The death has occurred of Sheila Maher (née Shanahan) Smithstown, Thomastown, Kilkenny, R95R974

Died on February 13, 2024

The death has taken place of Sheila Maher nee Shanahan, Smithstown, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny and formerly of Pleberstown, Thomastown, peacefully at her residence on 13th February 2024. Predeceased by her husband Bobby and her sisters & brothers. Sadly missed by her sons Brendan, Robert, Kevin and Vincent, Sister Ann (Murphy) and her husband Paddy, Grandchildren Luke, Shane, Jessie, Keely, Edie, Jimmy, Aoife and Lily Peg, daughters-in-law Bernie, Gabrielle, Maria and Valerie, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, nieces & nephews, extended family & friends.

Reposing at her residence on Friday, 16th February, from 4pm to 7pm, pausing for rosary and vigil prayers at 6pm. Requiem mass on Saturday at 11am in the Church of the Assumption Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, followed by removal to Mt Jerome Crematorium, Harolds Cross, Dublin for service at 2.15pm.

MAY SHEILA REST IN PEACE

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Reflection

“The sun will be darkened.” How does Pope Francis say we can help bring light back to the darkened sun? And what can we learn from the fig tree?
Dear brothers and sisters, that is the word that makes hope blossom in the world and relieves the suffering of the poor: tenderness. Compassion that leads you to tenderness. We need to overcome our self-absorption, interior rigidity, which is the temptation nowadays, that of the “restorationists”, who want a Church completely orderly, completely rigid: this is not of the Holy Spirit.
We have to overcome this, in order to make hope blossom amid this rigidity. It is up to us to overcome the temptation to be concerned only about our own problems; we need to grow tender before the tragedies of our world, to share its pain. Like the tender leaves of a tree, we are called to absorb the pollution all around us and turn it into goodness.
It is useless to keep talking about problems, to argue and to be scandalized – all of us can do that. What we need to do is imitate the leaves that daily, imperceptibly, turn dirty air into clean air. Jesus wants us to be “converters” of goodness: people who breathe the same heavy air as everyone else, but respond to evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21). People who act: by breaking bread with the hungry, working for justice, lifting up the poor and restoring their dignity. As the Samaritan did.
Pope Francis