RIP Sr. Nuala Harty
Sr. Nuala was called home to God on May 10th, 2017. A native of Ladysbridge, Co. Cork, she gave many years of missionary service as a teacher and psychotherapist, while also having a great passion for the environment. Below are some thoughts shared by Sr. Kathleen McGarvey, OLA Provincial Leader, at Sr. Nuala's funeral. May she rest in peace.
Sr. Nuala Harty, RIP.
Good afternoon and welcome. We are gathered to bid farewell to Nuala and thank God for her life well lived in the service of God and others. As we send Nuala on her final journey today, I know that we all feel engulfed in a very particular cloud of sadness; we did not expect to be here. Nuala was one of our pillars of strength; although she was 81 years of age, and had lived what can only be described as a very full and fruitful life, she still seemed to have so much to give. OLAs, both in this Ardfoyle community and in this Irish Province and indeed even in the OLA Congregation as a whole, counted on her wisdom, her knowledge, her music, her smile, her presence, her very person. The choir, her amazing voice, her computer skills, her brochures, her garden, her blackberries, her jam, her artistic touch. As one Sister said to me this morning, Nuala was a giant in our Province; her fingerprints are everywhere. Nuala’s sudden parting, after such a brief illness, has left us somewhat stunned. But God’s ways are not our ways and we trust that God knows best.
I would like to say a very particular word of welcome today to the Harty family: Nuala’s sisters: Bridie, and Clare, her brothers John and Michael, brother-in-law Richard, sisters-in-law Anne and Natacha, nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends. Welcome to all the Religious and priests who have come to pray with us. Fáilte in particular to the Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God of which Nuala’s sister, Sr Victoria as well as her deceased sister, Sr Mary Anton, are members. Fáilte too to Fr Nicholas Motherway of the Kiltegan Missionaries and to our brothers the SMA fathers here on the altar. Welcome to Nuala’s friends in the Eco group and to all the OLA Sisters gathered from near and far. I know we are also joined in thought and prayer by Nuala’s sister Josephine in Australia, her sister Sr Victoria in Dublin, her sister Essie in Leicester, and her Godson Thomas Kiely, as well as some other family members and friends who cannot be here with us today.
Nuala was a very extraordinary lady, highly intelligent, deeply profound, totally committed, of very high standards, a stickler for detail, efficient, hands on, working away quietly up until the end. She worked in Nigeria, USA, Ireland, England and Rome, as a teacher, a counsellor, psychotherapist, formator and leader. I am told that throughout her religious life she was her own woman and yet was always very committed to the OLA mission and very much of service to the OLA congregation. I have received text messages, calls and emails of condolence from OLA Sisters as well as from other Religious from so many corners of the globe. Nuala has certainly left her mark and it is a very positive life-giving one. One of her last gifts to the OLA congregation was the set of reflection sheets on Laudato Si, encouraging all of us to enter more fully into the mystery of God which surpasses all knowledge and to care more lovingly and respectfully for our Common Home. May she now intercede for us and enlighten us from above.
Nuala left this world very peacefully; she was happy that she had done all she had been sent to do, was so grateful for all she had lived, and was very much at peace as she prepared for her death. Just a few hours before she passed away, myself and Mary T. Barron visited her in the hospice and were greeted with a most radiant smile. In her last days in the hospital bed, she prepared today’s funeral mass, selecting every reading, every song, every poem that was to be used, including the passage from Laudato Si printed on the back cover of the booklet. As we thank God for her life and celebrate this Mass today, I invite us to listen attentively, hear Nuala’s voice, enter into her faith, share her hope, and pray with her the farewell that she herself has chosen.
I hand you over now to Fr Tim to lead us in our prayer. Go raibh mile maith agaibh.
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