Sisters Farewell Mass
May 2010
It is said that there are three things God doesn’t know.
One of those things is the number of orders of nuns in the Catholic Church.
You think of any area of life where people are in any sort of need and you will find orders of nuns dedicated to alleviating that need.
They work quietly and tirelessly to bring health, education, comfort, support, reconciliation, justice and peace in every country in the world.
There is no group of people who have done so much for humanity over the past two thousand years than the nuns.
Nuns in our Church, and to a lesser extent Brothers, have been regarded and are still regarded as ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ although they do more good in one generation that all the cardinals and bishops but together in the last two thousand years.
And they have done all this without fanfare and mostly without recognition not only from secular governments but also from within the Church.
We have all heard of Florence Nightingale but we hear nothing of the many nuns who were her co-workers and supporters during the Crimea war.
We hear governments, U.N. organisations and NGOs trumpeting their successes in alleviating third world poverty, in helping aids victims, in caring for abandoned street children, in famine relief, education and health care etc. but you rarely hear that, for example, the Catholic Church is doing more for aids victims worldwide than all Governments, NGOs and the U.N. combined, and most of this is done by the nuns.
And as nuns tend to do - all at a fraction of the cost of other organisations.
All we hear about nuns is criticism, sarcasm, and denigration for mistakes made, and in certain instances this is deserved, but we rarely hear of the fantastic work they have done and continue to do worldwide.
This is not surprising because in the words of the Master, and I quote: ‘Remember the word that I said to you. Servants are not greater than their master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.’
So today, it is with great joy and gratitude that we recognise the great work done in Corsham by the Presentation Nuns. It is great to see so many of them here today - no longer young and sprightly but bearing the honourable signs of years spent in dedicated service.