Letter from Fr. Courtès telling me of the holy death of Brother Morandini. He passed on to a better life yesterday afternoon at four o’clock. The loss will be felt by the Congregation which expected such great service from this excellent man…
The good God has thought otherwise. May his holy will be done, but may we be permitted, while submitting to his severe judgements, to mourn the passing of such a holy and loveable child.
This 22 year-old scholastic brother was the ninth Oblate to have died since our foundation 22 years earlier, and joined his brothers in what Eugene regarded as the Oblate community in heaven
There he is now in the bosom of God together with the eight others who have preceded him in glory. They know our needs, I call upon them to obtain from our sovereign Master the strength to supplement all the good that they had been called upon to do on earth and all the virtues which they practised constantly, so that we too may have a death as holy and a recompense as beautiful as theirs.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 28 December 1838, EO XIX
Two hundred years later, what a community of Mazenodian family members we have in heaven! They know our needs as members of the Body of Christ – let us call upon them…
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” .(I Corinthians 12: 12-13)
I just went to our Lacombe book of Necrology – to look and read the names, say the names of those who have died on this day, to help us catch sight of each other – isn’t that what we do with our loved ones who have died. We ask for their prayers. Eventually that book will be huge, but that’s okay – there’s lots of time to review it.
I think for a moment of Kay Cronin HOMI – she was a friend and curiously I think of her more often – asking for her prayers, going over those we knew together. She was like an older sister to me, such was the gift of her in my life. I think of how she gave her heart to all she met and of the profound effect she had on all of us.
I think of how often I call on Eugene to help me, Blessed Joseph Gerard, Paul Feeley, Albert Lacombe, Kay Cronin and others. I believe that the Spirit redirects my prayers to all who have gone before me – be they religious or lay for our hearts connect as we share in the Mazenodian charism, just as they do when we take part in our Monthly Mazenodian Family Oraison.
Imagine what it would look like if each member shared the story of another who had touched them, so that we could get to know them. Not practical is what some might say; too much work might be the response of another.
I don’t know. Kay Cronin was a journalist who eventually worked for the Oblates – she lived in Vancouver, her office was over at St. Augustine’s. She was an Honorary Oblate who travelled and went to the missions in Peru and when she returned she shared her stories of the poverty there and the good people who lived and worked there. She was especially good to one poor soul who was mired in drugs and alcohol, and who she became a friend with – I think of her so often and ask her to help me. Her smile lit up my life both back then and now. I like to think that she accompanies me now on my journey.
A small start…