Psalms 38; 119:25-48; Ecclesiasticus 7:4-14; Revelation 8:1-13; Luke 10:17-24 do not rejoice...that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
A wonderful woman died yesterday after a very long battle with breast cancer. Alice was quirky and lovely and a character and a true individual. She was authentically Alice. She also loved our parish.
At the beginning of this third recurrence of her breast cancer, she tried to battle it while keeping her life as status quo as possible. That became an impossible choice to fulfill, so she moved in with a friend who lived across the river in Alexandria. That too became to difficult, so she chose to move to Ohio where she could live with and be cared for by her sister. That decision took her beyond our personal care, although she remained for these past few months on our parish intercession list. She died being cared for by her loving sister. Her name moves this week from those for whom we pray who are ill, to those who have died this week.
I find this a very sad thing when someone dies who I like, particularly when the individual dies far away from where where I am physically located. This authentic person, whose name had already been written in heaven, now resides in that true love and embrace of God that we are all headed toward.
Give rest, O Christ, to your servant Alice with your saints,
where sorrow and pain are no more,
neither sighing, but life everlasting.
Rest eternal grant to her, O Lord;
And let light perpetual shine upon her.
May her soul, and the souls of all the departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
jfd+
Copyright 2008, John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
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