What really happened the last two days...

So I ended up going home for Aunt Willie Doll’s funeral. All morning on Monday I couldn’t concentrate worth a crap because it was in my mind that I was not going to be at the funeral. So I sat down in the chapel before Mass and just wrote my worries, weighing the issues at hand. This was a great-aunt that I hardly knew, yet felt called to pray for and be present at her funeral. Why? By the time I was done writing, I had decided that going home was really my best option. A card to the family would be too impersonal, and I had nothing to say in a phone call other than “I am too lazy to skip class and come home to be with you”. So I went home at the recommendation of Fr Pat, the Rector, who said I should go or else I may regret not being there.

While talking to Aunt Cecilia, Aunt Willie Doll’s daughter, I found out how Aunt Willie Doll had a strong devotion to Mary and the Rosary, and that many Rosaries were offered for me and my vocation. In fact, the only time she would look at the diocesan newspaper was when I was in it. She really was praying her heart out for me. And I do believe that she was the voice in my head during Mass on Monday telling me to go home. And I am so glad I listened to that voice.

I was able to help lead the Rosary Monday night at the visitation. And I also served the Funeral Mass Tuesday. It was my first funeral to serve since 8^th grade, that I can remember, and probably my third ever. But everyone said it was wonderful. After all, it is a divinely inspired liturgy dating back to Christ (the Last Supper). Fr Hayes (one of my teachers) has said many times that the best thing we can offer the dead is the Mass. It is our highest form of prayer and is what links us with heaven.

Aunt Willie Doll, pray for us!!