I've included some photos of the event but more can be found at The Kodak EasyShare Web site. The URL is a little long to post here so e-mail me at mullico@gmail.com if you want to see it.