ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends,

We gather together this evening to offer up our prayers for the soul of a beloved Sister Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sister Paul Mercedes Perreca, I.H.M.

Our hearts go out in love to her dear parents, to her brothers, to the members of her community and to all those who were privileged to have her friendship, and to profit from her loving service as a Religious, as a dedicated Christian woman, as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is proud of this outstanding daughter of the Church and rejoices that members of other Christian denominations and other faiths express their solidarity today with us in prayer. Our gratitude goes to you, dear members of our ecumenical and interreligious communities.

The last great contribution of Sister Paul’s life is to bring together in prayer and fellowship so many people whom she loved and endeavored to serve in various ways. Present today are the young and the old, her grateful students, her religious sisters and so many categories of God’s people.

Many years ago, Sister Paul ratified her consecration by the Church as a Sister Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Following a long tradition in both the Old and the New Testament she offered her life to God for the glory of His Name and the service of His people. Like the prophet Samuel mentioned in our first reading, she was courageous enough, in an act of faith and love, to address the Lord saying: "Speak, for your servant is listening." Furthermore, with exquisite generosity and dedication she endeavored to imitate our Blessed Mother Mary who, when informed by the angel Gabriel of her special mission, said: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."

In her initial act of consecrated love, she accepted to belong to Jesus Christ and His Church and to live according to God’s providence. She did not know what would eventually be required of her, but, on her part, she asked only for love and she promised faithful service till the end in the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Year after year she fulfilled her spousal covenant with the Lord and His Church. Her love for Jesus empowered her to love so many others in His name, just as His Mother Mary had done. Her generous, chaste and consecrated love brought her constantly into the service of others—and today their testimony to this fact is part of history.

Her own life was meant to proclaim the primacy of God’s love in this world and in the world to come. Her life thus became part of the great legacy of consecrated love that the Church passes on from one generation to the next. What she accomplished by God’s grace in her life was impressive, but who she was in her consecrated relationship to Jesus Christ and His Church in religious life was her greatest dignity after Baptism.

An important part of the life of every Christian and particularly of every consecrated Religious is to bear witness to the life of heaven, waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. This life of expectation passes through the joys and sorrows, the hopes and anxieties of everyday living, with its hard work and committed service to others. And so it was for Sister Paul.

Being a life of faith, hers had to be a life of expectation, but also a life of trust in the One in whom she had placed all her confidence. As a Religious she had long since accepted in prayer any type of death that God’s providence would permit her to undergo.

Upon reflection we see how appropriately our psalm today expresses the conditions of Sister Paul’s faithful trust and reliance on her spouse Jesus Christ. From her place in eternal life she can testify, saying: "I have waited, waited for the Lord, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry. And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God."

Despite the tragic circumstances of her death, the power of Christ’s Paschal Mystery is fully operative in her passing to the Lord. She is now associated with the Lord Jesus in eternal life, where she is destined to participate in the liturgy of heaven, praising the victorious Lamb of God for all eternity.

In the sacred rite of this memorial Mass, as we commemorate and re-enact, in the Eucharist, the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are also called, through Him and in the Holy Spirit, to give thanks to the Father for all the graces and blessings bestowed on Sister Paul during her life. We praise and thank God for raising her up in the Church as an instrument of loving service to others, as a witness to the love of Jesus Christ.

And before we terminate our reflection we are conscious of a last duty that we have in regard to Sister Paul. Following the tradition of the Church we must commit ourselves, according to what we believe, to pray for her soul. We know that all humanity before God is imperfect and that in His great love Jesus Christ assures us, even after death, of the great gift of final purification, if such is necessary to enter into the splendid presence of God. And so we pray finally for the soul of Sister Paul, if such purification is still necessary for her, for we are convinced that she will indeed intercede for all of us in the luminous presence of the Most Blessed Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom belong all praise and glory, now and forever. Amen.