Lest We Forget
Sister Mary Rose Gill, CSJP (1919-2011)
On behalf of the CSJPs and our Associates, I welcome you and thank you for coming to help celebrate the life of our Sr. Mary Rose. I want to convey our profound sympathies to the Gill family. Know that your loss is also our loss. I hope that our sadness is tempered with joy--a joy from the realization that she is home with her God.
You may want to know that Sr. Mary Rose selected the readings and music in today's Mass.
She entered our congregation in 1936 from Brooklyn and has been with us for 75 years. Her ministries included: Holy Name Hospital, Loretto Hall, St. Joseph's Catechetical Center in Washington, NJ and South River, NJ, St. Anne's in Fair Lawn, Our Lady of Peace, Fords, Immaculate Conception, Norwood, and St. Joseph's, Medford. She said that her years in religious life made her strong as stone and fragile as a rose.
In April 1971 she came here to St. Michael's where she tells us she helped out as needed and she tried to bring forth a little humor by writing a joke or riddle on a bulletin board in our pantry where the Sisters and employees have early morning coffee. She also noted that she identified herself with the tree that grew in Brooklyn as she still had some "sap" left in her to carry on a semi-retired stewardship and to continue to develop the gifts that the Lord had given her. She further told us that now that she was retired she experienced slow motion at times. She certainly kept us laughing.
In 1987 she changed her name from Sr. Rose de Lima to Sr. Mary Rose. She did this because the name Mary, of Hebrew origin in meaning, "Spiritual Awareness, Blessed One" and Rose, Greek origin meaning "Symbol of love." She kept this symbolic meaning in mind as she tried to have a closer relationship with Mary, the mother of God.
There are two passages from Scripture that come to my mind as we pray our farewell to Sr. Mary Rose. They remind us of what we believe about death--it is not a final parting, but rather a parting until we meet again. Surely it is in this sense of farewell that she would have us gather this morning. So, until we meet again, Mary Rose . . . May God enfold you in blessings of peace.
Welcoming Remarks - December 16, 2011 - Sr. Ann Rutan
Liturgy Celebrating the Life of Sr. Mary Rose Gill