Sister Naomi Aull, 99, an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph, died Sept. 29, 2023, at Mount Saint Joseph, in her 80th year of religious life. She was a native of Knottsville, Ky. She would have turned 100 on Dec. 30.

Sister Naomi (formerly Sister Mary Benigna) was a prayerful, hard-working Sister known for her cordial nature. She graduated from Brescia College (now University), Owensboro, Ky., in 1965.

She taught at Sacred Heart School, Farmington, N.M. (1945-48), Blessed Mother School, Owensboro, Ky., (1948-52), St. John School, Plattsmouth, Neb., (1952-53), St. Teresa School, Glennonville, Mo., (1953-54), Holy Trinity School, Fredericksburg, Ky., (1954-57), St. Charles, Lebanon, Ky., (1957-58), St. Thomas More School, Paducah, Ky., (1958-61) and Holy Cross, Loretto, Ky., (1961-62). She served in Louisville as a teacher at St. Margaret Mary (1962-69), Mother of Good Counsel (1970-71), St. Ignatius (1971), and St. Leonard schools (1972-77). She then provided outreach for St. Boniface Parish (1977-90) and Schuhmann Social Service Center, both in Louisville, before retiring to the Motherhouse in 2002, where she was active in the Powerhouse of Prayer.

Survivors include the members of her religious community; her siblings Robert E. Aull, of Philpot, Anna Carolyn Lyddane and Joyce Marie Dunn, both of Owensboro; nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Michael Xavier and Mary Pauline Aull; and her siblings William Guy Aull, Theresa Elizabeth Miller, Mary Thomasina Higdon, Ursuline Sister Margaret Joseph Aull, Passionist Sister Marie Michael Aull, James Leo Aull, Beverly Ann Clark and Joseph A. Aull.

The funeral Mass is at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, at Mount Saint Joseph, with visitation beginning Monday at 4 p.m., and a wake service at 6:30 p.m.

Glenn Funeral Home and Crematory, Owensboro, is handling arrangements.

Gifts in memory of Sister Naomi may take the form of donations to the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, 8001 Cummings Road, Maple Mount, KY 42356.

Wake Reflection for Sister Naomi Aull 

By Sister Sharon Sullivan

Congregational Leader

Oct. 2, 2023

On September 29, 2023, the Feast of the Archangels, our Sister Naomi Aull went to her eternal home.

Born Naomi Cecilia Mary Aull at the end of 1923, the fourth of the twelve Aull children, she was for 80 years faithful to her calling as an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph. 

She has left her family, sisters, and friends with a powerhouse of remembered experiences and conversations. As the days go by, we can honor her memory by sharing these remembrances with one another, but not within this vigil service this evening. For Sister Naomi has requested that at this time we simply share – in her name – this “meditation” from Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman:

St. John Henry Cardinal Newman – meditation

God knows me and calls me by my name.…
God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission — I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.

Somehow I am necessary for His purposes…
I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection
between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth
in my own place, while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments
and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him.
Whatever, wherever I am,
I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;
In perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him;
If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be
necessary causes of some great end,
which is quite beyond us.
He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life,
He may shorten it;
He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends,
He may throw me among strangers,
He may make me feel desolate,
make my spirits sink, hide the future from me —
still He knows what He is about.…
Let me be Thy blind instrument.  I ask not to see —
I ask not to know — I ask simply to be used.