26/12/1942 – 30/11/2009
Vows 4 Jan 1973
Ordination 26 June 1977
From the homily by Fr Carl Telford sm
As we listen to the Word of God at this Funeral Mass for Peter Leonard Kiley, priest of the Society of Mary, God speaks words of passion. That is why they were chosen; ‘Sir, give us that water;’ ‘Christ during his life offered prayer and entreaty to God not without a piercing cry;’ they who eat me will hunger for more; they who drink me will thirst for more;’ Hunger thirst, entreaty, cry. These are deepest desires of every heart.
Fortunately a number of passions marked the life of Peter [cooking was not one] ; social justice; politics; French culture, Edith Piaf, the teaching of St Therese of the Child Jesus; theology, but there was one predominant passion in Peter’s life; a consistent deep desire was to be a man of prayer, to taste God, a contemplative in the world.
From the time I knew Peter first in 1971 he was praying; delighting in his time of personal prayer; He knew about that. We cannot just pray as if we were in control. Prayer is relationship; being before the face of the Father; letting God love us and that is painful; heart changing; Prayer is the fire of God’s love in our hearts; Fire burns and purifies. If we are seeking God , God is so much more seeking us.
Peter for nearly 40 years lived as a Marist; proud to be one. Peter was grateful and very conscious of a gracious choice by Mary that called him to her little society. Peter was gentle and humble, with a care for the underdog. As we look back over his life we see how he was carried along by a wisdom greater than us. Our Lady was always at work in his life shaping and moulding. Peter responded generously to the call given and so there were many yesses, fiats before the final yes last Monday night.
Salve Regina, mater misericordiae.
