In Memoriam

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"... She saw her own son dying, and she was unable to help. Only a parent or spouse can understand and know that pain. Mary stood there unable to do anything. She wanted to reach up and bandage his wounds, soothe his pain, wipe his brow, kiss away the hurts.

She was his mother. She would reach up and take him off that cross. But she could not. She was powerless ..."

... Fr. McAfee
(Homily, Memorial, September 15)

In Memoriam

A Look Back to 1996
In memory of ...
"7 Lives Given for God and For Their Brothers in Algeria"
(click here)

~~~

May all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.

Amen.

~~~

Souls Remembered
Scripture Readings
|| Prayer ||
|| Be Still, My Soul ||
The Strife is O'vr, the Battle Won
|| Souls In Purgatory ||

..."In my Father's house there are many dwelling places; otherwise, how could I have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you?..." Gospel of John 14:1-6

PRAYER

Lord, hear our prayers. By raising your Son from the dead, you have given us faith. Strengthen our hope that [name], our brother (sister) will share in His resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Rosalinda Ortiz, July 8, 2006
William Morse, December 6, 2004
Margaret "Betty" Morse, March 31, 2006
Lt. Col Theodore "Ted" King
Theresa Rose Clyde, October 23, 2002 - June 30, 2003
Alfred Cimaglia, Sunday August 10, 2003
Roy Manibusan, July 29, 2002
Paul Zane, September 2000
Elaine Litterski, September 16, 2000
John C. Simpson, July 25, 2000
Tomasa Pedrosa
Roma Wendt
Sadie Schaeffer
Irene Singer
Anthony "Tony Neno" Firneno
Ronald Bosworth Kocher, October 19, 1998
Barbara Philbrook, December 1997
Aimee Marie Howes
Joseph Anthony DiDonato, March 27, 1992
Angel Raphael Crosas, Sr., January 15, 1988

In Memoriam
Our Priests and Religious throughout the world ...
Our Men and Women Missionaries who have been killed

FIRST SOLDIERS ON DUTY ON THE WAR OF TERRORISM

Air Force Master Sgt. Evander Andrews, 36;
Spc. Jonn J. Edmunds, 20, of Cheyenne, Wyo. and
Pfc. Kristofor T. Stonesifer, 28, of Missoula, Mont.

Men and Women of the USS Cole
"Eternal Father, Strong to Save ..."
The Navy Hymn
(Click title to hear the U.S. Navy Band’s Sea Chanters also sing this beautiful hymn, then scroll all the way down the page)

Book of Wisdom 3:1-9

The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble; They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord shall be their King forever. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.

Gospel of John 11:17-27

When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. The village was not far from Jerusalem -- just under two miles -- and many Jewish people had come out to console Martha and Mary over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him, while Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would never have died. Even now, I am sure that God will give you whatever you ask of him."
"Your brother will rise again," Jesus assured her,
"I know he will rise again," Martha replied, "in the resurrection on the last day."
Jesus told her:
"I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life; and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
"Yes, Lord," she replied.
"I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God: he who is to come into the world."

(7 LIVES GIVEN FOR GOD AND FOR THEIR BROTHERS IN ALGERIA ... Abducted during the night of 26 to 27 March 1996, assassinated on Tuesday 21 May, surrounded by all their distressed Muslim neighbours, they were buried in the ground of their monastery of Tibhirine on Tuesday, 4 June 1996. The Church of Algeria included them in the one and the same celebration at the funeral of their protector and friend Cardinal Leon-Etienne Duval, retired Archbishop of Algiers, who died 30 May 1996.)

"If it should happen one day - and it could be today - that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country.

I ask them to accept that the Sole Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure. I ask them to pray for me: for how could I be found worthy of such an offering? I ask them to be able to link this death with the many other deaths which were just as violent, but forgotten through indifference and anonymity.

In any case, it has not the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know that I am an accomplice in the evil which seems, alas, to prevail in the world, even in that which would strike me blindly. I should like, when the time comes, to have the moment of lucidity which would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and of all my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down.

I do not see, in fact, how I could rejoice if the people I love were to be accused indiscriminately of my murder. To owe it to an Algerian, whoever he may be, would be too high a price to pay for what will, perhaps, be called, the "grace of martyrdom", especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.

I am aware of the scorn which can be heaped on Algerians indiscriminately. I am also aware of the caricatures of Islam which a certain Islamism encourages. It is too easy to salve one's conscience by identifying this religious way with the fundamentalist ideologies of its extremists. For me, Algeria and Islam are something different: they are a body and a soul. I have proclaimed this often enough, I believe, in the sure knowledge of what I received from it, finding there so often that true strand of the Gospel, learnt at my mother's knee, my very first Church, in Algeria itself, and already inspired with respect for Muslim believers.

My death, clearly, will appear to justify those who hastily judged me naive, or idealistic: "Let him tell us now that he thinks of it!"

But these people must realize that my avid curiosity will then be satisfied. This is what I shall be able to do, if God wills - immerse my gaze in that of the Father, and contemplate with him his children of Islam just as he sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ, the fruit of his Passion, and filled with the Gift of the Spirit, whose secret joy will always be to establish communion and to refashion the likeness, playfully delighting in the differences.

For this life lost, totally mine and totally theirs, I thank God who seems to have willed it entirely for the sake of that JOY in everything and in spite of everything. In this THANK YOU, which sums up my whole life from now on, I certainly include you, friends of yesterday and today, and you, my friends of this place, along with my mother and father, my sisters and brother and their families, the hundredfold granted as was promised!

And also you, the friend of my final moment, who would not be aware of what you were doing. Yes, I also say this THANK YOU and this "A-DIEU" to you in whom I see the face of God. And may we find each other, happy good thieves, in Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both. Amen. In sha 'Allah!"