Funeral Liturgy
Sister Mary Veronica FitzMaurice, BVM
Marian Hall
August 8, 1984

"When Jesus received the news of the death of John the Baptist, He withdrew by boat to a lonely place where He could be by Himself."
Mt. 14:13

These were the opening words we all heard in Sunday's Gospel. How appropriate ... for as we received the news of the sudden and unexpected death of Sister Mary Veronica FitzMaurice, we all desired to withdraw for a moment ... to be by ourselves and to reflect on the life and the death ... the joys and the sorrows ... experienced by Sister in her 88 years of life.

Veronica was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 14, 1895, the middle child of John FitzMaurice and Nora Mulvihill. The love and concern of her older brother John and her younger brother, Emmett, were always evident and formed the foundation for the subsequent deep love and appreciation that Veronica expressed for her nieces and nephews ... grand nieces and grand nephews.

In addition to the FitzMaurice family ... Holy Family Parish in Chicago strongly influenced the desires and values of young Veronica. On September 8, 1914, she entered the BVM Congregation and for over 50 years was known as Sister Mary St. Mildred.

Following her first vows in 1917, Veronica began a long teaching career ... focusing her love and energy on elementary school children in Colorado, Nebraska, Montana, Iowa, Washington and Illinois.

Sister retired from teaching in 1964 and for the last 14 years has been a member of our Marian Hall Community.

During the last years ... months and days of her life, those of us who had the privilege of sharing her hopes and dreams ... her struggles and anxieties, saw a person who daily turned to the Lord for healing ...
who consciously sought to let go of the past ...
and to recognize the unconditional love of the Lord.
We also recognized in her a deep concern for peace and justice issues. She was a BVM who responded positively to the call in our revised Constitution:
"to give strong public witness against oppression brought about by unjust political and social structures ..."
She committed herself to this work through letter writing and more frequent phone calls to her friend and our Congressman, Tom Tauke.

In the mystery of Veronica's death and in the mystery of her ever present concerns, challenges and anxieties, she demonstrated her strong belief in Paul's message that
"nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked.
These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of Him Who loved us."
Through this power and love of the Lord, Veronica has now triumphed!

Sister Mary McCauley, BVM