Father Patrick (Pat) Dwyer SAC R.I.P.

We are very sorry to announce the death of our confrere Fr Patrick (Pat) Dwyer who died in Sacred Heart Nursing Home, Crosspatrick, Co Kilkenny at 7.30 p.m. December 21st. Funeral arrangements are to be finalised. May his good and noble soul rest in Eternal Peace and his many great works go with him.

We offer our sincere condolences to his family at this sad time.

Fr. Pat was born in Drumbane, Tipperary and at the age of two moved with his growing family to Drumdowney, Co. Kilkenny. He served in Ireland, England and the United States, spending his last 35 years in Thurles. Beloved son of the late John and Mary, predeceased by his brothers Denis, Ned and Stephen and his sister Brigid (Treacy). Sadly missed by The Pallottine Community, by his loving siblings Kay, Jack, Mary, Bill, Tom, Margaret, Eileen and Josephine, his brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends.

May He Rest in Peace

FUNERAL HOMILY – FR PAT DWYER 24/12/22

by fr. liam mCclarey SAC, Provincial

In recent years, since the outbreak of Covid-19 priests have been able to read the Condolences section in rip.ie and learn something extra about the deceased.  So, Fr Pat to us, as Pallottines, is Fr Paddy, or the priest with the hat for those who did not know him.

The death of Fr Pat Dwyer forces us to do several things; to inform others; to gather dates and facts about him; to acknowledge the familial relationships among others within his life; to locate his will, an alb and a stole, to print a picture and find where we put that frame. We can do these hurriedly and in some ways these activities can prevent us from really acknowledging the death of our brother, our in-law, our uncle, our relation, our confrere, our confidant and our friend. Yesterday evening and today we in some ways stop and continue to pray for Fr Pat.

Like others throughout our Mother of Divine Love Province, and some in the East Africa Region Pat Dwyer was our {first} Provincial or our Formator, our spiritual guide or someone we lived in community with for a number of years. We have witnessed his prayer life, his dedication to the mission of the Church, his interest in all things Pallottine. We have seen him or listened to him be passionate about some topic and decided to agree by keeping quiet or perhaps disagree but also by keeping quiet.

In the past two years at times, as Provincial, I have read letters he wrote concerning different topics to individuals that were gentle, and guiding and deeply spiritual.

Our first reading tells us of the Messianic banquet, anticipating the judgement banquet that is found in the 22^nd chapter of St. Matthews Gospel. We are assured that God will destroy death for ever. It is in God that Isaiah and Fr Pat hoped. It is indeed the Lord who is Fr Pat’s shepherd, as we have heard in the Psalm.

Hope is one of the four candles lit in Advent along with- joy, love and peace and then the Light of Christ in the white candle. In differing ways each of us as Christians is called to bring to life these ‘candle themes’ in our daily lives. Fr Pat achieved this in many ways throughout his life and then in our New Testament readings he excels: moved by the Spirit and in recent years sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory. Then we move on to the Gospel and Fr Pat’s living out of the Beatitudes by co-operating with God’s Spirit in his own daily life.

There are apparent contradictions in all our lives, things that just seem to sit in opposition somehow. One such apparent juxtaposition is the fact that Fr Pat’s death occurred on the shortest day of our Northern hemisphere. On that day he entered into the Eternal Light.

The Christian Faith is above all a Faith about life. We believe in a God who IS and is therefore God of the living.  Our faith in a fulness of life, attained in the life to come, creates within us a love of life.  This, what we call Eternal Life is incorporation into the love of God.

The final Book of the Bible: Revelation/ Apocalypse states: Blessed are those who die in the Lord, for their good deeds go with them.

Fr Pat Dwyer, our family brother our relation, our confrere, leaves behind the witness of a good life that was informed by and directed by the love of God. He leaves behind an example of generous sacrifice and commitment that made a positive difference for others. Most importantly he leaves behind a legacy of faith, hope and love in the people he served, planting and attending to in them the very seeds of eternal life.

We carry others with us in different ways. I’d be sitting late in the night in Lourdes hearing Confessions, listening to, speaking with people on pilgrimage. I’d be thinking I need to refer you onto someone- I’m out of my depth here. Some of those I’d refer here to the college to Fr Pat. Some not all!

People entrusted Fr Pat with their perceptions, their memories in a special way and he listened in a careful way. This is a very specialised, and challenging ministry. Again, I sit with that juxtaposition of people entrusting Fr Pat with their recollections and how he himself was afflicted with memory loss and I presently do not see the why or the how.

But I believe that as Fr Pat sat faithfully here with God in this very chapel and in many other places that today Fr Pat sits with God and recognises Him and more importantly knows that God both recognises and loves him.

When people die some would say that “all we have left” are our memories of our times with them or stories that we may possibly have only heard for the first time since their death. But our conversations and experiences with Fr Pat change us. They make us different people- Fr Pat has impacted on so many people’s lives in so many countries. Sometimes we cannot say why or how we are affected and on other occasions we can articulate it loudly and clearly.

There is a loss- YES!

But there is something we have all gained too- something we will carry with us consciously or unconsciously forever.

On this the eve of the Birth of our Saviour, whom Fr Pat zealously followed we acknowledge the GIFT that Fr Pat has been to us individually within his family and the Pallottines. We are challenged in some way to be a gift to one another and a personal reminder to me to be that for someone today and every day.

As two Pallottines said to me- one from the Province and one from Asia, who never met him, may his ‘noble’ soul rest in peace.

FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS

Reception into the Pallottine College on Friday 23rd December at 3 p.m. Removal into the College Chapel at 6 p.m. Concelebrated Funeral Mass on Saturday 24th December at 12 noon. Burial will take place afterwards in the Community Cemetery in Cabra, Thurles.

https://rip.ie/death-notice/fr.-patrick-pat-dwyer-thurles-tipperary/519175

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xUc32XFXaRRcofVz5

MAY I SAY LOVE: Remembering Father Pat Dwyer SAC