Mourners hear Sr Bernard was 'a light to many lives'

Photo: The late Sr Bernard Lynch.

“Blan was a light to many lives; lives that were shadowed by fear, or poverty or loneliness. She was a kindly light to the many who experienced the encircling gloom of that is fear and rejection and misunderstanding and depression and isolation and loneliness.”

They were the words of Fr John Cullen at the funeral mass of Sr Bernard Lynch at Ss Peter and Paul’s Church on Friday morning.

“She is someone who defies any definition, and in a way words are intrusive, and far too limited to define her noble qualities, her fine characteristics and her unique presence that touched and blessed and graced so many of our lives,” he continued.

“Blan was a person of welcome and of witness, of family and of friendship, of humanity, homeliness and humour. She lived out the message of mercy with an amazing gospel commitment every day of her life. She had that extraordinary quality that made you feel good in her presence. She also blessed and gifted you with the desire to better yourself because of her innate goodness and generosity.”

Her work in the community as a teacher was also raised, as well as her work for the missionary magazines:

“She was a disciple for the teaching and learning that she shared for 44 years of unbroken service in her teaching career, never missing a day as a teacher nor as a pupil, a student or an undergraduate. She distributed missionary magazines throughout the parish for 50 years.”

Fr Cullen said that Sr Bernard embodied the Sisters of Mercy founder Catherine McAuley’s “vision of walking among people with a tangible tenderness of God’s love for them and as a woman of Gospel and values.”

He closed out the eulogy by again quoting Catherine McAuley: “We should be shining lamps, giving light to all those around us.”

“That light has been dimmed with Blan’s passing, but it will shine again from her place in heaven.”

A letter from Bishop Kevin Doran was also read aloud to mourners at the beginning of the service in which he said that he “would have liked to have been with you to celebrate her life, but we do unfortunately have to limit ourselves even at this sacred moment in order to protect the lives and health of others – and nobody would have understood that better than Sr Bernard because her life was all about others.”

“I join with you in giving thanks for Sr Bernard’s 93 years, most of which were spent as a religious sister in the energetic service of God and as a witness to his mercy,” he continued. “I am personally grateful to her ministry in schools to the young people of Athlone and for her hospitality with which she shared in her home by the river.”

Following the service Sr Bernard was laid to rest with her father Peter Tim and mother Annie in her native Arigna in north Roscommon.

Predeceased by her brothers Tim, Brendan and Ted, she is deeply mourned by her sister Nancy O'Connell and brother Rory, sisters-in-law Maeve and Nell, extended family and the wider community.