Traveling more than 10,000 miles to take part in this weekend’s Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations, and New Communities, Sister Therese Mills, MGL, spoke to CNA of her great joy as she joined tens of thousands of other pilgrims in Rome.
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A leader of the Missionaries of God’s Love Sisters, a charismatic Catholic group founded in Australia in 1987, Mills said her pilgrimage to Rome during the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope has been a time of refreshment and renewal.
She described the “amazing” experience of walking through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the first day of the special jubilee dedicated to new Catholic movements and associations.
Mills recalled “just opening my hands and just praying that the Lord would refresh and renew my heart and refresh and renew my faith.”
“The thing that blew me away — and what I loved the most — was we were all on this journey together but everyone was speaking and praying in different languages,” she shared with CNA on Pentecost Sunday.
Mills called her visit to the Blessed Sacrament chapel inside the papal basilica a “God moment” that she will not forget.
“I just sat before Jesus and bawled my eyes out to be honest,” she said with a laugh. “I was very overwhelmed with his love … the gift of being with him in this place, and with the universal Church.”
The approximately 70,000 pilgrims participating in the weekend jubilee had the opportunity to explore different churches in Rome and attend music and entertainment events organized by various ecclesial groups.
A few of the hundreds of new Catholic associations taking part in the June jubilee included the Neocatechumenal Way, Catholic Action, Communion and Liberation, the Catholic Shalom Community, the Community of Sant’Egidio, the Focolare Movement, and CHARIS International.
During his homily at the Vigil Mass, Pope Leo described the new and diverse Church communities gathered around him as “the fruits of the Second Vatican Council” who are “grounded in the one Lord Jesus Christ” entrusted with “a single mission.”
Mills attended both Pope Leo’s Pentecost Masses — the Vigil on Saturday night and one on Sunday morning.
“I really love being part of a universal Church, being united as one, and coming together to pray for the Spirit,” Mills said.
In the days leading up to the official jubilee festivities, Mills undertook a pilgrimage to holy sites in Rome linked to patron saints of her Australian-based community, including St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and St. Catherine of Siena.
The first Missionaries of God’s Love Sisters household was formed in the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn in 1988. Since then, the religious sisters have lived and ministered in the Australian cities of Adelaide, Darwin, Melbourne, and Sydney, and led outreach missions around the country and in other Asia-Pacific nations, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
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This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.
