How do you celebrate a person\u2019s 100th\u00a0birthday? Well, to manifest our love and thanksgiving for Sister Petronilla Metzger, her 100th\u00a0was celebrated and remembered with special events for three days: on September 27, her actual birthday, with the Presentation Sisters and Associates at Sacred Heart Convent, Fargo; on September 28 with her large, extended family that culminated with the Eucharistic celebration presided by her grandnephew, Fr. Kyle Metzger; and on September 29 with an open house for one and all. Now that is a birthday celebration worthy of a century of life and blessings!<\/p>\n
Asked what her secret was to such a long life, Sister Petronilla\u2019s bottom line response was: \u201cinner freedom; be free.\u201d She has a great capacity for detachment that allows her to be fully mindful in the present moment. She is totally present with whomever she is relating, at whatever ministry she is engaged. She said she is rarely anxious and hardly ever worries.<\/p>\n
She found it difficult to name two or three highlights of her life when asked. She stated: \u201cI cannot just point to a few highlights. I don\u2019t have any highlights. Every person that came to my life is a highlight, because what happens in the encounter is a highlight.\u201d In the same way, she could not pick a favorite ministry over another. Petronilla said, \u201cWhen I was in a ministry, I was committed to that ministry. I can\u2019t say one was a favorite over another. When a ministry was finished, I left it and moved on to the next. I enjoyed each ministry. In each ministry, I learned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo live in the now, to focus on what is\u2026\u201d This characterizes Sister Petronilla who lives each day to the fullest. She is blessed with a long and healthy life, and we are blessed by her presence among us.<\/p>\n
Sister Petronilla withstood the extended three-day birthday celebration with grace, innate poise, and full presence to everyone who came. With her, we give thanks to God for a faithful and well-lived life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How do you celebrate a person\u2019s 100th\u00a0birthday? Well, to manifest our love and thanksgiving for Sister Petronilla Metzger, her 100th\u00a0was celebrated and remembered with special events for three days: on… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3112,"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions\/3112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pbvmconference.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}