My heart bleeds as I stand before to bid farewell to our sister Joyce.
If I am standing before you today as a priest, its because of this women who rest so peacefully in our midst.
I can still remember that year 1990, I was going through a treble time in my life…there was darkness all around me…I would have remained in that darkness, had not Aunty Joy showed me the light…
Someone rightly said that God has assigned a guardian angel to each one of us and my guardian angel is here resting in front of us.. She was truly my angel who guided my in my life…
The year 1990-91 I was preparing for my final exams, and I know the trouble I was going through, I use to study in their garden and aunty joy would go out of her way to make things for me so that I don’t waste time going home for my meals.
A couple of years latter when I was to join the seminary, she was the first person whom I consulted before I made that important decision. The words in my farewell card signed by aunty Joy Sydney and smitha, still fresh in my mind, “With whom will we share our meals with.”
I was a part of that family. We use to go to her house to watch TV, Play cricket, study and I even celebrated my birthday in their garden…She was a women with a big heart.
My Family has lost a friend, a companion and an angel. Being educated, we would always consult her in times of problems and was confident of finding an answer.
I would like to summarize, what Joyce meant to me in words of the hymn of St Francis:
You made me a Channel of Peace
Where there was hatred, You taught me to bring love.
Where there was injury, you showed me how to pardon.
Where there was doubt you showed me how to have faith.
When there was despair in my life, you brought hope
When there was darkness, you showed the light.
And when there was sadness, you brought joy.
You taught me that it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
In sharing with each other that we receive,
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.
Today we celebrate the birthday of our Blessed Mother, and it is said that all the angels in heaven will be singing and praising God, and today he has taken an angel for our side to be with his blessed mother.
As we bid farewell to our beloved Aunty Joy, we also place a petition at her feet of our blessed Mother, that from her throne in heave she may guide and protect Sydney and Smitha.
Sayonara, Joyce till we meet again in paradise. May the angels lead you to paradise. May your soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
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