FUNERAL MASS OF SISTER AMELIE LSP
ST JOSEPH’S CHAPEL, EDINBURGH
HOMILY PREACHED BY CARDINAL KEITH PATRICK O’BRIEN
WEDNESDAY 5TH OCTOBER 2011
INTRODUCTION:
It is indeed a privilege welcoming you all to this Funeral Mass for Sister Amelie today following on her rather sudden death on Friday evening 30th September 2011.
It is a joy to welcome here today some members of her blood family especially nieces and nephews who loved her so much – but also celebrating this Mass with the realisation that two of her sisters and a brother are unable to be with us but are united with us in prayer.
We unite in our sorrow – but we unite also in our joy that Sister Amelie has passed so peacefully from this life on to the next with hardly a hesitation on her journey!
SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR TODAY’S MASS:
The scripture readings for today’s Mass have been very carefully and beautifully chosen.
In the first reading from St Paul’s letter to the Romans we are reminded of those very beautiful words: “The life and death of each of us has an influence on others”.
Perhaps the greatest influence which Sister Amelie could have on any one of us is quite simply the example which she showed throughout her life in her gentle acceptance of the will of Almighty God for her.
One might wonder when Sister entered the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Dublin in 1944 just what motivated her. Perhaps it was her love of the sick and the elderly; perhaps it was her desire to help people die and join in that great procession of people witnessing to their love of Almighty God; perhaps it was her simple desire to love and serve God as best she could.
However we know the particular vocation which Sister Amelie fulfilled. During all those years of her active life in the various homes to which she was sent she simply devoted herself to the task assigned to her by her superiors namely to collecting money! For many, in the eyes of the world, that might have been a waste of a vocation to the religious life. However to Sister Amelie that was an acceptance of the will of God for her – and as she accepted God’s will so she was so like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Son of God, the mother of God, and the foster father of Jesus himself, namely she did what the Lord wanted her to do. And in that she has been a tremendous example for those of us who have known her for even part of her almost 91 years of life on this earth.
In the Gospel reading from St Matthew’s Gospel, we are reminded of that beautiful “Sermon on the Mount” when Jesus himself preached that homily concerning the “beatitudes”.
When preparing for this Mass I was thinking of which of those beatitudes applied in a special way to Sister Amelie – but unfortunately I could not come to a conclusion because in some way or another she mirrored them all in her own faithful life.
However an answer was provided to me in the final words of that passage namely those words of Jesus himself to his faithful servant: “Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in Heaven!”
APOSTOLATE OF SISTER AMELIE:
Sister Amelie as so many of you know was born on 22nd December 1920 in Knock, Co Mayo in Ireland – just a relatively short time after the apparitions seen in Knock by members of ordinary country families like her own.
There she was the eldest of five children, having two sisters and two brothers – with two sisters and a brother still alive today and as I have indicated uniting in prayer with us at this Funeral Mass.
She entered the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1944 in Dublin – then about 24 years of age – perhaps even considered as a late vocation at that time. Following on her first profession in Dublin she was moved to Edinburgh and then Carlisle before making her final profession on 15th October 1951 in La Tour Saint Joseph.
Her active ministry as a Little Sister of the Poor was fulfilled in Waterford; then in Liverpool; and then here in Scotland in Greenock for almost 30 years until the year 2000. Then in that jubilee year she moved to Edinburgh where she lived in a rather active retirement for some eleven years until she died peacefully on 30th September 2011.
EXAMPLE OF HER LIFE:
I have mentioned the particular apostolate followed by Sister Amelie during all of those years in various homes where she devoted herself to the collecting. But she certainly gave us also an example of faithful and dedicated service to the sick and the elderly to whom she was called upon to visit. On her various quests she was well known in the various towns and was always remembered for her kindness and for the way in which she ensured the benefactors of her prayers for their many intentions.
However as well as that active apostolate in the pursuit of collecting Sister Amelie was known in the Convent by the residents with her wonderful smile and the way in which she served the meals. As she became less able toward the end of her life she spent most of her time in the Chapel with her Rosary in hand praying for all the various intentions asked for by the residents, Sisters and staff.
Sister Amelie had a great interest in Pope Benedict XVI and in particular when he was travelling – one of the highlights of her life being the Pope’s visit to Scotland when she followed his visit very closely on television.
She retained an active interest in the news of her beloved Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor and of the various homes in the province particularly those where she had lived. She was overjoyed when the rebuilding of the home in Waterford was completed. Before her health deteriorated Sister Amelie of course loved to visit her close family in Knock and rededicating her life and her service to Our Lady of Knock at the Knock Shrine.
CONCLUSION:
One might think that the life of Sister Amelie was a busy and active one – and so indeed it was.
But Sister Amelie was blessed by the fact that she had those eleven years or so of retirement here in Edinburgh from the year of the great jubilee in the year 2000. She was of course most noticeable to all who came to St Joseph’s for her presence at the back of the Chapel in her wheelchair where she would be quietly praying her Rosary for the needs and intentions of all who passed her by.
Her death was extremely very beautiful on the Friday evening of 30th September 2011. She indicated during the course of the day that she was not quite well and was resting in bed. She then indicated to the Sisters around her that she thought she was going to die – and Father McQuade our beloved Jesuit resident came to administer to her the Sacrament of the Sick – and some twenty minutes later she had passed from this life onto the next.
Perhaps the peacefulness of her passing from her life in this world to her life in the next was quite simply a reward from the good Lord for the way in which she had fulfilled her vocation.
Her life and her death has indeed been an influence on so very many people particularly those gathered here this morning. Her joy must have been great as she had been one who was always nervous by nature and showing fear at some things which would cause many of us no concern. She did not have to be concerned about a long and difficult illness – rather she just spent those last twenty minutes when she believed she was dying as waiting peacefully before been prayerfully prayed in to the presence of Almighty God in heaven by her Sisters around her.
I did speak earlier of the teaching of Jesus and the beatitudes. Please God we will all be able as we think and pray for Sister Amelie of those words of Jesus to his dedicated followers: “Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in Heaven!”
May Sister Amelie who has served her good Lord so well here on earth now be welcomed by that same Lord Jesus into the company of all those whose journeys she shared and helped to bring into that same presence of Jesus Our Lord in Heaven.