More than 400 clergy, family members, parishioners, and well-wishers witnessed a moving Mass as two Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal took their final vows and dedicated their lives to service to Jesus on Saturday, May 13.

Sr. Therese Marie Wong, CFR and Sr. Philomena Luke Folse, CFR took their final vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to become members of the Community of Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal (CFR).

As part of the vows Mass, the two received rings symbolic of their marriage to Jesus and to the Church. Each also was crowned with a symbolic crown of thorns, representing Jesus’s suffering. 

After taking their vows, the two sisters greeted the other members of their community, and finally, turned and embraced each other.

Speaking on the theme of praise, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Mass’s celebrant, said, “Adding to our praise is that we are gathered during this glorious month of May, dedicated to our joyful mother, Mary. We gather in this church, dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel. We gather on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. We come together in praise on the eve of Mother’s Day. We rejoice in the names of our two sisters, both careful to have the name of Mary within their religious name.”

Bishop Thomas Deenihan of Meath, Ireland, concelebrated the Mass with Cardinal Dolan, who invited Bishop Deenihan because of the work that the CFR sisters do in his diocese with the impoverished and young people.

“The Franciscan Sisters have a house in Drogheda, which is a parish in my diocese. Within the last six months, they also opened a house of formation, a house for people to come and see,” Bishop Deenihan told The Good Newsroom in an interview.

“The Sisters are making a huge contribution to the diocese, and one of the Sisters spent some time working in Drogheda which was very highly regarded, so on that basis I was glad to be of support and glad to accept the invitation, I’m delighted to be here,” Bishop Deenihan said. 

The CFR sisters have three convents in New York, and three mission convents in Drogheda, Ireland; Leeds, England;  and Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to their website. They were “established in 1988 as a parallel Community to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal,” their website reads.