Thread by @kstewskisAZ

It’s been an amazing week. On #ChristmasDay we found out before Mass that a long time, beloved parishioner we’ve been praying for went onto her eternal reward at 0710 that morning. It was a mixture of sadness and great hope, that with the great preparation Gwen was readying >

2/ for her pending death, that it happened on the same day Christ came down from heaven to redeem mankind. Arrangements were soon made for Gwen, so we could bid her farewell and pray for her dear sweet soul, they were announced on Tuesday. Seeing the times, I saw I was booked >

3/ solid in my schedule, due to a prior work commitment, and it looked as I wasn’t going to get out of it to make the funeral. So I began praying, a lot, to the holy angels, to “make it happen” some how, some way, if I had cancellations in my schedule to allow me to slip away>

4/ for a few hours (luck?had it I was working only a few miles from the chapel this week), I could possibly get there for the rosary and Mass. As I watched the schedule this week, it didn’t budge. I kept praying and petitioning the Holy Angels to help. I had to say goodbye to >

5/ my friend. Last night, I saw that two names had dropped off my morning schedule. Right at the times I would’ve needed to leave the clinic to get to the chapel. Hopeful, I kept praying. There was still one more left, a new patient who wanted to start at the time rosary was to>

6/begin, at 10:00am. As I left for work, I doubled up my prayers, pleading with the angels if God’s will will allow, I’ll be there. The name was still there when I arrived, I was disappointed, but nit yet out. At 9:30am (just a few minutes before I was to leave if it were), >

7/there was a cancellation on another therapist’s schedule about the same time. She went to me and said, “I’ll take the new patient if she shows up (I found she didn’t! Had I waited I would’ve been late). I thanked her, and dashed out...just in time for the first decade of the >

8/Holy Rosary, all of us packed in our tiny humble little chapel, praying for the repose of the soul of our friend, mom, grandmother, aunt and beloved wife Gwynn. The eulogy was beautiful, Padre showed us a sick call kit that Gwynn had given him over 30 years ago when he was >

9/ first ordained. In her last weeks and days, he used that same sick call set to provide her with her last sacraments, as she was promised by her true devotion to the Sacred Heart. She told her family that she wanted to die on Christmas Day (believing she would get to heaven >

10/ faster, in hopes that Jesus would grant her that mercy. He did indeed, grant her the wish, of being at her Eternal Judgement on His earthly birthday. She died a holy death, that most of us could truly want for ourselves, family close, praying, with all of the sacramental>

11/graces to prepare for life eternal. Requiescat in Pace, Gwynn, may your eternal reward being you to ever lasting peace and love with Our Lord in heaven. Angels do exist. Deo Gratias.

12/Padre quoted from A Wexford Carol, shared with us by an Irish parishioner on Christmas Eve, it proved fitting for Gwynn’s departure, in hopes she was to partake in the celebration of Christ’s birth in heaven. In his eulogy, he said:
Good people all, this Christmas time>

13/Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son; With Mary holy we should pray,
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born.
The night before that happy tide,
The noble Virgin >

14/and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town. But mark how all things came to pass
From every door repelled, alas,
As was foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble ox’s stall.Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and>

15/feeding sheep
To whom God’s angels did appear, Which put the shepherds in great fear; Prepare and go, the angels said, To Bethlehem, be not afraid
For there you’ll find, this happy morn
A princely babe, sweet Jesus, born. With thankful heart and joyful mind, The shepherds went

16/the babe to find
And as God’s angel had foretold, They did our Saviour Christ behold;
Within a manger he was laid, And by his side the virgin maid, Attending on the Lord of Life, Who came on earth to end all strife. There were three wise men from afar
Directed by a glorious>

17/ star; And on they wandered night and day
Until they came where Jesus lay; And when they came unto that place
Where our beloved Messiah lay
They humbly cast them at his feet
With gifts of gold and incense sweet.” Rest In Peace, Gwynn, you are so loved. /end

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