Twenty Seventh Sunday of the Year – Yr.A: 03.10.2026
7.30pm – St. Laserian’s Church, Leighlinbridge
Fr. Pat Hennessy
Farewell to Mercy Sisters: Ethel & Nancy
Introduction:
Absentee landlordism! Yes, we’re back in the vineyard again, the third Sunday in a row, and this evening’s visit centres on an absentee landlord and the issue of justice around tenancy.
As we gather to pray on this Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, we do so to honour the contribution of the Mercy Sisters to Leighlin Parish over 116 years. In more recent times we speak of Sr’s Ethel & Nancy but many have served here over the 116 years.
On Fr. Pat Hennessy’s behalf I welcome the Mercy Sisters, guests, parishioners and friends this Vigil evening. I pass on the apologies of Sr. Elizabeth Fletcher, Mercy Branch Leader, who is unable to be here, but is ably represented by her colleagues on the Leadership Team, Sr. Ailish O’Brien and Sr. Concepta Foley.
We begin by returning to the vineyard that is parish, that is ministry today and offer an account of the current lease we all hold on our own faith life and pray for forgiveness for any breaches to that lease agreement we entered the day of our baptism …
Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – you are the wellspring of mercy:
A Thiarna, déan trócaire
Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – you are the way of Truth:
A Chríost, déan trócaire
Bí linn i gconaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan Trócaire
Homily:
It’s another Vineyard Sunday! The third consecutive weekend, that Jesus tells a parable about a vineyard. Two weeks ago, we had the parable of the workers in the vineyard; last week it was the parable of the two sons asked by their dad to go to the vineyard, one went, having said he wouldn’t, and one who said he’d go, never did. For Jesus it is not our initial response that matters, but where we have the courage to end up. It’s not our words but more importantly where do our feet take us!
The first Mercy feet arrived here in Leighlin in 1910, that’s where the figure of 116, I spoke of earlier, comes from! On June 30th, 1910 at the invitation of the Parish Priest, Fr. James Coyle, four sisters from St. Leo’s Convent of Mercy, across the road from me in Carlow, established a convent at the Old Deanery on Milford Street. Cardinal Patrick Moran, the first Cardinal of Australia, a son of Bridge Street, Leighlinbridge, was instrumental in bringing the Mercy Sisters here. He died the year after their arrival.
You cannot talk about the Leighlinbridge foundation, without some understanding of St. Leo’s Convent of Mercy, Carlow, where I celebrated Mass earlier this morning. Contemporary Ireland fails to appreciate the powerhouse that were the religious instititions of their day, St Leo’s very much to the fore. The first Mercy Sisters arrived to Carlow in April 1837; Catherine McAuley was a close friend of the then President of St. Patrick’s College, Dr. Andrew Fitzgerald. She had entrusted her three young orphaned nephews to his paternal care some years earlier, to be educated in the lay college.
So Catherine knew Carlow. From St. Leo’s foundations spread to Naas in 1839; Wexford in 1840; Westport in 1842; Pittsburgh in 1843; Tuam in 1846; Cheadle Staffs in 1849; New Zealand in 1850; Gort in 1857; Sacred Heart Home in 1881; Monasterevan in 1898; Graignamanagh in 1908 and finally here to Leighlinbridge in 1910.
The four Sisters on the first foundation here were Sr. Berchmans McGrath, Superioress, ably assisted by Sr. Clare Geary, Sr. Bernadine O’Malley and Sr. Angela Smith. Sr. Angela took charge of the then Girl’s Primary on Tullow Street. Both Sr. Bernadine and Sr. Angela lived well into their 100’s, which was rare in those times; Sr. Bernadine ending her days in Graignamanagh while Sr. Angela returned to the cradle of St. Leo’s.
There is a story well told of the school boarders turning out to honour her different birthdays, she reached the age of 105! Dot Cunny, the Domestic Science or Home Economics teacher led a group of boarders to wish her well and presented her with a small gift. Sr. Angela asked if she could open it. It was a little Baby Power and she let a gasp out of her “I’m delighted, I thought for a minute it was another holy statue”! I’m not sure where she acquired her exquisite taste, perhaps here in the parish of the half-glen – Leighlin!
The Mercy Sisters were central to the life in Leighlin and the surrounding area. They educated generations, supported church activities, helped establish the ‘Children of Mary’, promoted the ‘Pioneer Total Abstince Association’ and enriched church choirs. I always associate both Ethel and Nancy with the wonderful church choir here in Leighlinbridge. Deeply associated with the story of education here, but also their social work, their house calls. In 1991 the last teaching nun retired and the sisters moved from from the convent to the bungalow across the road, the bungalow from where Ethel and Nancy lived until recently.
A few weeks ago I was in St. Andrews Church, Bagenalstown for a farewell celebration of the Presentation Sisters there – a presence of 181 years; tonight here in St. Laserians Church, Leighlinbrdge for a farewell ceremony for the Mercy Sisters here – a presence of 116 years. The religious landscape of Kildare & Leighlin is changing before our very eyes. The challenges religious orders are facing, are ones we too face in the diocese.
But we must not be dispondent, we must be bold and brave and still ask who will keep the candle burning for Catherine McAuley, who will keep the lantern trimmed for Nano Nangle, who will keep our parishes alive with faith and vitality? You will, you, the congregation. Begin conversations around vocation, not just priestly or religious vocation, hugely challenging calls in 2026, but the vocation to live out your baptismal calling, fully immersing yourself in the life of Leighlin parish faith community.
The vineyard gives us ‘the why’ we must live up to our calling, and ‘the why’ we must reflect on our own calling. Vineyard gospels need to be read again and again and again. Their messages aren’t for the faint-hearted! Common decency was all the landlord looked for, but often that’s not always so common. We need to let them sink into our pores, so that we become intoxicated in their thinking!! Tenants that can’t be trusted to tenants that kneecap, rough up and kill … this is the stuff of a Sunday night television drama on RTE 1 or a Halloween Horror movie!
And Jesus tells us this Vigil evening; it’s also the stuff of life! Imagine the vineyard owner sending his son, after the treatment meted out to his servants and employees earlier. An illogical action, a desperate decision, an inexplainable last resort. The gospel line comes back to haunt us: “They will respect my son”[1].
Two thousand years ago another Father sent His Son. He ended up on a Wooden Cross, but his Kingdom, like the vineyard survives several persecutions and still today commands respect throughout the world. Just for a moment think of the welcome Pope Leo received in Lourdes a week ago, in the most secular country on Continental Europe. In the gospel, killing the vineyard owner’s son, led to the tenants meeting a wretched end, they had crossed the line and there was no turning back.
The Cross on Calvary becomes that line for us, unlike the tenants from hell; we have time, maybe just enough time to turn back! Tonight we celebrate the Mercy Sisters who served here among you; the best accolade you could give them is to involve yourself in parish, in the faith story that continues to unfold here.
[1] Mt.21:37
