Thirty years ago I contacted Leonie because of her reputation for knowing how to teach people to communicate. Over the years since she became a good friend and this afternoon I had the privilege of celebrating her Funeral Mass. I am happy to share here the homily I gave at Leonie’s funeral. Thank you also to Michael Collins, organist at Leonie’s funeral.
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A few years ago I discovered the wonderful way that God uses my imagination in my prayer.
Such openness to imagination when seeking God does not take us away from reality into fantasy but instead brings me into what is most real and inescapably personal and intimate.
A couple of thousand years ago, a young Jewish woman was going about her normal morning routines, perhaps with a mixture of house and garden work, chatting with parents and neighbours, aware of the local drought, the sickness of a neighbour and annoyed by the neighbourhood’s lack of sleep caused by the Romans’ noisy party the night before, when God broke into her routine and entered her life in a new and powerful way.
Over the last month I have had the opportunity to work with many people across Aotearoa and further afield. In every retreat and seminar I have been with committed and faith-filled people who often feel as though they are on the periphery of the Church
It’s easy to make the mistake of seeing life as a treadmill, day after day ups and downs, a movement through time from youth to old age, then death and beyond.
Too often if feels as if we are helplessly captive carried along by the momentum of all that is expected of us and demanded from us, and we risk falling into an existence mode, a daily rhythm of survival, enduring, coping and so the treadmill rolls on.
Over the years, and even in recent months, weeks and days, I’ve prayed many prayers which have not been answered as I had hoped.
You’ve probably had the same experience: praying and wondering if and when or how your prayer will be answered.
Thank you for sharing this. Sr Leonie taught me speech at St Marys in the 70’s, so it has been a joyful trip down memory lane. Leonie’s tuition is used everyday in my work as a Principal in a Mercy high school! Rest in God’s love Sr Leonie.
Thanks John this is to be shared – a positive side of covid restrictions. I know friends who will appreciate this eloquent funeral homily today because they can relate to the threads of Sr Leonie’s life journey.
Thankyou Fr John,homily was
‘Alive and refreshing’
A gentle Creativity came from it
For me. Ihave been in hospital
9days,and missing that part of my life,
I have No choice but to learn
Even More” patience- perseverance
Thankyou for FFF