R.I.P.

Goodbye Sr. Agnese

It was a sad day yesterday. A good and old friend was buried after suffering a stroke a couple of years back. She's a Carmelite nun, prioress for 3 terms I think ... at least that was what she was when I first met her 33 years ago. Very soft-spoken, always smiling and cheerful. That's how I remember her. 

She asked to see me several times this year and I went to visit her in Nazareth twice. As she was immobile, I was allowed to enter the cloister and into her room. She would be seated in her wheelchair, lifting up head, smiling and eyes sparkly, and say "Lionello" (she's italian). I would talk with her, joke and laugh and she would share her food with me ... strawberries, a cake ...

Last week, Sr. Rita called me to say Sr. Agnese died peacefully. No struggle ... calmly and serenely as she had lived her life. I had to go for her funeral in Nazareth. It was difficult as the entire journey back and forth and the liturgy took almost 8 hours ... and I was suffering from diarrhea and stomach cramps from the medicines for my infected finger which still hurt. But I had to go. Sr. Agnese was good friend whom I could not leave alone at her last moment.

Goodbye Sr. Agnese

After Mass with 2 bishops and a dozen priests (mostly carmelites from Haifa), we accompanied her to the cemetery at the bottom of the monastery garden. There I recognised the names of several other nuns whom I knew in these 33 years ... Sr. Josephine from Hong Kong, Sr. Immaculata who always cooked pansit for me whenever I came to visit, Sr. Antoinette who died at 103 years old, Sr. Esther who converted from Judaism ... So much memories. Sr. Agnese was superior of them all ... now she joins them in restful peace as fighter jets flew overhead every other minute in this dreadful war.

You never know when your time comes. It will come for sure ... as Bishop Rafik reminded us in his sermon ... we just need to be ready.