18/07/2016 - United Kingdom

Mass of Thanksgiving for 54 years of service
given by the Marist Sisters in Yorkshire

12^th July 2016 brought almost to a conclusion the Marist Sisters active mission to Yorkshire begun on 31^st August 1962 when two Marist Sisters – Sisters Martin Healy and Rowland Riddehough set off from Paddington Station London to begin the first pioneering venture to a new mission in Yorkshire.  It was an answer to an earlier invitation from the Parish Priest of Goldthorpe Father O’Reilly for a community of Marist Sisters in his Parish.

For two years the Sisters were grateful for living accommodation with Sisters of the Nativity at Wath-on-Dearne and later at Loretto Cottages in Hoyland.  Sisters Rowland and Martin travelled to Sacred Heart School Goldthorpe daily.  In Yorkshire at this time it was impossible for Schools to secure permanent Catholic lay staff to teach in small colliery towns and villages.

To the Authorities of the Marist Sisters one school in particular Saint Helen’s Catholic Primary School Hoyland was an attractive proposition with two Loretto Cottages nearby in West Street which with negotiation could become temporary living accommodation for the Sisters.

And so a Marist Sisters community was becoming more of a reality, the mission continued to develop but the fact remained that the original invitation was from Goldthorpe and here the Sisters must find a permanent home as soon as reasonably possible.

For the presence of the Marist Sisters in his Diocese of Hallam during the past fifty four years Right Reverend Ralph Heskett assisted by local priests celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving in Church of the Sacred Heart and Saint Helen, Hoyland location of the first Marist community.

In his homily the Bishop concentrated on the first Reading Philippians 1:1-11

Following a short introduction on Paul’s wish from prison to visit again the people of Philippi reminding them of his prayer for them, the bishop related Paul’s prayer to the present situation where the prayer was fervent for the people from whom the Marist Sisters were moving.

Speculating on what Sister Carmel had in mind when she chose the passage, “it is because Paul’s prayer for the people of Philippi is her prayer for you, the people of Corpus Christi Parish as the Marist community prepares to leave after many years of service and witness first of all as part of the Leeds diocese and latterly in the diocese of Hallam” and the last few lines of the passage specify in greater detail Paul’s prayer for the people

‘My prayer for you is that your love for each other may increase more and more
and never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception.’

Referring to the modern interpretation of ‘love’  “which has nothing to do with knowledge and wisdom, the Bishop continued, “if Christian love is to be the genuine article ………it is bound to find expression in a knowledge and wisdom that gives an insight into the way God’s world truly is.  For Paul head and heart are one not to be separated” This was Paul’s prayer for his readers:

this will help you become pure and blameless and prepare you for the Day of Christ

Paul prays that this wise love will result in right judgement.  He longed for the time when the people would differentiate between good and evil.  God will be transforming their lives into a holy way of living    This is Paul’s prayer for his readers: 

when you will reach the perfect goodness which Jesus Christ produces in us

Finally the Bishop says    
“Sisters Carmel and Darina as you prepare to take your leave of the diocese, we have a prayer for you another beautiful Pauline prayer,

Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his
Spirit for your hidden self   to grow strong, so that Christ may
live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and
built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp
the breadth and the length, the height and the depth, until knowing
the love of Christ which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled
with the utter fullness of God”

At the end of Mass the Parish Priest, Father Martin conveyed thanks on behalf of the Parish community.  

“We, as individuals, as a Parish Community and as a Diocese, will continue to give thanks to God for you as you journey onwards.  ………… thank you for all you have given to the people and clergy you have encountered over the years”

Then before leaving the Church Sisters Carmel and Darina were each presented with a bouquet of flowers  All were invited for refreshments to the Parish hall full to capacity with people from Goldthorpe, Grimethorpe and fewer from Hoyland indicating the greater distance in years since the sisters lived and ministered there.in Hoyland 

In their reminiscences all spoke with great appreciation and affection of the Sisters who taught them/their parents/aunts/uncles – one lady saying she was 46 years married but remembered her very happy school days.  This was a sentiment re-echoed many times during the evening from these generous, very happy and grateful people who attributed all they have to the Sisters and who are saddened by the fact Marist Sisters have to leave Goldthorpe and Yorkshire             

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