I call you friends because you've touched my life. Some of you with kind comments and promises of prayers I hardly deserve, others with nasty comments that invite me to humility and patience. And then there are the invisible readers some of whom I think also probably pray for me. How much I appreciate you all.
Those who are long-time readers of the blog have seen many articles from my dear friend, Fr. Tom Collins. He contributed numerous guest articles filled with wisdom and Catholic truth. What a gift!
Father had a stroke recently and died of complications on Monday. How much he will be missed.
For many years he would travel from Staunton and then Hot Springs to visit his mother in Northern Virginia. On his way home he often called and stopped for a visit and a meal. What a blessing to my husband and me to know him and have so many opportunities to rejoice in his friendship.
Our last visit was during the Christmas season when we drove to The Homestead and took him to lunch at the resort where we walked around enjoying all the decorations. At lunch he kept us laughing with his clever and funny puns. He had an incredible sense of humor.
One of the last article Father sent me was this:
WHY JESUS HAD TO UNDERGO THE AGONIES OF HIS PASSION
It was all about Christ's love for us displayed through the passion and crucifixion. What was it doing on my blog in Advent? The Advent and Christmas season are all about Christ's love for us. His suffering began with the piercing cold winter weather in Bethlehem the night He was born. It continued at the circumcision eight days after birth when He shed His blood for the first time. Father expressed Christ's abundant love in his writing, but also in his life. Here's a portion of what he wrote:
Jesus frequently lamented the lack of faith on the part of so many, while exclaiming His joy when He discovered faith being revealed in the lives of others. One of the great deceptions of Satan is the idea that our sins so badly desecrate ourselves that we cannot be loved, much less appreciated. This deception leads to embracing the idea that, while we can manipulate others by good actions into liking us, at the very core of our being, we remain intrinsically unlovable.
The truth, however, is quite the opposite. While we can be and often are unfaithful and even rebellious and perverse, God is always faithful to His original sacred, loving, gracious and grateful commitment to continually beget us in His image and likeness – even as our sins so grievously offend Him and desecrate ourselves, our perspectives and others in so many ways.
I hope you will reread Father's article and pray for him. And then go to my Fr. Collins page where I have collected dozens of his articles, all filled with wisdom and truth. I will be re-reading them in the days ahead as I reflect with gratitude on the gift of his life and friendship. You can read his obituary here which includes the funeral arrangements.
Thank you, Fr. Collins, for your friendship. Please pray for us.
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