A year ago

This time last year my family was keeping vigil at the bedside of my father as he entered his last days. It was a very difficult time. I had spent many hours with other families on this journey, but now it was my family and my father who were living this reality. This week I find myself back in that pain of letting go and revisiting the feelings that were surfaciong for me. I loved my father deeply and I was loved by him. But the disease that marked the final years of his life was to affect us all. Alzheimer's is a burden for the whole family to endure.

Today, I was reading the blog of a priest friend of mine, Fr Stephen Wang. He quoted this, which has given me a new perspective on thiose days.

"Yesterday, after an emergency call at the nursing home, I was about to exit when I noticed a man in the hallway. He was sitting next to a woman in a wheelchair, tenderly holding her hands. Not a word was spoken. He just sat there, looking intently into her eyes. I walked over and engaged him in conversation:

“Your wife, I take it?”

“That’s right, of forty-seven years.”

“Do you visit her often?”

“Every single day. Haven’t missed a day in four years, except for that blizzard last year.”

“She’s not saying anything.”

“That’s right. Hasn’t been able to for the last eighteen months – ever since her stroke. She has Alzheimer’s too.”

“Alzheimer’s! Does she know who you are?”

“Not really. But that doesn’t matter. I now who she is.”

[From Stephen Rossetti's Born of the Eucharist: A Spirituality for Priests pp. 101-102]

True

Therese on Tour. Day 1.

The relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux arrive in England via Eurotunnel on Tuesday 15 September 2009 in a specially adapted hearse for an historic first visit to England and Wales.

From 16 September to 16 October, the relics of the beloved, Catholic Saint will visit 28 different venues, including many Catholic cathedrals and parishes, an Anglican cathedral, a university chaplaincy, a prison and a hospice for the dying.

The relics make their way on Wednesday 16 September to the first tour venue, Portsmouth Cathedral. As a child Thérèse drew a map of England and on this map she named two cities, the cities where the official tour begins and ends; Portsmouth and London.

Huge crowds have flocked to St. Thérèse in every country her relics have visited – over 42 to date. Wherever they have gone, many people have experienced conversion, healing, a renewed sense of vocation, and answers to their prayers. All are welcome and there is a special invitation to the sick, young people seeking their way in life and those from any faith or none.

One of St. Thérèse’s sayings was that she would “let fall a shower of roses on earth” after her death. Consequently, many people will be bringing roses to the venues and asking for them to be blessed and to touch the reliquary.

Father Michael McGoldrick ODC, Regional Superior of the Discalced Carmelites in the UK, said: “The arrival of the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux is an important moment in their journey. They have been in over forty countries but in England they will visit an Anglican cathedral (York Minster) for the first time. It reveals something of the way in which St. Thérèse’s 'Little Way' of confidence in God's love speaks to people of different faith traditions.

“I hope the visit will bring many blessings on all those who follow Jesus and that like her they will come to a deep experience of his love for them. I am sure she will bring many blessings to people of other faith traditions and to all people of good will.”

Exhaltation of the Cross

"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life" (Theodore of Studios).